publish time

31/05/2022

publish time

31/05/2022

UNTIL the beginning of the current year, the size of the sovereign funds of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries amounted to about $ 3.5 trillion, or 34 percent of the global funds.

These huge sums are the result of accumulated oil revenues. They would have reached more than $7 trillion if they were managed prudently and responsibly from the beginning, and if the financial administrations sought to diversify the sources of revenues, and to preserve wealth for future generations without subjecting them to political favoritism, satisfaction and special interests in some GCC countries.

Today, the GCC would have been a great force that could control the global economy if there was a unified financial management system for these funds in accordance with the unified currency agreement that the Gulf Central Bank signed about 14 years ago.

According to what was stated in the statute of GCC in 1981 in its fourth article - “Achieving coordination, integration and interdependence among member states in all fields, up to its unity”, the six member countries would have overcome many of their challenges, especially with regard to the deficit in the budgets of those countries caused by fluctuating oil prices, which will cost them about $ 490 billion until 2023.

What is fixed in the statute of the GCC is that the first task of the GCC General Secretariat is to work on achieving the strategic objectives and the agreements signed among the member states.

Therefore, it is very important that it has its plans in this regard and works on implementing them accurately, as the Gulf Central Bank can be revived, and experienced and distinguished experts from GCC can be used to manage the unified sovereign assets. It will then be possible to build a common food security system among the member states.

What prevents the existence of Gulf agricultural projects in the deserts of the member states especially in Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, and the establishment of joint farms to grow wheat, grains, legumes, and even fruits and vegetables of all kinds in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC states, as well as joint work on livestock farming in those countries that annually import about 90 percent of food, equivalent to $ 54 billion?

The total desert area in the GCC countries is about 2,330 million square kilometers, and it is completely untapped. With the help of modern irrigation and agricultural systems, these huge areas can be greened, which not only suffices the residents of the GCC countries, but also the Arab world for food, and reduces the import bill to the maximum extent.

Undoubtedly, this matter requires a single will on the basis of working as one, and avoiding competition and crowding in the unilateral gain of these countries.

We have experience in unified position and its global impact, especially when these countries took a position for the export of oil to the world, in the face of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, and in their current position on Iranian aggression against it through the Yemeni agent Al-Houthi.

Therefore, if these countries unite on the issue of food security, the unification of foreign investments will be in a much better position than what they are currently. Preserving food security, financial sustainability and well-being for the GCC nationals must be the supreme goal of the leaders of these countries.

The question remains - Is there anyone who thinks and reflects on these ideas, or is the GCC General Secretariat preoccupied with other matters?

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times