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Gulf to establish common market

The GCC will establish a common market from the beginning of next year that will give citizens of the six member states the same economic rights in each country, the GCC secretary-general announced on Tuesday.

Under the agreement, Gulf citizens will have the same rights in areas such as ownership of real estate, stock, capital movement, taxation, pensions and social security.
"In line with the time-table set by the Gulf Cooperation Council five years ago, we announce the launch of a common market starting from January 1, 2008, whereby all citizens of the GCC will be treated as nationals in each of the six states," Abdul-Rahman Al-Attiyah said at the GCC summit being held in the Qatari capital Doha.

"In the common market system, Gulf citizens will be allowed to practice freely any economic activity such as trading in the stock market, setting up companies, buying and selling properties and will have the same investment opportunities. They will also have the same entitlements to employment, health and education, social security and residence," he added.

Michael Ganske, head of emerging markets research at Commerzbank in London, described the move as "significant".

"It's always good to integrate economies and allow cross shareholdings," he said.

"The success stories in emerging markets have been about opening up local markets and globalisation. It's better to do the first step in a regional context."

The move is being seen as one of the few firm statements of intent in a summit characterised by a lack of solid information about what GCC member states plan to do about the major issues facing their economies.

Gulf rulers ended a summit with no mention of the dollar's weakness or foreign exchange policy, which has cast a shadow over the event due to the effect pegging GCC currencies to the dollar is having on their economies.

The currencies of all GCC members, except Kuwait, are fixed against the dollar.

The communique issued at the end of the summit said the GCC remained committed to a 2010 target date for monetary union and single currency, but this is widely regarded as almost impossible and many had expected a new date to be announced at the summit.

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