DOHA: The 51st meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Trade Cooperation Committee constitutes a new step toward reactivating the bloc’s joint action, said Qatar’s Economy and Commerce Minister Sheikh Ahmad bin Jassim Al-Thani.

Sheikh Ahmad told the opening session that the meeting would seek to give impetus to development efforts in a bid to fulfil expectations of the GCC people through further integration and synergy.

For his part, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani pointed to the strenuous efforts by the specialized committees that increased the gains of the GCC citizens from the bloc’s common market.

He said that the GCC citizens moving among the member states during the period 1995-2013 jumped from 4.5 million to about 18 million.

By the same token, companies whose shares are accessible to all GCC peoples exceeded 600 joint stock firms with a capital worth $22 billion, and 290,000 shareholders.

By virtue of these positive signals and other achievements of integration, the GCC is going through a new economic reality embodied in decisions of GCC economic citizenship.