GCC to seek German investment at Stuttgart forum

Gulf oil producers will ask German businessmen to invest in the region to take advantage of post-crisis surge in business opportunities when they meet in Stuttgart next week, organisers of the conference said Friday.

The October 26-27 forum will attract hundreds of officials and businessmen from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Germany as the oil-rich region pursues efforts to sign a landmark free trade deal with the Europeans.

The conference will also include an exhibition that will attract more than 500 GCC companies seeking to show their products and present investment opportunities to the Germans as part of ongoing economic diversification programmes.

The Dammam-based Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FGCCI) is organizing the forum, which it said would seek to build stronger relations between the private sectors in the two sides.

 “The forum is aimed at creating stronger economic and trade ties between the private sector in the two sides and to discuss investment opportunities in both regions,” said FGCCI secretary-general Abdul Rahim Naqi.

 “Germany will benefit from this meeting because it expects its relationship with the GCC to surpass that of mere trade partnership after the signing of the free trade agreement (FTA) between the GCC and the European Union…this agreement will open new scopes for Germany to export its technology and investments to the Gulf region,” he said in a statement sent to Emirates 24/7.

 His figures showed the GCC countries have become among the largest markets for Germany’s products, with its exports to the region exceeding $14 billion in 2009. GCC’s exports to Germany stood at around $six billion.

 “This forum is very important because it comes amidst efforts by the GCC to expand its relations with the EU in economy, trade, investment and other fields…it also follows a severe financial crisis that has hit Greece and spilled into other European nations…the forum will cover this crisis and its impact on commercial exchange between the EU and the GCC,” Naqi said.

The GCC and the EU have been locked in negotiations for nearly 20 years to finalize a free trade agreement that will allow the Gulf group to attract technology and give the Europeans access to a lucrative market for their products and ensure stable oil supplies for them in the long term.

But a deal has been blocked by rifts on EU customs tariffs on Gulf products and what the GCC describes as unacceptable political demands by the Europeans.

Speaking during a GCC-British exhibition in London this week, GCC secretary General Abdul Rahman Alateyya said he had asked London to mediate an agreement on a free trade with the EU.

“These negotiations are among the longest in history as they have been on for nearly 20 years…We have asked Britain to try and tackle the obstacles that are hindering a free trade accord between us,” he said.