The Economic and Social Council held its first preparatory meeting at the level of senior officials headed by Sultan Bin Rashid Al Khater, Undersecretary of Qatar's Ministry of Business and Trade.

The meeting discussed several draft resolutions to be submitted to the Preparatory meeting of the Economic and Social Council at the Ministerial level and then to the foreign ministers' preparatory meeting.

Al Khater highlighted the importance of the topics on the agenda including the implementation of the decisions of the previous Arab summits He added that the meeting also discussed a proposed program to develop the role of small and medium industries in the economic and social development in the Arab countries as well as a considering mechanism to set up an Arab fund to finance agricultural development and food security in the Arab world.