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JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia would be the most attractive prospect for international insurance companies that are looking to operate in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the “Saudi Arabia Insurance Report Q3 2010″ released by Companiesandmarkets.com on Thursday said.

Virtually all other trends are favurable and the market has been opened up to foreign competition. New laws are promoting the development of health insurance, it said. Saudi Arabias economy has withstood the downturn in energy prices through 2009 well, it added.

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JEDDAH: Saudi consumers fed up with the low quality of products and seasonal price increases on items that are traditionally purchased before and during Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr are opting to buy earlier and online.

“I have already ordered some appliances needed for Ramadan cooking and clothing for my children as well as some Eid gifts from online shopping sites based in the US and Europe,” said Renad Bassam, a 28-year-old mother of two.

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JEDDAH – The growing economic might of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries was again highlighted in the recently held financial summit between the City of London and the GCC countries.

The meeting held at the Merchant Taylors Hall in London on 19 July discussed the latest financial sector developments in the Middle East and North Africa, and opportunities for UK/GCC partnerships.

Organized by the Middle East Association (MEA) in partnership with the City of London Corporation, the conference, now in its fifth year, is the leading London event promoting cooperation between the City of London and the GCC countries.

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WASHINGTON – Economic growth in the six-nation Gulf region is strengthening but a major risk to the outlook is that oil prices remain low for a protracted period, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

In an updated report on Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states the IMF urged countries to prepare exit strategies from the current high spending levels but not to implement them until economic conditions were right.

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WASHINGTON – While the massive amount of government spending by Gulf countries helped to limit the impact of the global downturn on their economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes a plan to withdraw fiscal support is needed, and should be implemented once the time is right.

Economic growth in the six Gulf countries is strengthening but a major risk to the outlook is if oil prices remain low for a protracted period, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday.

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ABU DHABI – The UAE is poised to be the most active market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region with more than $714.8 billion of construction projects that are currently under construction or at the design stage, a news study from Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed.

The second most active construction market in the region, with $283.8 billion worth of projects, is Saudi Arabia followed by Kuwait with $184.4 billion of projects. Qatar has construction projects being planned or underway to the value of $92.6 billion. Oman has $48.3 billion and Bahrain got $44.1 billion projects under way.

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JEDDAH – Saudi Arabia continues to lead the IPO activity in the region with seven of the eight issues launched in the Kingdom in first half, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said in a report.

It said the largest IPO as of June 30, was for Knowledge Economic City Company in Madina which raised $272 million, about 32.7 percent of the total capital raised in the GCC.

However the total amount raised from these IPOs at the end of June was $830 million, down 31.4 per cent from $1.2 billion raised during the same period last year, the PwC report added.

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AL-KHOBAR – Local non-government organizations (NGOs) have welcomed the finalized plan of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to set up a human rights panel in the region.

A statement released by the GCC General Secretariat last week stated that the foreign ministers of the GCC member states have endorsed the plan for the regional commission, which will be the first regional body of its kind in this part of the world.

The Human Rights First Society (HRFS), an unlicensed NGO in Saudi Arabia, welcoming the setting up the GCC human rights panel, said in a press statement that the panel should have “independent and impartial experts as members and employees to be chosen from NGOs and human rights defenders.”

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RIYADH: The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has finalized a plan to set up a human rights panel in the region. This new regional commission for human rights, which will have independent and impartial experts as its members and office bearers, will deal with human rights issues and ensure more accurate auditing of the human rights records in the region.

“The move to set up this regional panel comes following a recommendation made by the GCC foreign ministers in a meeting last month,” said a statement released by the GCC General Secretariat on Wednesday.

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JEDDAH – Business confidence is building in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as a sense of recovery takes hold, according to the second Oliver Wyman/Zogby International survey of C-Suite executives located in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

The survey of 134 CEOs, CFOs, and COOs, conducted in April and May 2010 which was released on Tuesday, showed GCC executives are broadly upbeat: 58 percent of those surveyed say they find current business conditions improved, and 82 percent expect improved conditions in the next two years. In the UAE, the percentage of executives expressing optimism about two-year prospects is 74 percent, up 29 percentage points from the previous survey in October 2009. Optimism also increased in Saudi Arabia (up 19 points to 85 percent) and Qatar (up 13 points to 96 percent).

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