Gulf leaders meeting here Monday are expected to sign monetary union pacts, though the question of where a joint central bank would be located is still unresolved. “They have not agreed on that. At least three of them want it,” said Abdulmalik Al-Hinai, undersecretary for economic affairs at Oman's Ministry of National Economy. “They will discuss the monetary union and issue the agreement of the monetary union and the basic law of the monetary council.” Mohamed Al-Mazrooei, an assistant to the GCC Secretary General for economic affairs, said the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain have submitted proposals to host the bank while Saudi Arabia has expressed its interest without making an official request. Deciding on the location is one of the political obstacles that have derailed the single currency plan for years. Saudi Arabia mainitains it should host the central bank because it is the region's biggest economy, while other Gulf states are vying because they do not host any regional bodies, he said. The summit's agenda would not change in view of Israel's airstrikes on Gaza, GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah said. The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Saturday described the Israeli attacks as “barbaric” and “ugly”, and Saudi Arabia urged the United States to intervene to end the strikes. The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which together sit on 25 percent of the world's natural gas reserves and 45 percent of global oil reserves, providing one quarter of the world's oil demands. Oil prices have collapsed to about a quarter of their peak in July. The credit crunch is derailing expansion projects and Gulf Arab bourses have tumbled sharply this year. The leaders would also discuss a proposal to extend by a year the time period to implement a regional customs union, Hinai said. Gulf states had yet to reach a deal on how to distribute customs revenues, an issue that should be resolved by the end of next year following a consultancy study, he said. Also on the agenda are talks over the progress of their common market, global free trade agreements, a proposed regional water grid, how to further economic cooperation with Yemen and a regional economic and social development plan, he added. Gulf states have been discussing monetary union for decades but only set the 2010 deadline for a single currency in 2001.
