World Bank, League of Arab States, AFESD unveil first Pan-Arab Energy Trade Conference

The World Bank Group and the League of Arab States have joined hands with the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) with an objective to launch the first Pan-Arab Energy Trade Conference.

The two-day conference (November 6 and 7), convened in Egypt's Cairo is considered a key milestone towards finalizing the foundational stage of establishing the Pan-Arab Regional Electricity Market (PAEM). The ratification process for the market's key legal agreements was discussed yesterday during a session held by the Arab Ministerial Council for Electricity (AMCE) in Cairo. The legal agreements approval is expected next year.

The conference attracts energy and electricity ministers from the Arab States with regional and international energy experts to discuss strategic approaches to gather stakeholders, deepen the understanding of national and regional benefits of cross-border energy trade, and steps towards an enabling environment to align national priorities and regional goals to best exploit energy resources at the Pan-Arab level, as stated by the official website of the World Bank.

"The conference sheds light on a number of issues on the top of which is the strategic importance of the energy trade to the region's economies. It is also an opportunity to present the prospects and challenges facing the Pan-Arab energy trade in order to reach a consensus about means to boost it," Dr Kamal Hassan Ali, the Assistant Secretary General of Economic Affairs, League of Arab States opined.

He highlighted the importance of the role played by the regional institutions in leading the way to create a Pan-Arab electricity market, establish the needed bodies to manage and govern this market, and invest in the electric power grid interconnections in addition to studying the potentials of regional cooperation in the energy sector.