Under the patronage of His Excellency Mr. Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry, State of Qatar, His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Saleh Al Sada, Qatari Minister of State for Energy and Industry Affairs launched the 1st GCC-EU Forum in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday, 3rd July, 2008. The forum was organized by the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) in cooperation with Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Navigation (BCCIN), and Enterprise Europe Network, with a strategic partnership with Qatar Petroleum.
The main objective of the two-day Forum is to promote industrial cooperation as well as subcontracting & partnership activities between GCC member states and the European Union. The Forum specifically focused on meeting the objective of marketing GCC subcontracting capabilities and promoting technology transfer and joint venture interests from the EU region.
Activities of the forum started on Thursday with a welcome speech by H.E. Mr. Miquel Valls, President of Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation; in which he emphasized the great business opportunities available for both regions, in sectors such as energy, chemical and petrochemical industries, renewable energy, raw materials, and plastics industries, further to gas and oil. Mr. Valls also talked about the size of trade between both Spain and GCC member states in 2007, where Spanish imports from the GCC member states reached some Euro 281 billion, and of these 28% were in Catalonia. In terms of exports, Spain exported to GCC member states in these sectors products worth Euro 182 billion. Finally, Mr. Vallas assured the efforts exerted to boost industrial cooperation and subcontracting with Catalan and European companies, promote technology transfer and enhance joint business projects.
The second speech was delivered by H.E. Dr. Mohamed Saleh Al Sada, in which H.E emphasized the importance of the forum in enhancing industrial cooperation between the two regions. Dr. Al Sada also stressed the importance of strengthening SMEs and increasing their leveraging opportunities in the global network of production (GNP) through boosting the GCC- EU industrial cooperation. "Available opportunities are there for our two regions in terms of cooperation and partnership; EU owns the technologies and the capability of supplying equipment and know-how; while our region has got the national resources, infrastructure and the adequate environment for investment", said Dr. Al Sada in his speech in the Opening Session.
In the same session, VIP speakers from the two regions delivered their speeches in the occasion including H.E. Eng. Sultan Bin Saeed Al-Mansouri, Minister of Economy, UAE; Dr. Ahmed Khalil Al Mutawa, Secretary General, GOIC; H.E Mr. Samuel Furfari, Deputy Head of Unit Renewable Energy at the Directorate General for Energy and Transport, European Commission; and H.E. Mr. Joseph Huguet, Minister for Innovation, University and Industry, Catalonia.
Thursday agenda included two work sessions; the first discussed Economic Relations between the Gulf Countries and the EU: Present Status and Future Prospects. Participants in this session tackled important topics relating to the Development of Economic relations between the Gulf countries and the EU; Future prospects for the Gulf countries and Arab Economic relations and main potential growth areas; A survey of policies and actions needed to promote the development of the economy; and finally Economic linearization and reform program in the Gulf countries and its social and economic reflections.
On its turn, the second session tackled Industrial Subcontracting where GCC and EU Subcontracting capabilities and interest in the fields of Petrochemicals, Desalination, Metalworking, Plastics, Rubber and Engineering were thoroughly illustrated.
In the second day of the forum, two other sessions were conducted. In the first session titled Investment Opportunities, Legal and Financial; many concerns were discussed covering Development within the Gulf Economy and its Investment Opportunities; the Legal Framework for doing business in the Gulf: Commercial and investment laws, and Foreign investment incentives; the Role of the private sector as a pioneer for the development of trade and investment between the two regions; and Investment opportunities in GCC and EU. The second session in Friday handled the matter of Future in Energy: Buyers and Suppliers Perspectives.
Within the same context, Business to Business (B2B) Meetings were conducted throughout the two days of the forum, with the participation of some 193 companies of different scales, further to projects' promoters, policy makers, potential investors, technology holders, equipment suppliers, and investors from both regions. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) mainly from Europe presented their subcontracting capabilities; while major companies from the Gulf including Qatar Petroleum and Qatar Holding discussed their demands of manufacturing supplies including specifications, values and quantities. Through those meetings, many arrangements occurred for matchmaking between businesses from both regions at different levels such as joint ventures, alliances, subcontracting and other forms of cooperation. The B2B meetings received considerable attention as they created a good investment and cooperation environment for the participating companies, whether SMEs or large scale companies from both regions.
