Opportunity may knock on the door twice, but there are many opportunities that knock on the door in wasted time, and the opportunity may not find a door to knock on. There are many commonalities between Arabs and Africans, as well as many similarities between the Arab and African experiences, positively and negatively. Despite the difficult political and economic conditions experienced by most Arab and African countries, the collapse of the new international order and the throes that resulted from the formation of a new world order is a unique historical opportunity for Arabs and Africans who have historically suffered and are still under Western imperialist colonialism.
Today, these colonial countries are facing economic and existential difficulties and challenges in their own heartland due to the rise of new global powers and a clear change in the balance of power that threatens them. This will result in the liquidation of the unipolar era, the decline of its influence and dominance, and the supremacy of more just and ethical international standards, the pillar of which is competitiveness and parity among the rising powers.
Arabs and Africans have a historic opportunity to think seriously about themselves, start from themselves, and work on themselves through an Arab-African economic project that will put Arabs and Africans back on the right track and on the global map as a real economic power that solves their economic problems first by addressing the problems of creating job opportunities and improving living conditions, which will stop the caravans Refugees and immigrants, some of whom are filled with the bodies of the Mediterranean Sea, are narrowed by the shores of Italian cities, Greek islands, and refugee camps.
Arabs and Africans must derive their economic identity from what they possess of economic and natural resources and a rich cultural and civilizational heritage. All the ingredients for the success of the Arab-African economic project are available if a natural incubation is provided for it and if it is supported by informed institutions and cadres, in addition to absorbing the lessons of the past.
The Arab-African project is relations between the South and the South. It should not be viewed as a luxury or luxury political project. It is a project to be or not to be. A project that is a priority for Arabs and Africans because it establishes integration between two wasted economic powers with depleted capabilities and resources outside their natural framework, except for what is rare.
Africans and Arabs have a lot in common. There are 10 African countries that are Arab countries, members of the Arab League and more than twenty African countries that are Islamic countries that are members of the Group of Islamic Countries, not to mention the many bilateral Arab-African relations and the cultural and civilizational commonalities between the two parties.
Arabs and Africans must cling to this vital strategic project by adopting it from the highest level in Arab and African decision-making, as it is a lifeline from poverty, famine, epidemics, diseases, corruption, fragmentation, and violence fueled by parties known to all.
This project, with the help of the emerging global countries, which do not adopt terrorism and create crises to undermine security in Africa and the Arab world, and which at the same time claim to be those countries, is sufficient for it to be at the forefront of global economic projects of this kind, provided that all previous experiences are benefited from. And the mistakes it made.
This opportunity for Arabs and Africans may not be repeated until after decades. It is my belief that this project prevents international powers from replacing other countries and world powers. The countries that suffered from the French cannot escape from the French cloak and find themselves under the Israeli cloak or the Russian cloak. This project works to provide a collective environment for all Arab and African countries so that the superpowers do not have a single state here or there.
This project will not start from scratch, as there are many studies and efforts that have already been made that can be benefited from, especially through the experts of the League of Arab States and the experts of the African Union, and the presentation of the necessary studies for the project because of their experts.
Riyadh may be ready and qualified to adopt this project and work on it with some active and influential parties. Riyadh has become an important political and economic weight regionally and globally. It hosted the Chinese-Arab summit and the Chinese-Gulf summit, and before that Jeddah hosted the American-Arab summit, and Riyadh is preparing to host the next Arab summit next May, which is seen as a very important Arab summit by reading many indicators.
Also, Riyadh can be the headquarters of the Arab-African project to ensure its success, given the experience Riyadh has accumulated with the Vision 2030 team, which achieved records at the level of the Group of Twenty, OPEC, governance and anti-corruption.
This project is complementary among the economies of the member states. It has objectives, the first of which is improving the living conditions of the people of these countries and preserving their dignity by stopping migration and asylum by creating job opportunities and breaking unemployment numbers, in addition to placing Africa and the Arab world in their natural and appropriate place on the map of the global economy, and zeroing in on economic and social problems. Arabic and African. And to become economically, industrially and tourist attractive countries.
Abdul Latif Al-Duwaihi