ARAB economies should be prepared to face a tough time ahead before Arab businessmen as well as commercial and corporate entities, realize the urgent need to replace traditional commerce with electronic commerce (e- commerce ),according to leading Arab expert.
“Arab world trade will be on the verge of collapse if it continues to adhere itself to the basic and primitive ways of trade exchange,”said Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, chairman of Arab Intellectual Property Group.
“Although most of the Arabs countries have done an appreciable job regarding trademarks and economic legislations, they are lagging much behind in intellectual property laws and systems,” he added
“The latest statistics on Arab economies have shown no indications of any improvement, neither that the future is a bright prospect, as long As Arabs depend on their natural sources,” argued Talal Abu-Ghazaleh. He said that the recent oil price surge to new 20-month highs is a temporary phase as the price over-heating is not due to fundamentals.
“Therefore, you can’t count on the revenues derived,” warned Abu-Ghazaleh.
“With lots of oil expected to be produced from Iraq, Sudan and other new producers entering the market, the world oil production is anticipated to create over supply and hence pressure the prices down again,” he said.
He cautioned that the optimism expressed in the latest reports of the World Bank on oil prices should not be taken seriously.
He warned that new direct and indirect tax hikes could scare off foreign investors and hit the domestic economic performances.
“Bad revenues results in most of the Arab countries were not due to unavailability of resources but the ways these were misused,” he said.
He pointed out that the GDP of 65 percent of the Arab countries are on the decline .The world trade growth recorded 4 percent jump in 1998 with the US GDP contributing the most (6.0 per cent) and the Arab world’s collectivity less than 0.5 percent.
He also stressed the need for the Arab world to consider the importance of Internet as a means of education system. “The entire Western world has already stolen a march in offering knowledge and information through the fastest device – the computer,” said Talal Abu-Ghazaleh.
“We shall very soon realize how much off time we have wasted in arguments rather that taking serious steps towards information and IT evolution,” he added.
“I’m not over pessimistic but rather realistic when viewing the Arab world economic outlook. The most serious challenge to the Arab world today is the growth in e-commerce. Conventional markets and traditional swapping of products have become infructuous,” he said. Abu-Ghazaleh pointed out that in the US 50 businessmen out of 100 are utilizing the Internet for their trade deals, while in the Arab world there is one out of 1,000.
Three steps should be immediately adopted by the commercial and trade authorities in the Arab world to face the imminent economic collapse. First, to develop intellectual property and the patents and trademarks systems, providing workers in their field with the protection needed for their effort and discovery.” “Second, to invest more in attracting the latest technology and orient the new generation towards IT knowledge. Third, we should not cause any further delay in opening up markets before others intrude the market forcibly with the GATT agreement approaching soon,” he said.