Kuwaiti Finance Minister Bader Al-Hemaidhi said his country is committed to joint Arab economic progress, the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported Wednesday.

On the sidelines of a meeting of the Arab Economic and Social Council in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Al-Hemaidhi said Kuwait's commitment to the progress has been manifested in its applying rules of the Greater Arab Free Trade Zone (FTZ).

He told KUNA that service commerce among Arab states should be made free of red tape and emphasized Kuwait's adherence to supporting the union of Arab customs.

Admitting a total integration among the 22 Arab states would take some time, Al-Hemaidhi took the Gulf Cooperation Council as an example, saying it took a long time for the six nations to integrate.

Arab ministers of finance and economy and the director generals of the joint Arab economic institutions attended the two-day meeting, which kicked off on Tuesday. Boosting inter-Arab trade was one of the issues discussed.

Source: Xinhua