| المستخلص: |
the research dears with the arab world experience 0f economic integration in goods. It concludes that, this experience, inspite of its early emergence in 1944, is considered unsuccessful by all means. Data show that intra- Arab trade in goods has been either constant or increasing, on average, at a low rate (7-10%), while the corresponding rate in the European Community reaches to 66% . Actually, there are many political and economical reasons” which should be taken into consideration” behind such a low rate . On the other hand, the research sheds light on the relative importance of intra Arab trade in services in total Arab-Foreign trade and shows that it represents approximately 24%, while the international ratio is approximately 25%. Therefore the research problem can be stated as follows: Is the liberalization of intra Arab services generally, and the liberalization of intra- Arab banking services specifically, excepted to accelerate the achievement of Arab integration? And how this could be done? The research goals are; 1) Evaluating the status quo of the Arab economical and commercial positions, 2) Analyzing the liberalization of services trade in the light of Uruguay Round with special focus on banking services, 3) Setting forth the importance of liberalization of Arab trade in services , generally , and banking sector specifically , as well as the services’ trade role in activating Arab integration , 4) Presenting the advantages and challenges that face the liberalization of Arab trade in services, specially, in the banking sector and, 5) Determining the required mechanisms to modernize the Arab banking services to be able to increase their competitive advantage and activate their role in achieving Arab integration. The research results show that there could be much strentgths in the Arab banking sector to enable it compete with international banks. These strengths are to be maintained by overcoming weaknesses such as: 1) the small size of banks, 2) the high intensity of banking sector, 3) the ownership structure of banks (most of them are public ones), 4) bad credits, 5) poor technology, 6) difficulties in adopting some of Basel II standards, and 7) the lack of merging Arab banks. Finally, the research recommends the following; 1) conducting a scientific study to determine the weaknesses existing in Arab banks and finding scientific and practical solutions, 2) encouraging the move to comprehensive banks that render advanced and multi-services, 3) merging the Arab banks to be able to face the severe competition from the international banks, 4) working hard on establishing an efficient information network for the Arab banking sector, 5) exerting more efforts toward establishing the Arab banking market, 6) setting an identifiable timetable to deal with banking rules as well as developing an efficient labor force to be able to deal with such rules effectively. All of these recommendations aim to achieve the Arab integration dream.
|
