Middle East — How to Generate Inclusive Growth

An important speech by Jihad Azour, Director of IMF Middle East and Central Asia Department on the generating inclusive growth in the Middle East;

Many countries are making efforts to use technology to expand economic and financial inclusion. FinTech projects in the region have increased seven-fold since 2009 in countries such as Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Jordan, for example, has created a service called eFawateerCom, which is an electronic platform that enables people to pay bills electronically by means of an ATM. This platform handles more than a million transactions per year and links its users to over 70 million Internet traders.

Among the important reforms being implemented by a number of countries in the region are measures to enhance the business environment, reduce bureaucracy, and promote small and medium enterprises.

In this context, Morocco has been able to create 85,000 jobs in the auto industry by enhancing the business climate and establishing free trade zones in Casablanca and Tangier. At present, about 45 percent of the spare parts required by the auto sector are manufactured by domestic suppliers.

The region is in desperate need of such efforts to adapt and transform, and the examples that we have cited need to be duplicated in other countries of the region, as they open new and better horizons for a future in which everyone can benefit from inclusive growth.

The International Monetary Fund believes that societies flourish when there are opportunities for everyone. It is essential that the countries of the region invest in their talented young people and strive to enhance opportunities for communication and interaction with the rest of the world.

At the beginning of the current year, the IMF held a conference in Morocco, which was organized jointly by the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco, the IMF, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, and the Arab Monetary Fund. The conference was attended by over 300 people from 20 countries of the region, including government officials, representatives of the private sector and civil society, and global experts, who met to discuss how to overcome the obstacles facing the implementation of inclusive growth policies.

In the first session of the conference today, we will release a report on how to activate these programs and policies on the ground, and I am confident that we will conclude our discussions with an agenda that will help promote inclusive growth.

This report by the Fund need to be discussed widely and generating inclusive growth in the Middle East is critical for world peace.