Roberto Aliboni - Arab Industrialisation and Economic Integration (RLE Economy of Middle East)

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
THE ECONOMY OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Volume 4

ARAB INDUSTRIALISATION AND
ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

First published in 1979

This edition first published in 2015

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

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1979 Istituto Affari Internazionali

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-78710-0 (Set)

eISBN: 978-1-315-74408-7(Set)

ISBN: 978-1-138-81124-9 (Volume 4)

eISBN: 978-1-135-74654-8 (Volume 4)

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

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This book is part of a series of works which the Istituto Affari Internazionali is publishing within the framework of a research programme, financed by the Ford Foundation, dedicated to the problems of the Mediterranean.

CONTENTS

Arab Economic Co-operation
Samir A. Makdisi

Arab Migrations
Abdelwahab Bouhdiba

This book is a result of a research project on Development and Stability in the Mediterranean which the Istituto Affari Internazionali started in December 1973. It follows an earlier work which I edited in the same series: LIndustrializzazione del Mediterranea: movimenti di manodopera e capitali. The book will thus conclude the examination of the economic questions which it was decided to investigate during the project.

In the earlier volume an important dynamic factor in the industrialisation of the less developed countries in the Mediterranean was taken into account, namely the relationship between Western direct investment and migratory flows from the south to the north of the area. In this volume, the contributors examine three different aspects of an equally important factor inter-Arab co-operation. The three studies which it comprises were independently commissioned by the IAI from the scholars concerned. Their inclusion together in one volume was decided upon by the IAI in accordance with the overall conception of its research programme in this area. Their publication in one volume does not therefore, reflect joint research or team work as in the earlier volume where the research was organised directly within the Institute.

Although this second book, like the first, deals with international questions, these are examined at a regional level; the analysis is concentrated in the Arab world; less emphasis is given to the Southern European countries. The reason for this is that in the years between the beginning and the conclusion of the project, the changes which occurred in Southern Europe rendered the areas role far more complicated than it had been a few years earlier. Portugal, Spain and Greeces applications to become members of the EEC made it necessary to research these questions in greater detail. The IAI thus decided to do this in a separate research project, specifically centred around Southern Europe and Southern European relations with the EEC. This work, which is still in progress, is being carried out in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary European Studies at the University of Sussex.

As we stated in the introduction to the earlier volume, this decision does not mean that the Institute considers external factors to be more important than internal ones in industrialisation. It is evident that internal accumulation, the mobilisation of national resources and the economic policies adopted by individual countries play a determining role in the process. What it does mean is that faced with the need to make a choice, we have decided to concentrate on certain external factors, just as we decided to examine industrial rather than agricultural problems, despite the fact that the latter are no less important than the former in determining development. When we made this choice we were guided by the impression that, in comparison with detailed studies of endogenous factors affecting development, there had been fewer analyses of international and regional factors. The preference given to industrialisation was due to the political and economic importance which this is given by the countries concerned, as Professor Hershlag pointed out at the beginning of his study, as well as to the urgency with which they seem to be approaching the problem (which is obliging the industrialised countries to restructure their economies and to reopen the discussion over the management of the international economy, a theme which has always interested the Institute).

Given all this, what are the main questions which the book examines? In the first contribution, Professor Zvi Y. Hershlag, Director of the David Horowitz Institute for the Study of Developing Countries at Tel Aviv University has analysed the industrial strategies, sectorial options, economic policies and attempts at harmonisation and co-operation of the Arab countries. He thus supplies a detailed picture of their convergences and divergences, their potential, the difficulties they face, their successes and their mistakes. His paper emphasises how certain sectorial and technical options are likely to be unsuccessful without the opening of a wider market than those at present available.

In the second contribution, Professor Samir Makdisi, Chairman of the Economics Department at the American University in Beirut, analyses a key element in any conceivable industrialisation process, namely co-operation and economic integration. He pays special attention to trade in manufactures and prospects for the future in this field, which he considers of vital importance if there is to be a positive interreaction between economic growth and integration. His paper underscores the importance of co-ordinating economic policies if economic integration is to be sustained and considers some implications to the world economy from closer Arab economic co-operation.

In the third contribution, Professor Abdelwahab Boudhiba, who teaches sociology at Tunis University and is Director of the CERES (Centre dEtudes et de Recherches Economiques et Sociales) examines Arab labour flows. This is an extremely important question and one which poses significant problems for the development of the Arab countries. These suffer from serious imbalances in factor distribution. Potentially countries with differing factor endowments could prove to be complementary. In practice, however, there are many forces hindering this, from the slowness with which potential host countries have proceeded in transforming their financial resources into fixed capital, to the political obstacles which have been placed in the way of immigration by foreign workers. It is well known, for example, that the criteria used by Saudi Arabia to balance inflows of different nationalities, encourage immigration by Pakistanis and Koreans and limit opportunities for Arabs. Boudhiba gives a picture, on the one hand, of Arab emigration towards Europe and, on the other, of inter-Arab migration (which is of especial interest as a practically unexplored field). He then tries to identify the relationship between the two flows and their general significance for Arab development prospects.