Date: 20 May, 2020
Location: Webinar
H.E Mohammed Bin Obaid Al Mazrooei, President of AAAID, participated on a Webinar organized by the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, under the direction of H.E Dr. Kamal Hassan Ali, Assistant Secretary-General, Head of Economic Affairs Sector, at the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States. The Webinar took place on 20 May 2020, and saw participation from several organizations and institutions working in the food security sector.
During the Webinar, His Excellency, the President of AAAID presented a paper entitled “The role of the Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development in the contribution towards providing the needed food products in Arab countries during the period of the Corona virus pandemic”. Through which, H.E gave an introduction of the Arab Authority and its goals and objectives, as well as the sectoral and geographical distribution of the Arab Authority’s investments. The paper also discussed the impact of the pandemic on supply chains, the suspension of many countries from exporting their commodities, in addition to the policy of closures and embargoes that have affected local production and its delivery methods to consumers.
Furthermore H.E stated that the Arab Authority has prepared mechanisms to reduce the effects of the Corona virus crisis. These are represented by contributions from AAAID’s affiliate companies, whereby the companies provide basic food commodities such as grains, sugar, dairy, meat and oils. In addition to presenting AAAID’s initiative to contribute to the provision of basic food commodities.
H.E Mohammed Bin Obaid Al Mazrooei also stressed that in order to take necessary measures to confront the shortage of food supplies in the Arab countries, AAAID has been exerting its efforts to create an emergency mechanism aimed at contributing to providing food commodities. This is by providing information on the quantities of surplus available for export and a deficit of those goods in the Arab countries and other countries to facilitate trade exchanges. In addition to creating an electronic platform to support the initiative, where AAAID can exchange information, and informing the parties requesting food commodities of the available offers in order to facilitate the exchange of goods.
To conclude, H.E Al Mazrooei recommended the importance of establishing a free Arab agricultural trade zone in which all food products are exempt from fees and facilitating intra-regional trade. In addition to adopting joint Arab agricultural projects to produce basic food commodities and the associated food and transformational industries. H.E also recommended establishing a system for its implementation and for governments in Arab countries to execute infrastructure projects that serve the agricultural sector. As well as to provide an attractive investment environment for investments in the agricultural sector by providing exemptions and concessions to overcome obstacles and challenges, and encouraging all joint action Arab institutions to support the agricultural sector as it is an initiator for all economic sectors to achieve self-sufficiency in basic commodities. Likewise, Arab countries should cooperate in establishing an electronic system for exchanging knowledge and agricultural innovations, in order to facilitate dealing with such crises and develop the performance of the agricultural sector.
