Since establishment May 25, 1981, the leaders of the GCC states have worked on fulfilling the aspirations of their people and bolstering cooperation and coordination among their nations. This involved all security, military, economic, educational, cultural, social, health, legal, media-related, and youth and sports affairs, he said.
The secretary general expressed confidence joint action would bring in new accomplishments. He noted the leaders had in their ninth consultative meeting on May 15 set priorities with specific focus on accelerating economic integration and dealing with impediments to the GCC customs union’s operations, in addition to dealing with requirements for launch of the GCC joint market, prior to the Muscat Summit this year end.
He added the leaders expressed their total support to all strategic integration projects like those involving power generation grids and railroads. The handling of issues on the joint GCC currency and monetary union is meanwhile going on schedule.
The leaders proved determination and keenness on joint action, Al-Atiyyah said, amid many challenges in the region; namely the ramifications of the instability of Iraq, Iran’s nuclear dossier, and the state of affairs in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Sudan, and Somalia.
Rather than cause plans to fail, challenge served as further impetus and calls for more serious action and closer cooperation and better performance to serve the people of the GCC.
GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Al-Atiyyah stressed again the council had much to deal with since its establishment and most pressingly in the last few years. Still, it managed to stay on track and is still seen as a bloc that sincerely serves the interest of the whole region, he noted.
Al-Atiyyah finally expressed appreciation and gratitude for the support the Gulf leaders extended to the bloc to enable it to meet its objectives and guide the people of the region to even more prosperity and boom.
