Abu Dhabi: The unification of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) labour policies and the opening of borders for citizens from all over the Gulf for employment is what the Abu Dhabi summit has sought to streamline at this stage.
Issues related to unemployment among citizens have reached alarming levels in a number of GCC states, according to diplomats and analysts taking part in the event.
"Each of the six countries [in] the GCC has its own labour policies. They implement different solutions to ensure the employment of their own citizens. The [hiring] of foreign labour has become difficult in some countries while it is so easy in other states," said a Bahraini diplomat who requested anonmity.
"This imbalanced approach of how to tackle economic development in the region will affect the creation of a unified GCC market, which is a prime objective of the GCC."
In the opening speech, Hamad Abdul Rahman Al Attiyah, GCC Secretary-General, thanked the leaders of member states for taking bold initiatives pertaining to the free movement of the national labour forces in the region and steps to equate their benefits with their counterparts in the other GCC countries.
Al Attiyah said the 2002 Doha summit took clear decisions regarding the movement of GCC workers in different states and set clear parameters to equate their benefits with local workforces in host nations.
However, the Bahraini diplomat pointed out that the influx of expatriate labour into the region was threatening the identity and the economic stability of the bloc as a whole.
The 31th summit was urged to take swift action to resolve the pressing issue of unemployment among nationals in some countries.
Unemployment has reached alarming levels in countries like Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The GCC as a political and an economic institution was urged to look into those issues and find a way to resolve them.
Dr Mohammad Al Asoumi, a Dubai-based econ-omic expert and analyst, said Gulf countries were at the crossroads at this stage. Leaders at the summit were urged to draw up a comprehensive economic plan to enhance the viability of the bloc and strengthen its position regionally and internationally.
He said the GCC needed to enhance its legal framework and to unify the constitutional infrastructure in member countries.
The UAE has become an investment haven for a growing number of GCC nationals according to statistics issued by the UAE Ministry of Finance, but officials have admitted to difficulties facing the movement of goods and farm produce from one country to another.
Ahmad Bin Hassan Al Shaikh, a member of the Dubai Economic Council, said the GCC needs to ensure its policies become a reality.
"The conditions and the by-laws set by the authorities of some states contradict... the objectives of the decisions taken by the leaders of the Gulf," Al Shaikh said.