On the sidelines of the conference, Dr. Al Sada conducted two individual meetings with each of H.E. Jose Montilla, Prime Minister of Catalonia; and H.E. Mr. Joseph Huguet, Minister for Innovation, University and Industry, Catalonia, in which they discussed future cooperation prospects between Qatar and Catalonia.
In addition, a meeting was conducted between Dr. Ahmed Khalil Al Mutawa, Secretary General, GOIC and Mr. Jose Antonio Quiroga Pineyero, Vice President of Eurochambers in which both parties discussed means of cooperation in terms of technical assistance, training and capacity development and industrial information interchange between both parties through GOIC's Industrial Market Intelligence Portal (IMI). In this meeting also, it was agreed to conduct the 2nd GCC-EU Industrial Forum in 2009 in one of GCC member states. H.E. Abdulrahim Naqi, Secretary General of the Federation of GCC Chambers, and H.E. Dr. Khalid Al-Hajiri, General Manager of Qatar Chamber of Commerce & Industry, attended the meeting.
On another development, the organizing parties of the 1st GCC-EU Industrial Forum held a press conference on Wednesday to highlight its theme and expectations, with the presence of media representatives from both regions. Participants in the subject conference were each of H.E. Dr. Mohammed Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of State for Energy & Industry Affairs, Qatar, H.E. Eng. Sultan Bin Saeed Al-Mansouri, Minister of Economy, UAE, H.E. Dr. Lulwa A. Al Misned, Assistant Secretary General for Industrial Investment Promotion, GOIC, H.E. Mr. Mohammed Turki Al-Subai, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Intermediate Industries Holding Co. "Qatar Holding", H.E. Mr. Miquel Valls, Presdient, BCCIN.
After the conference, a MOU was concluded between GOIC and BCCIN. The MOU provides for the creation of a
Subcontracting Centre based in Qatar, at the offices of GOIC. The center will work for companies in the Gulf to develop its trade relations with Catalonia and the European Union; and make information available through a specialized information center established for the purpose, with an expert from BCCIN, and structure and staff from GOIC.
It is worth mentioning that the forum was conducted with a strategic partnership with QP and sponsored by Qatar Holding, Ministry of Economy, UAE, Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation "KAHRAMAA", TradeArabia, and Al Jazeera Network.
It is scheduled that the GCC-EU Forum will be held once every year interchangeably between GCC and the EU under the patronage of VIPs from each region. Through this forum, attention will be directed towards updates, prospects and opportunities for industrial development and economic relationships, and exploring ways and means of promoting industry and fostering economic cooperation to pave the way for building strong relationship ties between the two regions.
It is worth indicating that the industrial output contribution to the GDP in GCC member states is some 10%, yet, it is strongly expanding in view of the exerted efforts to foster industrial development in the region; and it increased from Euro 28 billion in 2002 to approach the level of Euro 53 billion in 2006. Currently the GCC is set to invest more than Euro 760 billion by 2012 in the industrial sector, as industry is always viewed as the strategic option for the diversification of the economies base in GCC member states.
To end with, GOIC, founded in 1976, targets developing industries throughout GCC by means of providing, both the industrial and economic sectors, with distinctive knowledge, consultancy and technical services. GOIC's mandate is to promote the highest levels of industrial cooperation and collaboration, in both the public and private sectors, by providing a complete set of high-quality, specialized research, information and consultancy services relating to industrial and economic development. Being aware of the importance of spreading knowledge, and introducing latest technical updates in the world to the region, GOIC has conducted a number of leading conferences such as Knowledge-Based Industries and Nano Technology Conference, Industrialists Conference series, the international conference on Aid for Trade, not to mention all; further to a number of seminars, workshops, and continuously organized activities that target opening new horizons for industrialists and investors whether inside the region or foreign ones.
Source by arabianbusiness.com
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