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Political Commentator has High Hopes for GCC
DUBAI - Denying that the Arab region is a permanent source of political turmoil, long-time economic and political commentator Edmund O’Sullivan says that the group of six Arabian countries comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is set to become the sixth largest economy in the world by 2030.
Talking about his book, ‘The New Gulf — How Modern Arabia is changing the World for Good’, Sullivan invited a panel of businessmen and journalists who explored the current financial climate in the GCC and the surrounding Middle East at the literary festival
on Saturday.
Along with Sullivan, the Chairman of Dubai Young Arab Leaders Sultan Saud Al Qassemi, Group Director of Emirates NBD Suresh Kumar, Business Editor of the National newspaper Bill Spindle and Group Business Editor of Motivate Publishing in Dubai Alistair Crighton, constituted the panel.
Gauging the financial climate in the region, Saud Al Qassemi said, “The biggest commodity that the GCC has at the moment is hope, and not oil.” All panelists agreed on the fact that Gulf countries, particularly the UAE took a lot less credit than what it deserves.
Saud said that the GCC has done a lot of good for many poorer and deserving countries around the world.
“We give 0.8 per cent of our GDP to various countries around the world. We live in such a volatile region, and besides that, we are peaceful and share good business relationships with most of our neighbouring countries.”
Alistair Crighton said, “People of so many different nationalities come here to make a living for themselves.”
Saud said countries like Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia have taken huge strides in improving infrastructure, state of education and health in their respective countries.
The international media’s repartee on how “the party in Dubai is over” was because of a very bad public relations strategy on behalf of the government, according to the panelists.
“We help a lot of nations very quietly and I do not believe in an extravagant PR campaign,” said Qassemi.
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