GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL (GCC)

The Gulf Cooperation Council is a regional intergovernmental political and economic union consisting of all the Gulf monarchies :

• Barhain

• Kuwait

• Oman

• Qatar

• Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

• United Arab Emirates (UAE)

According to IMF 2013 statistics, the GCC population was 50.2 millions habitants for a total GDP $ 1641 billions equivalent to $ 33,000 per capita. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia accounts for close to 60% of the total population (30 millions) , 50% of the GCC GDP ( $ 785 billions) and is a member of the G-20 in 2013. The United Arab Emirates has a 2013 GDP per capita of $ 45,000 close to the ones of developed countries like Germany or France.

The World Economic Forum ranks Qatar as the most competitive country in GCC (11th in the world) while the Kingdown of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates rank 18th and 24th globally, on par with developed economies like France or South Korea. In terms of Ease of Doing Business (WB 2015), the United Arab Emirates rank 22nd while the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar rank 49th and 50th. Security, tax regulations and labor cost remain strong competitive advantages in the region.

Although blessed with large foreign reserves, account surplus and world largest reserves in Oil and Gas, the GCC countries face significant challenges in the next 20 years including strong population growth, youth unemployment, water scarity, energy consumption and environment preservation. With restrictive labor regulations, inadequate workforce education and improvements required in education, technology readiness and innovation compared to EU 27 countries (WEF Competitiveness report), theGCC countries have embarked into long term national plans to develop the Knowledge Economy. The Qatar Foundation in Qatar, the Masdar Institute in UAE and The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in KSA are the most well known initiatives.

Last the GCC countries offer large market opportunities for advanced technology companies in technology intensive sectors like:

- Water Desalination & Reuse

- Energy efficiency

- Carbon free energies like solar and nuclear

- Oil & Gas

- Fossil power generation

- Construction

- Transportation

and house some of the largest companies and projects in the world like:

- Saudi Aramco (largest oil producer and leading total integrated energy and chemical corporation)

- QatarGas (largest LNG producer in the world)

- SABIC (one of the largest chemical firm in the world)

- Royal Commission of Yanbu & Jubail (home of the large oil & gas and petrochemicals projects)

- KA-CARE ( solar and nuclear power generation policy maker in KSA)

- Cristal & Maaden (KSA based mining companies in gold, titanium, bauxite, phosphore)

- ADNOC, GASCO and TAQA (Oil & gas corporations in Abu Dhabi)

- SWCC, QEWC, SEC (power and water utilities)

Refer to Resources section for detailed and additional information on GCC.