Countries across the Arab world are monitoring how the GCC common market is progressing, even as GCC leaders discuss ways to eventually forge an Arab common market with a population of more than 300 million people.

Just as the European Union has expanded so could the GCC common market, which was established at the beginning of this year, according to Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Dr Essam Fakhro.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day conference on the common market and talking inflation organised by the Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce and Industry at the Sheraton Hotel yesterday.

"This is indeed an ambition for the common market which was set up at the beginning of this year and other Arab countries will be watching closely as the market develops," he said.

"Getting it right is very important because in an era of globalisation single states cannot compete and the GCC needs this market because it will not only boost the economy of the individual states but of the region as a whole. It will certainly be good for individual citizens and for businesses."

He said the market, as it developed, would give individuals from the GCC the right to work and own property anywhere in the region and they would also have social benefits like health insurance coverage and other services that applied everywhere in the GCC.

"There will be teething problems and we must work to overcome these," he said.

"The GCC states are all sovereign and it is up to the leadership in each state to decide when and how it implements the agreements on the common market, but I have no doubt that the leadership of every country is committed to moving forward with this."

"I do not expect this experiment to be completed immediately," he said.

"That did not happen in Europe either and it may take us years to get the right model. But I am a GCC citizen and I am very positive and I think we have done well so far."

He sighted as teething problems the fact that some states still required businessmen to have a 51 per cent local partner to operate and the fact that there were still two border points on the causeway to Saudi Arabia rather than just one.

But he said ventures like City mall, where Bahrain had allowed a UAE company to develop a major business was part of the way forward.

"This is a venture that is good for the UAE company, but it is also good for Bahrain because it will create 3,000 to 4,000 new jobs and bring a lot of money into the local economy and that is what working together can achieve."

GCC secretary general Abdulrahman Al Attiyah praised Bahrain for being ahead of the game in opening its markets to other GCC states and said this was one reason the kingdom would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the common market.

He urged the GCC countries to move ahead with legislation to give a push to the common market and he said he hoped that monetary union and a single currency could be achieved in line with the decisions agreed at summits in Muscat and Doha.

Industry and commerce minister Dr Hassan Fakhro, in a speech read on his behalf, emphasised the key role to be played by the private sector in moving forward and underlined the need for this sector to be involved in the economic decision-making process.

The delegates also discussed the phenomenon of inflation in GCC countries, its impact and ways to prevent it in the future.-TradeArabia News Service