MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA: Pan-Arab Regional Energy Trade Conference

The Pan-Arab Regional Energy Trade Conference is an event that was co-hosted by the World Bank and the League of Arab States, bringing together the highest-level ministerial officials in the region's energy ministries as well as high ranking MDB officials. The conference solidified the political momentum for advancing the establishment of the Pan-Arab Electricity Market and paved the way for gas trade cooperation in the Middle East. A joint declaration was produced that is the catalyst for the implementation of the Pan-Arab Electricity Market (PAEM) and subsequent pilot projects. The conference focused on the following areas:

• Strategic and economic benefits of Pan-Arab regional electricity and gas trade and key actions to move from formulating market structures and rules to implementation
• Role of regional trade in the energy transition towards more sustainable footings
• Milestones (legal, institutional, regulatory and market rules, pricing, and commercial frameworks) needed to operate the PAEM in the transition stage 2019-2022 towards the PAEM vision
• Avenues of gradual evolution towards a gas trade vision
• Synergies between electricity and gas to exploit the potential of energy trade among the Arab countries and beyond