The Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in cooperation with the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and the Federation of GCC Chambers, organised a workshop to review joint Gulf industrial investment opportunities in priority industrial activities.

The session comes within the framework of the efforts made by the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf to enhance joint Gulf action, and as a follow up of the decisions issued by the Council countries during their fifty-sixth meeting, held last April, regarding the approval of the outputs of a study to prepare five joint Gulf industrial investment opportunities in priority industrial activities and promote them to the Gulf private sector.

The session aimed to introduce the private sector to promising investment opportunities in priority industrial activities and encourage it to take advantage of them, in order to contribute to strengthening joint Gulf industrial investment, supporting industrial integration among the GCC countries, and achieving the goals of sustainable economic development.

Yousef bin Ali Al-Sunaidi, Director of the Industry and Mineral Resources Department at the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, explained that the private sector represents a key partner in achieving economic development and enhancing integration among the GCC countries, especially in light of the economic transformations taking place in the GCC countries aimed at diversifying the production base, increasing the contribution of the industrial sector to the economy, and enhancing its competitiveness and sustainability.

He said that the unified strategy for industrial development of the GCC countries put in place an integrated framework to support industrial development, and included a number of initiatives, most notably the preparation of joint Gulf industrial investment opportunities in priority activities.

For her part, Lamia Al-Shanfi from the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf gave a presentation introducing the Office of the Economic and Development Affairs Authority of the Council. She reviewed the role of the Authority, which was established in 2016 with the aim of promoting economic integration among member states by discussing economic and development issues, addressing the challenges facing the implementation of Gulf agreements and decisions, and proposing initiatives and projects that contribute to achieving Gulf economic unity.

During the presentation, she touched on the project to prepare joint Gulf industrial investment opportunities, which aims to enhance industrial integration, reduce dependence on imports, raise the competitiveness of Gulf industry, and create quality job opportunities.

She also reviewed the stages of preparing the project, which included analysing 26 investment opportunities, selecting 15 promising opportunities, and ultimately identifying five priority investment opportunities that were approved in preparation of promoting them to the private sector in the region.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Buraiki from the Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) presented a working paper entitled “Promoting Joint Gulf Industrial Investment Opportunities,” in which he reviewed the project prepared by the organisation, which aims to enhance industrial integration among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries by developing joint investment opportunities in priority industrial sectors, thereby contributing to diversifying the economic base, enhancing industrial security, reducing dependence on imports, and increasing the added value of Gulf industries.

He explained that the project is based on utilising the comparative advantages of each Gulf state, building integrated regional value chains, in addition to focusing on attracting quality investments, localising strategic industries, supporting Gulf exports, and raising the competitiveness of the industrial sector. He emphasised that the project includes five main investment opportunities in industries of strategic value, including the manufacture of high-pressure seamless pipes for the oil and gas sector, the manufacture of sterile single-use surgical instruments, the manufacture of high-purity copper cathodes, the manufacture of silicon wafers used in semiconductors, and the manufacture of multi-indicator patient monitoring devices.