The senior officials and representatives of the Arab Economic and Social Council held here today a preparatory meeting at the sidelines of the works of the Arab economic and social developmental summit to be held in Riyadh on Monday and Tuesday. In his address during the opening ceremony, Omar Abu Al-Atta, Egyptian representative at the Arab League, thanked the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for hosting this summit, pointing out that the previous Arab summits supported march of the Arab development. Then, the Egyptian representative delivered the presidency of the current session to Dr. Hamad Al-Bazzai, Deputy Minister of Finance. For his part, Ahmad bin Hali, Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League, lauded the stances of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in supporting the development in the Kingdom and Arab issues. He also thanked Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Minister of Finance, for organizing this session in the Kingdom. Then, the participants in the meeting discussed the issues in the agenda, including draft decisions submitted by the joint ministerial council of the Arab foreign ministers and Arab economic and social ministers council in order to submit them to the Arab leaders participating in the summit. They also discussed a number of issues pertaining to the economic and social fields.
