The Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) held a meeting in Riyadh yesterday which is considered to be the first step toward establishing a joint stock market for GCC countries and a joint bonds market. The meeting to discuss the preliminary results of a study on development of the financial markets of GCC by Mackenzie Consulting was opened by GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiya at the GCC headquarters here, according to a report published today by Arab News. Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Oaishek, director of the economic administration at the General Secretariat of the GCC, said: "It is the first meeting for negotiating, exchanging opinions and coordinating between the Gulf markets' rules and regulations." The goal is not necessarily to have one market but to unify the procedures and make the rules and regulations as comparable as possible. The consulting company gave a presentation of a similar experience of small stock markets, as is the case with the Gulf stock markets, coordinating their markets and that is of the Scandinavian countries. "It is difficult to consolidate financial markets with each having its own mechanisms, so we are looking at complimentary procedures and rules," said Al-Oaishek. The meeting was attended by the CEO of Gulf Investment Organization, members of the monetary union committee, presidents of the GCC financial markets, financial markets monitoring agents, financial market experts, and the consulting company's study team. Members of the joint committee formed for this purpose by the Gulf Investment Organization and the General Secretariat of the GCC, also attended the meeting. The study was commissioned by the economic and financial cooperation committee at the GCC to study ways of developing the market and the feasibility of establishing a joint stock market. This comes upon a directive by the Higher Council of the GCC to implement the points made at the recommendation document presented by Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, the Deputy Premier and Commander of the National Guard at the Doha summit. The document pressed for reforms and ways of activating Gulf companies and developing them by encouraging competition and financially supporting the markets to make them more dynamic. The Gulf countries are seeking to ease the procedures for Gulf investors to enter their stock markets.
