The Mena Centre for Investment in Bahrain in cooperation with GCC-Stat, Oman and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recently held a special task force meeting on foreign direct investment statistics in Bahrain.

The meeting was attended by representatives of central banks, statistical and financial entities of five GCC Countries and also the GCC Secretariat.

The experts from UNCTAD including Dr Masataka Fujita, the head of Investment Trends & Issues Branch and Dr Astrit Sulstarova, the chief of Trends & Data Section in the Investment Trends & Issues Branch took part.

Opening statements were delivered by Dr Zakaria Ahmed Hejres, the chairman of Board of Trustees of the Mena Centre for Investment and Dr Jarmo T. Kotilaine, the chief economist of the Bahrain Economic Development Board.

The task force meeting will look into harmonizing statistical efforts between all GCC Countries under the umbrella of GCC-Stat with the help of UNCTAD.

The main areas of interest are identification of statistical initiatives and projects of common interest and possible avenues of cooperation. This programme will result in the creation of national country teams that will help to implement the program in their respective countries

This is the first official meeting of this programme. This initiative will look into creating a work plan and road map strategy for coordinating GCC Direct and Portfolio investment for 2015 to 2020.

The representative from GCC-Stat including Dr Ahmed Al Farid, the director of Economic Statistics and from the General Secretariat for Development and Planning in Qatar, Wadha Al Jabor took part in the meeting.-TradeArabia News Service