GCC Secretary General Update: GCC Central Bank & EU-GCC Free Trade

Asharq AlAwsat reports on comments by Abdulrahman Hamad AlAttiyah, the Secretary General of the GCC, from a Qatari-Saudi business conference this Saturday.

1. The first meeting of the GCC Central Bank is scheduled for 30 March in Riyad.  The Governors of the Central Banks of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi will attend.  Discussions will focus on legislative, institutional, and procedural aspects related to the currency union and the single currency.  More technical meetings will follow to continue the steps necessary to launch the single currency.
2. He remains optimistic that the UAE will join the single currency project and will be able to quickly catch up.
3. The EU has presented some new proposals in a bid to reinvigorate the stalled EU-GCC Free Trade negotiations (which began in 2008).  Their proposals have to do with a more flexible less time bound approach to the issue of customs duties, including those on exports.  The GCC is studying and will revert.

There were also some points on the GCC railway:

1. Project is in the detailed study/technical drawings after having obtained agreement in principle.
2. HQ for the organization to supervise the railway has not yet been chosen.  

And some news from the Qatar-Saudi businessmen's conference which 300 businessmen attended:

1. 2008 trade between Qatar and KSA was some SAR6.2 billion (US$1.65 billion).
2. The number of joint Q-KSA projects in the Kingdom through June 2009 was 16 with capital of SAR6.1 billion.
3. Various speakers called for increased co-operation.
4. Ahmad Al San'i (Saudi businessman) called for creation of a joint company in which the two governments should invest to promote business in Qatar and Saudi.
5. Picking up on that theme, Khalid AlMuqayrin, (another Saudi businessman) called on the SWFs of the two countries to invest at least 5% of the value of their holdings in the two countries so that "there would be a direct return to the two countries and their citizens rather than having all their investments far from the region which don't have a direct impact on citizens".