KUWAIT CITY, March 21, (KUNA): The 24th meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Olympic committee chiefs kicked off here Sunday, focusing on how to further prop up and cement inter-Gulf sports and youth cooperation.
In a keynote speech, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of State for Housing Affairs and Chairman of the Kuwaiti Olympic Committee Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Sabah said the GCC leaders attach special significance to Gulf youth and sports activities.
Welcoming the GCC guests, he said Kuwait is honored to chair and host the 24th session in completion of the Gulf leaders’ long march, which led to the achievement of many results in all sectors and fields.
“We are going on the right direction as we all have acted for enriching the Olympic movement,” he said.
The Kuwaiti minister spoke highly of the GCC member states’ sports accomplishments at the regional, continental and world levels.
However, he maintained that much work is still needed for stimulating and spurring youth and athletes in the Gulf region through fruitful strategies.
For his part, GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah thanked His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, chairman of the current GCC session, and other GCC leaders for their great and continuing backing Gulf sports activities.
He listed Gulf sports achievements as an agreement on the holding of the first GCC Olympic games in Bahrain and the first beach games also in Bahrain.
An internationally recognized anti-doping laboratory has also been set up in Qatar, he said.
The Gulf sports system is being continuously developed, thus giving more help to Gulf athletes and providing more opportunities for proximity and cooperation, the GCC pointed out.
Furthermore, a fresh couple of organizing committees were created in Bahrain and United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2009, thus taking the total number of organizing committees in the GCC member states up to 27, Al-Attiyah added.
As many as 60 sports activities involving over 24 various games were also carried out last year, he concluded.

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ABU DHABI: Head of the GCC women’s sports organizational committee Sheikha Naeema Al-Sabah lauded Sunday the preparations for the second GCC women sports tournament which would be held in the UAE on March 28th.
Speaking to the press, Sheikha Naeema said the preparations for the tournament strongly reflected the UAE’s keenness on the development of women sports in the region, thanking the head of the UAE’s women union and high chairperson for the family development institute of the Emirates Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak.
Sheikha Fatima’s efforts in promoting women sports in the GCC should not be over looked and all of the Gulf countries would like to thank her for her efforts.
The organizational committee for the GCC women’s sports was established on March 15, 2007 as a step to develop women sports in the region.
The first meeting for the committee was held in Kuwait in May 2007 headed by Sheikha Naeema.
Kuwait had also hosted the first women sports tournament in March 11, 2008.