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Gulf-Africa strategic relations to reach new heights
A strong contingent of senior government officials, prominent businessmen and leading economists represented Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries in the annual Gulf-Africa Strategy Forum 2009 which began on Tuesday in Cape Town, South Africa.
- By Abdul Rahman Shaheen, Correspondent
- Published: 00:02 February 27, 2009
Riyadh: A strong contingent of senior government officials, prominent businessmen and leading economists represented Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries in the annual Gulf-Africa Strategy Forum 2009 which began on Tuesday in Cape Town, South Africa.
The high-profile delegations from 16 African countries and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states gathered in South Africa for the three-day conference aimed at chalking out ways to reinforce Gulf-Africa strategic relations by making an in-depth assessment of the status of ties and a definitive outlook on where the relationship could be heading.
The forum, an initiative of the Gulf Research Centre (GRC), a Dubai-based independent think tank, was also seeking opportunities to forge political and security alliances.
Speaking to reporters on the eve of the forum, Abdul Rahim Naqi, Secretary General of the Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said the GCC states are looking to Africa as a strategic economic and political partner for the future, especially in the wake of the strong growth that GCC and African companies have been witnessing during the past few years.
He also highlighted the keenness shown by the GCC companies to identify more avenues for investments in various sectors. According to Naqi, the direct foreign investments in Africa reached $36 billion in 2006.
"This figure shows the record surge in investments in recent years and a major chunk of these were in the field of extractive industries such as oil and mineral exploration with a huge inflow of investments from the GCC states as well as from China," he said.
He added that the Saudi delegation taking part in the forum comprised more than 50 officials from the Ministry of Trade and Commerce and businessmen.
The Gulf-Africa Strategy Forum has become an annual conference event which brings together the key leaders and personalities from business, academia, government and media to outline the main issues and challenges facing more constructive relations between the key regions of Africa and the Gulf.
The main purpose of the event is to propose a set of policy recommendations that can ensure that the opportunities in closer Africa-Gulf ties are highlighted and adequately responded to.
In another development, the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry announced plans to dispatch delegations representing various sectors to some 12 European, Asian and African countries to strengthen economic cooperation, bolster bilateral trade exchanges and explore prospects of finding new markets for Saudi products in those countries.
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