Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri inaugurated the 26th session of the Arab Economic Forum, organized by Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group in cooperation with the Central Bank of Lebanon, the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade, the Association of Banks of Lebanon and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) The Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee, Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL), Lebanese Economic Organizations and Chamber of Commerce Industry & Agriculture of Tripoli and North Lebanon.
The conference was attended by more than 500 personalities from 20 Arab and foreign countries, led by the Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim heading a high-ranking Kuwaiti delegation. There was also a significant Saudi attendance included the Saudi Fund for Development and a number of businessmen as well as a delegation from the International Monetary Fund headed by Director General of the Middle East and Central Asia Dr. Jihad Azour, who launched during the forum and for the first time this year, the Fund's report on growth in the region.

Al-Hariri
"We have to choose either to surrender to the current situation and to the difficulties facing Lebanon, or to promote Lebanon to secure prosperity for all Lebanese," said President Saad Hariri. "I will not give up, and this is the option I am personally working on, and I am very confident that the Lebanese political community will go beyond the current stage of debates that you all hear about, to realize that the interest of Lebanon and the Lebanese right to a dignified life must be advanced."
He added: "We all know the difficulties experienced by the region, and the crises facing many Arab countries, in the absence of security and political stability and the consequences of wars and conflicts on our economic and social conditions, and the results represented by the displacement of millions of Syrian brothers to neighboring countries, the significant decline in tourism sector and the negative effects of this on growth rates and the ability to attract investments.
These challenges and difficulties put on us, states, communities & economic bodies, the responsibility to cooperate on the production of common frameworks to think about the solutions, and the formulation of policies capable of developing, protecting and activating the Arab economy.
"Our region needs 27 million new jobs in the next five years, and the main question is how we can achieve this?" The first challenge for Arab countries is to raise growth rates while the second challenge is to make this a fact and a sustainable one that includes various sectors of society, especially women and young people, and this means the launch of an indispensable vitality in the economic cycle of our Arab countries whereas the third challenge which is diversifying the growth sources which is not only applicable to oil exporting countries but It also applies to the countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and other countries of the Arab region. "

Al-Ghanim
"The vision of the economic and financial reform in Kuwait is inspired by the thought of HH the Emir, who aspires to make Kuwait a regional and international financial and economic center," said Speaker of the National Assembly Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim, clarifying that "the economic and financial reform plan in Kuwait aims at three main transformations concerning the nature of the economy, its productive base and the nature of its manpower. "
Al-Ghanim mentioned in his speech the prospects of financial and economic reform in the Arab world, stressing that "reform is like surgery, painful but indispensable, change is the first condition of continuity, change is impossible with each team sticking to its trench and its gains and change is impossible as officials remain in their positions." He also pointed out that "perhaps the most recent practical example of the approach of change is the process of restructuring the Saudi economy, which is under the direct auspices of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and the follow-up of the Crown Prince HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Al-Ghanim stressed that "the reform needs a long breath of governments and peoples alike, and this breath will not be useful if it is short, short or sporadic, but must remain connected, regular and flowing throughout the transitional phase.
He said also: "It must be recognized that it is difficult for some Arab governments to ask their people to bear the costs of reform over the years of radical transformation as it see how financial and administrative corruption is spreading, and wasting the public money, hinders the change and spreading an atmosphere of anxiety, frustration and despair."

Al-Kabariti
For his part, President of the Union of Arab Chambers, Senator Nael Raja al-Kabariti, said that "the train of global change is moving at a record speed, and we must deal with this reality with greater firmness, determination and awareness so as not to remain prisoners of the past. We must look forward to tomorrow and in order to build up this bright future we have to put strategies based on our knowledge and awareness of what is happening in the world of economic events, especially between America on the one hand and Europe on the other and the American-European conflict with the new economic giants China and India."
He added: "In the context of these dramatic changes in economic and financial policies at the global level, we must intensify our efforts and focus on adopting national plans to diversify the economic structures of the Arab countries to fall into these strategies which push us towards the economic growth and the elimination of the economic challenges facing our Arab countries and achieve sustainable and comprehensive growth, aiming at increasing economic diversification by focusing on high-value-added sectors, export sectors and knowledge-economy sectors in order to cope with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as well as providing measures and reforms to transparency, integrity, corporate governance, institutions and other issues that plague the Arab economy."
He pointed out that "the Arab world must change its economic approach and build Arab-Arab & Arab-African economic alliances that may provide parallel development which would provide our peoples with a better life within the global escalations and conflicts."

