Cairo, Aug 22 (IANS) Egypt will hold the second Arab Economic, Social and Development Summit in January next year, Xinhua reported Saturday.

Hisham Youssef, chief of cabinet for Arab League Secretary General, said preparations for Jan 19 summit have begun.

The first Arab economic summit was held in January 2009 in Kuwait.

The summit pledged to link Arab countries with a rail network, set up a $2-billion fund to help small and medium-sized firms and set up the Arab Custom Union by 2015.