G8 finance chiefs pledge $38 billion to Arab nations

PanARMENIAN.Net - Group of Eight finance chiefs gathered in southern France on Saturday, September 10, will pledge $38 billion in financing to Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan over 2011-13, Reuters reported citing a G8 source.

Finance ministers and senior officials from the G7 major economies plus Russia are to extend an assistance partnership set up with Egypt and Tunisia at a May summit in Deauville, northern France, to bring in Morocco and Jordan.

The financing, to support reform efforts in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings, will be in addition to funding that could be available from the International Monetary Fund.

The G8 meeting was tacked onto the end of a Group of Seven finance chiefs meeting on Friday in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille that pledged a coordinated response to the faltering global economic recovery but offered few specifics to appease beleaguered financial markets.

The Deauville initiative was set up under France's G8 presidency to help North African and Middle Eastern countries affected by the Arab Spring foster democratic reforms by tying aid and development credits to political and economic reforms.

The financing is mostly in the form of loans, rather than outright grants, provided by G8 and Arab countries, the World Bank, multilateral development banks such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other regional lenders.

G8 officials were due to endorse the extended Deauville partnership later on Saturday after spending the morning discussing the economic challenges faced by countries like Tunisia and Egypt that have ousted autocratic leaders.

Britain would push to ramp up trade and open markets between Europe and North African and Arab states, a Treasury spokesman told reporters on Friday.

Delegations taking part in Saturday's G8 meeting included representatives of Libya's ruling interim council, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey.

Regional bodies present included the Arab monetary fund, the Arab fund for economic and social development and the OPEC's fund for international development, OFID.