Trip to the Emirates Palace

Sunday 23rd October, Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi
My colleagues and I in the elite program got the opportunity to visit the GCC Economic & Financial Integration Forum on the morning of Sunday 23rd October. They  registered and listed  our names to the opening and welcoming speeches. We travelled by bus and the driver took the longest way to reach there but it was fun and it was my first time to enter the Emirates Palace and I was surprised by the decoration and the reception.  

The first session, from 9.30 to 11.00 a.m. concerned economic and financial integration and international experiences, a talk by Dr Jassim Al Mannai, Director General of the Arab Monetary Fund.

We had a break for 15 minutes; they prepared a very good breakfast and all types of drinks; it was the first time I saw all this arrangement and dedication to detail.

The first speaker was Dr Abdul Aziz Aluwaisheg, Director General International Economic Relations GCC Secretariat. He talked mainly about the historical developments and agreements made in recent years by GCC countries in their pursuit of freeing up trade and reducing tariffs in the GCC zone but the only thing that upset me was that he spoke in English and most of the public were Arab  and they had a headset to translate Arabic to English.

The second speaker was Lukas Stemitsiotis, Head of Unit in the European Commission, EU, and he addressed the problems and challenges facing the Eurozone. These problems at the moment, centring on Greece and the possibility of a Greek default on its debt, are particularly acute and the Eurozone countries are still struggling to find a solution and mainly he was nervous and mainly talking to himself.

The third speaker was Dr Aladdin Rillo, Director and Chief Economist ASEAN Integration Monitoring Office. He spoke of the experiences of the Association of South East Asian Nations. He mentioned ASEAN’s Mutual Recognition Arrangements, already implemented for engineers and architects. He pointed out that ASEAN was different to the EU and the GCC in that 50% of ASEAN GDP is provided by the service sector. He said that the goal in his region was integration of capital markets, rather than a single currency. He pointed out that it was difficult for developed countries like Brunei and Singapore to share a currency with undeveloped countries like Laos and Cambodia. Perhaps this remark applies equally to the Eurozone. He said that in ASEAN the emphasis is on a single market and integration with the global economy. He stressed the importance of connectivity and equable economic development. He suggested that ASEAN was concentrating on integration of trade, while the GCC was leaning towards integration of finances. He was the briefest of the speakers and perhaps the one who dealt most with practicality rather than ideas and ideals.