Within the framework of the Institute of National Planning’s keenness on Arab cooperation and strengthening partnerships with institutions and parties concerned with planning and development issues in the Arab region, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Institute of National Planning and the Arab Planning Institute, at the headquarters of the Arab Institute in the State of Kuwait, regarding cooperation in establishing a joint economic modeling unit The signing took place in the presence of Dr. Ashraf El Araby, President of the National Planning Institute, and Dr. Badr Othman Malallah, Director of the Arab Planning Institute.
The memorandum of understanding set a clear framework for the areas of work expected to be accomplished, as it includes preparing and designing a set of training programs related to the economic modeling process, developing the necessary databases for building economic models, in addition to providing consultations in the areas of evaluation, forecasting, building scenarios, and working on building, developing and updating matrices of social accounts. And the input and output matrices of the general equilibrium calculator models.
In addition to the above, areas of work include contributing to building macroeconomic models that help in differentiating between policies and support the decision-making process, as well as developing a network of Arab modellers, building bridges of communication between them and encouraging their activity by organizing practical events and meetings to exchange experiences and discuss emerging issues of concern. unit work.
In this regard, Dr. explained. Ashraf Elaraby, that the memorandum of understanding comes within the framework of the desire of the two institutes to enhance cooperation and partnership between them in areas of common interest, especially those that support Arab development efforts, and as a culmination of coordination and technical meetings that took place between the two institutes to agree on the establishment of a joint unit for economic modeling, aimed at contributing effectively to the development of economic modeling activity. Building quantitative economic models oriented towards evaluating policies and forecasting in the Arab countries, building capacities, and evaluating consultations and studies in related fields.
Al-Arabi pointed out that this unit enables planning agencies in the Arab countries to build coherent development plans that take into account the factors that affect them, and the launch of this unit contributes to setting a reference framework for constructive cooperation and fruitful partnership between the two institutes, as they look forward to contributing to the preparation of this unit. Various development plans and strategies and support the efforts of planners in dealing with various local, regional and international development issues.
In the same context, Dr. Badr Othman Malallah said that this memorandum is the culmination of many years of fruitful cooperation between the two institutes in several fields, especially the cooperation in issuing one of the most important economic development reports in the Arab region, which is the “Arab Development Report.” He added that this memorandum establishes a new phase of strategic partnership between the two institutes. The two institutions, and that it aims to establish a joint cooperation mechanism between the two sides in a way that enhances the role of both institutes, especially in areas that support decision-makers and policy-makers in the Arab countries.
