Opening Doors to the World:

The countries of the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) are beginning to embrace market-oriented economic policies --- as well as open trade and investment --- as a way to achieve enhanced economic growth and improved well-being for their people. Trade reforms are now central to the development plans in many of these countries, replacing protectionist systems that were built up after the Second World War and have failed to deliver lasting economic growth or prosperity. Today, domestic reforms in the MENA region, together with the "globalizing" world economy, are presenting new and exciting opportunities for MENA countries to enhance their integration into the world economy. Simultaneously, however, this situation also presents some major and important challenges that need to be urgently tackled. Opening Doors to the World provides the deepest and most thorough analysis to date of both the challenges and opportunities that face the MENA countries as they prepare to take a more active role in the world economy. It will interest government officials and policy makers in trade and economics; academics, researchers, professors, and university students in economics, international trade, development studies, and Arab and Middle Eastern studies; public and private businesses involved, or interested in becoming involved, in MENA trade; and donors, nongovernmental organizations, and media outlets active in Middle Eastern affairs.