GCC ministers to discuss regional development bank 17 October, 2009
Finance ministers of the six nations that form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will discuss a proposal for a regional development bank similar to Europe’s, the top GCC official said yesterday.
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the GCC states are meeting in Muscat to set the agenda for the rulers’ summit in Kuwait next month.“They will discuss the Qatar vision of a mechanism for the proposal for an investment and development bank like you have in the EU,” GCC Secretary General H E Abdulrahman Al Attiyah told reporters.
The bank would provide funding for regional projects and would also make donations outside of the GCC, Attiyah said. Attiyah also said he was confident four Gulf countries would have a monetary council — a step towards a single currency — in place by next January.
When asked if the monetary council would be in place by January 1, 2010, he told reporters: “Of course.”
The project has been hampered by the United Arab Emirates’ decision in May to opt out from the common currency, three years after a similar move by Oman. A series of political disagreements have held up talks for almost a decade.Ratification by the four remaining countries is needed for the project to go ahead, but so far only Saudi Arabia has done so.
Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait have not yet ratified, leaving question marks over the future of the project.“Ratification is on the way,” he said, adding he expected Qatar to ratify next week.
