DAMMAM, 25 October 2007 — The Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FGCCC) is scheduled to sign today a memorandum of understanding with Eurochambers on the sidelines of the annual meeting of Eurochambers’ Global Platform Chamber Conference in Paris, according to Abduraheem Hassan Naqi, secretary general of the FGCCC.
Naqi and Arnaldo Abruzzi, Eurochambers’ secretary general, will sign the MOU.
“The overall aim of the MOU consists in promoting and strengthening the economic relations between Europe and the GCC countries in the backdrop of the upcoming free trade agreement between GCC and EU,” Naqi said in a statement recently.
While the FGCCC represents all the local chambers of commerce in the six GCC member states — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, Eurochambers, its European counterpart, represents over 2,000 regional and local chambers of commerce.
The MOU will facilitate closer cooperation between 19 million companies represented by Eurochambers and more than 400,000 firms represented by FGCCC.
The conference is part of Eurochambers’ 15th annual congress and will gather more than 500 representatives from chambers, businesses, politics and academia.
The MOU stipulates that both parties agree to promote and assist the interchange of business and commercial visits, to organize joint events such as conferences, exhibitions and trade shows, and to organize a joint meeting yearly. It also envisages the unification of standards and specifications in both the regions, protection of investments and intellectual rights.
Naqi said the MOU would also fulfill the dream of the business community in the GCC countries where a large number of them have business stakes in the EU countries. “The Gulf citizens who have made huge investments in Europe are particularly interested in bringing about closer cooperation with European businessmen that could be achieved only by coordination between the two sides,” the secretary general said.
He added that in the light of the economic boom in the Gulf and its accession to the World Trade Organization, the region requires massive foreign investments.
The coordinated efforts between the two chambers federations could overcome all the difficulties in attracting foreign investments, he said.
The secretary general also pointed out the enormous investment opportunities in oil, petrochemicals and gas industries in the Gulf region.
FGCCC and Eurochambers have commissioned the Franco-Bahraini PR agency Group Eric Ohayon Communication (GEOC) to facilitate the implementation of the MOU and its plan of action.