The Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) has released the latest issue of the “Industrial Cooperation in the Arabian Gulf” magazine. This new issue shed light upon the GCC Subcontracting and Partnership Exchange (GSPX) Program which is being executed in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

 

The magazine also dedicated an extensive dossier for the Gulf International Forum and Exhibition for Industrial Subcontracting and Partnership "Gulf Subcon", which GOIC will organize at Dhahran International Exhibition Centre in Saudi Arabia from the 19th to the 21st of March 2013. This event is the first of its kind in the sectors of petrochemicals and plastics at the GCC level. It will be entitled: “Partnering with local suppliers towards achieving manufacturing excellence by 2030.” The event will take place under the high patronage of His Excellency Dr. Tawfiq Bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry and in partnership with Ramatan Exhibition and Conference Organizing.

In his memo that was published in this issue of the Magazine under the title of “GOIC successfully concludes the first year of its five-year strategy”, GOIC Secretary General Mr.

 

Abdulaziz Bin Hamad Al-Ageel stressed that GOIC’s strategy focused on supporting the activities of targeted industries in member states in the future. The Organization is continuously working on suggesting industrial investment opportunities, delivering updated information and reports about the industrial sector and the industrial economy and promoting them, boosting operational efficiency, developing performance and achieving a continuous growth in the operational revenues of the Organization. Al-Ageel opined: “Publishing the GCC industrial road map is one of GOIC’s most important achievements for this year. The road map monitored the current status of the industrial sector, infrastructure and research centres. This is how it could determine missing industries and other industries that integrate and link existing ones in order to guarantee most of their production requirements.” He added: “GOIC is working to crown year 2013 with success through additional achievements positively impacting the industrial sector.”

On the other hand, Journalist Jamal Banoun wrote an article entitled: “The Gulf…An unsuccessful investment in human development.” Banoun said Gulf countries should “re-examine their actual need of the foreign labour force, stop recruitment in many professions and jobs, provide guidance to young men and women to determine specializations and disciplines since the early stages of study, encourage SMEs as separate entities that are exempt from applicable conditions on other big institutions, encourage and qualify handicrafts and professions, and create new jobs.” He continued: “Finding a solution to the localization of jobs is not that difficult; it only needs honesty in implementing the program and boldness in reorganizing the foreign recruitment plan. Otherwise, all suggestions will remain theoretical.”

Furthermore, the Magazine featured several economic articles such as: “Gulf investments…A smart diversification of income sources, new markets and massive partnerships”; “Analytical overview of the foreign direct investments in GCC countries from 2000 to 2010”; “The US financial policy and its impact on Gulf economies”; and “Food security…A primary challenge in Gulf countries as the FAO warns: a worldwide crisis is on the way next year.”

This issue also included a report prepared by Saleh Taha who pointed out that the chemical and petrochemical industries sector in GCC countries is one of the most important industrial manufacturing activities, which represents about 60.4% of the total funds invested in manufacturing industries. The report indicated that the number of factories in GCC countries increased from 2399 in 2007 to 2725 in 2011, a cumulative growth rate of 3.2%. The investments for the same period augmented from 73911 million USD up to 195454 million USD, a five-year cumulative growth rate of 27.5%, while the number of workers for this period rose from 183650 to reach up to 256254 workers.

Editor-in-Chief Engineer Hazem Al-Anqar wrote about the many important industrial activities carried out by GOIC to promote the outcomes of the industrial road map study in a number of cities in GCC countries. GOIC’s efforts culminated with the specialized workshop bringing together representatives from different Gulf countries to discuss the unified industrial development strategy in GCC countries.

The new issue also featured a report about the training courses and workshops delivered by GOIC under the Training and Capacity Development Program (TCD) for 2013, in addition to the training courses that were organized by GOIC during the last quarter of 2012. Besides, the issue included a summary about an industrial investment opportunity under the title of “Small Aluminium Caps Project”, in addition to usual sections like “GOIC News”, “Upcoming Industrial Events”, “Industrial Sector News” and many other topics.
To read the full version of this Magazine, you can visit the Organization’s website www.goic.org.qa.