Arab states must face development challenges

The major challenges facing growth and development in the Arab world include slow economic growth, misapplication of public funds, scaling back of local and foreign investments, high rates of poverty, and rampant unemployment, said a Kuwaiti official on Thursday.
In an opening speech at the meeting of the board of trustees of the Arab Planning Institute (API), starting here today and lasting two days, Kuwait's Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and State Minister for Planning and Development Hend Al-Sabeeh emphasized the role governments and their vast bureaucracies should play in the implementation of national goals for growth and development. She underscored that this role should not in any way negate the role the private sectors could accomplish in furthering growth and development.
She called for streamlining management in government bureaucracies and focusing extensively on human resources and means of imbuing them with necessary skills and aptitudes to carry out the goals of development and progress.
She spoke favorably in her speech on the work being done by API in charting out strategic plans that can be used by Arab countries, among these plans being the idea of establishing a center specialized in giving solid consultation to Arab countries seeking avenues to enhance their plans for growth and development.
Furthermore, she expressed satisfaction with API's agenda for 2014-2015 which, she said, included organizing numerous forums, seminars, workshops that could help decision makers in the Arab world follow a successful course regarding growth, planning, and development