Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry Addresses Arab Economic

Beirut, April 02, SPA--Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Al-Siniora
inaugurated here today Arab Economic Forum in its 17th session.
The inaugural ceremony was attended by Saudi Minister of
Commerce and Industry Abdullah bin Ahmad Zainal Ali Reza and Saudi
Chargé d'affaires to Lebanon Adel bin Abdulrahman Bakhash.
Addressing the session, Ali Reza expressed the Kingdom's readiness to
help ease the international financial crisis.

The minister said that "This crisis has shown how vulnerable auditing
institutions are," adding that such failures have had a strong impact
on emerging and developing economies across the world.

On addressing the crisis in the Mideast, he stressed that "If this
crisis is to be confronted, it has to come through a number of
measures", including among other things, increasing trade and
investment among Arab states as well as pumping more money into Arab
and Islamic financial institutions.

He also called for reconsidering Arab financial regulations and laws
where necessary amendments should be put into action.

--SPA