Recommendations of the 14th Industrialists’ Conference in Muscat: Adopting policies and measures to facilitate the flow of Gulf exports to promote intra-regional trade

 

 

The 14th Industrialists’ Conference “Industrial exports: Opportunities and Challenges” recommendations were to 1) “quickly and effectively adopt policies and measures allowing the free flow of Gulf exports in order to boost intra-regional trade between GCC countries and Yemen”; 2) “Use GCC and Yemen seaports as additional points of entry along with land border crossings to promote industrial exports.”
The 14th Industrialists’ Conference was concluded Monday afternoon in the presence of His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Masoud Al-Sunaidy, Omani minister of commerce and industry and Engineer Ahmed bin Hassan Al-Dheeb, Undersecretary of Oman’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of GOIC’s Board of Directors, in addition to several industrialists, experts and stakeholders.
GOIC Secretary General Mr. Abdulaziz Bin Hamad Al-Ageel gave the closing statement and recommendations: “His Highness Sayyid Asaad bin Tareq al Said, representative of His Majesty the Sultan inaugurated this conference in the presence of His Excellency Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the esteemed ministers of industry in GCC countries and Yemen and their excellencies the Chairman of the Board of the Organization, members of the Board and the Secretary General.” He added: “Throughout these two days, seven sessions were held to discuss the important role of industrial exports and the challenges and opportunities in this area. In addition, success stories of a number of countries like Turkey and Singapore were presented.”
Mr. Al-Ageel stated: “GOIC was keen to follow-up the implementation of the recommendations of previous industrialists’ conferences, notably the 12th conference’s recommendation regarding the preparation of a GCC industrial map. Indeed, the study was completed and missing industries and promising industrial investment opportunities were identified. In fact, GOIC had promoted several of these opportunities between 2012 and 2014. As to the recommendation about supporting the industrial subcontracting and partnership exchange program, several GSPX centres were indeed established in most GCC countries. Furthermore, one of the 13th Industrialists’ Conference’s recommendations was creating an innovative society bringing together the purchase and production of knowledge-based industries. In this regard, the Organization prepared annual reports diagnosing the current status of knowledge-based industries and the readiness of GCC countries to move to knowledge-based industries.”
Al-Ageel added: “In light of the papers and lectures that were delivered tackling industrial exports and based on the discussions and dialogue with the ministers of industry and stakeholders, the participants agreed on the following recommendations:
1- Deploying all necessary efforts to quickly and effectively adopt policies and measures facilitating the flow of Gulf exports in order to boost intra-regional trade between GCC countries and Yemen.
2- Using GCC and Yemen seaports as additional points of entry along with the land border crossings to promote industrial exports.
3- Creating a specialised authority in each of the countries to deliver a comprehensive package of means to support industrial exports.
4- Using export guarantee authorities and institutions to promote industrial exports, building and expanding the advanced network of commercial offices and reinforcing the role of commercial attachés.
5- Improving the quality and competitiveness  of national products by building a strong technological infrastructure and focusing on research and development and international standards and specifications.
6- Giving particular attention to the small and medium enterprises’ sector and allowing SMEs to contribute to enhancing industrial exports.
7- Supporting GOIC’s initiatives with the private sector to promote joint ventures aiming at achieving industrial integration between member states.
8- Exchanging anti-dumping information and expertise to reinforce intra-regional and international trade.
9- Maximising the benefit from Foreign Direct Investments and foreign expertise in the processes of production, marketing and exporting and encouraging industrial FDIs.
10- Benefiting from available facilities through the World Trade Organization agreements on exports and creating a specialised technical committee in charge of studying these agreements and providing all regional exporters with the results.
11-  Benefiting from export success stories in countries like South Korea, Malaysia, Turkey and Brazil.
12- Preparing a comprehensive guidebook on exportable industrial products and the status of international export markets for GCC countries and Yemen; the guidebook is to be regularly updated.
13- Developing a national strategy for the development of industrial exports.
14- Encouraging governments, institutions, producers and exporters to use WTO databases and mechanisms to develop exports.
15- Endeavouring to increase the private sector’s knowledge of national, regional and international legislations, rules and regulations by issuing procedure manuals to support industrial exports.

The 14th Industrialists’ Conference was organised by Oman Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), in collaboration with the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE), the Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development in Oman (PAIPED) and Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) and in coordination with the Secretariat-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Federation of GCC Chambers (FGCCC).