Biggest GCC industrial guide nearly ready

Gulf Arab states have almost completed compiling a comprehensive guide to their industries as part of plans to develop their non-oil manufacturing sector and support economic diversification programmes.

The project follows a sharp rise in industrial investment in the six-nation GCC and the bulk of these investments are based in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Official figures showed these investments, mainly in light and medium products, more than tripled to exceed $100 billion at the end of 2003.

GCC states, which control more than 45 per cent of the world's extractable oil wealth, will release the 2004 Industrial Directory within a few weeks to be the most credible and documented information source on their burgeoning industries, according to their official industrial body.

The directory, the biggest industrial guide since the GCC was created in 1981, has been compiled by the Doha-based Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), which advises on non-oil manufacturing activities in member states.

It contains new investment opportunities in the region, emerging foreign markets, and the names and products of more than 8,000 factories operating in the 23-year-old economic, political and defence group. It will be distributed to regional chambers of commerce and industry and other organisations.

"The directory aims to bridge the gap of information in the industrial sector in the GCC. It is a vital source for providing and disseminating of industrial information to serve industrialists, investors, traders, businessmen, decision-makers and all other concerned parties," GOIC said in a statement sent to Gulf News.

"This guide also sets a comprehensive profile of national industries and an insight into international markets. It furnishes users with all basic information about factories, channels of communication with them, which in turn will strengthen efforts by regional factories to promote their products worldwide."

GCC states of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman have pumped huge funds into industrial projects within overall diversification programmes designed to lessen their reliance on volatile oil export earnings.

GOIC's figures showed GCC industrial investments nearly tripled over the past decade to exceed $100 billion and the figure is set to sharply rise in the future.

From around $33 billion in 1990, the cumulative capital pumped in the GCC's manufacturing sector leapt to nearly $102 billion by the end of 2003.

Saudi Arabia emerged as the biggest industrial power in the GCC, accounting for nearly 68 per cent of the total. The UAE was second with more than 10 per cent of the total investments and more than 2,000 factories.

The massive investments boosted the number of industrial units in the region from around 4,380 to more than 8,000 units in the same period. Industrial exports also jumped to over $16 billion last year from less than $10 billion in 1990.

The investments covered mainly petrochemicals, cement, aluminium, paper, home appliances, furniture, machinery, equipment, spare parts and electrical products. They did not include investment in gas projects which have attracted over $30 billion, mainly in the UAE, Qatar and Oman.

More than $25 billion could also be pumped by international companies into Saudi Arabia's mammoth gas sector within its gas initiative.

AT A GLANCE

Main features

• The biggest industrial guide contains new investment opportunities in the Gulf region, emerging foreign markets, and the names and products of more than 8,000 factories operating in the 23-year-old economic, political and defence group

• The guide to be distributed to regional chambers of commerce and industry and other organisation

• The directory aims to bridge the gap of information in the industrial sector in the GCC

• This guide also sets a comprehensive profile of national industries and an insight into international markets. It furnishes users with all basic information about factories, channels of communication with them, which in turn will strengthen efforts by regional factories to promote their products worldwide