His Majesty King Abdullah II is expected on February 24 to sponsor in Malaysia the first joint Arab Asian Economic summit to be held by the New Asian Economic Leaderships (NAL) and the Arab Ausiness Council (ABC.) The meeting embodies the King's initiative launched during his meeting with the NAL which took place in Singapore last October.



The World Economic Forum on Wednesday announced that members of the newly established NALs' Forum are going to hold a joint summit with ABC within the fame work of the Forum's first Asian official session at Indaman resort in Lankawi island from February 21-25 2004.



His Majesty King Abdullah II , who is expected to attend the session as a guest of honor, is due to address the meeting. His Majesty will have a leading role in the meeting which is
to be the first joint summit for the NAL and ABC. The NALs' Forum works for setting practical and applicable programs in order to contribute to Asian integrity. The session
is expected also to touch on a number of basic issues to be tackled through certain mechanisms, including poverty alleviation, social support, education development and economic integrity
enhancement.


Earlier, during East Asia Economic Summit held in Kuala Lumpur
in October 2002, incumbent Malayan Prime Minister Datok Serri Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi proposed the establishment of NAL, where he extended
invitations to NAL members to hold their founding meeting
in Malaysia.


Earlier, Arab Business Council, held a meeting in Davos in
January 2004 to ratify a new economic reform draft in 22 Arab
countries.


The Council's new agenda focused on three major topics, economics
liberalization and reform, administration, and human resources
development.