Arab states spend heavily on arms not health, education

Monday, December 27, 1999

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Despite the hope of peace and globalization, Arab nations continue to invest largely on weapons at the expense of education and medical care for their people, a United Nations report said.

The UN said 13 countries in the region spent an average of 12.7 percent of their GDP on weapons in 1985. This was three times the world average of four percent. The countries include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories.

In 1997, Arab countries spent $35.7 billion on weapons. A year later, the expenditure increased to $38.7 billion.

UN statistics said the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council members -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates allocated 11.4 percent of their GDP to defense.

In contrast, Kuwait and Jordan -- with 3.5 and 3.7 percent of their GDP -- were the biggest spenders among Arab countries on health care. In 1997, all countries in the west Asian region had illiteracy rates of more than 10 percent.

"The region in the last few years was particularly exceptional in being the highest spender in the world on military purposes," Hazem Beblawi, secretary-general of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia told a news conference in Beirut. "Although we have seen a slight decline in the last two years, spending on arms is by far bigger than on other sectors."

Beblawi said Arab nations in 1998 spent 8.8 percent of their gross domestic product on weapons. "If only we give what we're spending on weapons to other vital areas such as development, health care and education, we'd be in a much better position,'' Beblawi said. "Peace would wipe out the last justification for such high spending. We hope it will make a stronger case for a reversal of this trend."

In a related development, the U.S. General Dynamics has won a $53 million contract for technical assistance in support of Egypt's coproduction of 100 M1A1 tanks.

The Pentagon said the award was given to General Dynamics Land Systems, Customer Service & Support Company, Sterling Heights, Michigan. The work will be performed mostly in Cairo in a contract that will be completed by 2005.