Salamé
The Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salamé said that "Emerging markets are living in successive stages, which have led to a decline in the value of the currencies in these countries compared to the dollar and the euro, as well as the decline in the value of their bond issues and the high yields on them; Lebanon maintained its currency stability against the US dollar and the lira is stable and supported by high foreign currency assets at the Banque du Liban and the Lebanese banking sector."
"The Bank of Lebanon's economic indicator indicates that the growth rate for the year 2018 will be 2%, taking into account the decline in the real estate sector and the stable situation in the consumption sector. It should be noted that the decline in the real estate sector started since 2011, and is not linked to the latest developments which affected the housing loans. It is notable that the decline in liquidity in the region led to a decline in the real estate situation in all of the countries of the region and not only in Lebanon.

Azour
The Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund, Dr. Jihad Azour, stressed that "the importance of induced growth which leads to the creation of jobs and the promotion of social justice," pointing out that "weakness of the economic activities in the region has internal structural reasons and external challenges adversely affect the region and its economy Including the volatility of the prices of commodities, and above all, the security conflicts have destabilized the region and overshadowed the growth of their economies," noting that "unemployment in the Arab world is among the highest in the world among young people, with an average of 25% while more than 27 million young people will be entering the labor market in the region over the next five years, and thus the supportive reforms of the inclusive growth are likely to generate significant gains, for example, The increase in employment by 0.5 percentage points per year could accelerate real GDP growth to 5.5 percent and increase real per capita income By 3.8% annually, which could double the growth of the countries of the region in a decade, and increase the cumulative output equivalent to one trillion dollars."

Tarabay
The president of Association of Banks in Lebanon, Joseph Tarabay, reviewed the economic changes and challenges at the regional and global levels, pointing out that despite all the obstacles known locally and regionally, our banks maintain professional capabilities and established networks of relationships that ensure attracting more deposits and employment and achieving very acceptable growth rates ranging from 5 and 6 percent annually."
"The leading international rating agencies confirm that our banks are able to continue to attract deposits, thus contributing to the deficit in both the budget and the current balance and in maintaining economic and financial stability in the country," he said.

Choucair
The Chairman of the Federation of Lebanese Chambers of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture, Mohammed Choucair, said: "It is true that our region is going through crises and wars, but in turn we as a private sector must work to create mechanisms of cooperation and establish a strong partnership among us to push forward the economic interaction between our countries because maintaining sustainable growth requests a bigger base than the territory of each state and I think that the Arab region gives this space for the benefit of all, and for us as a Lebanese private sector, this issue is at the forefront of our concerns as we have always been the first to give priority to cooperation with the Arab private sector by inviting it to invest and participate in the major projects under implementation in our country."

Abou Zaki
The opening ceremony of the forum was initiated by Raouf Abou-Zaki, Executive Chairman of the Economic and Business Group, who said: "The Arab Economic Forum was initiated by Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group and in cooperation with local and Arab economic organizations; as Mr. Saad Hariri is continuing the march and suffers like us from the volatility of the situation in Lebanon and the region, and he is here today to confirm his commitment to this forum, which is a small part of his greater commitment to the march of his martyred father, the process of reconstruction. Prosperity and the Cedar Conference held in Paris, are not anything but the most prominent title of this march."

Honoring
At the end of the opening ceremony, the Arab Economic Forum honored Arab and Lebanese leaders and institutions: Kuwait's National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim, former Prime Minister of Egypt Ibrahim Mahlab, Saudi Development Fund, Arab Bank represented by Sabih al-Masri & Nemeh Sabbagh, President of Middle East Airlines Mohammad Al Hoot, President of Middle East Venture Partners Walid Hanna. The organizers also honored the forum's patron, President Saad Hariri.