GCC Visions and the Impact of It

Running Head: GCC VISIONS 1
GCC VISIONS, AND THE IMPACT OF IT
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GCC VISIONS 2
Introduction
The strategies by the GCC states are written documents that demonstrate their vision
and what they intend to achieve in both the short and long-term efforts. These plans
aspirations to constructive decision making in relation to the existing economic dynamics
Although most of the visions have been drafted by foreign consultancy firms, it has
significantly helped in the transfer of knowledge that would be used to improve the key
ideologies and also consider the best international accepted practices. That being said, the
official strategy incorporate agreement from all the GCC states to carry out free trade.
This is envisioned to help in achieving economic integration as the countries advance
to higher economic prosperity. This would later lead to the establishment of a common
market among the member states, in accordance with the set timeframes .Moreover, this
mechanism would foster the involvement of the private sector particularly those who
subscribe to the ideas of bringing economic integration. As a result, the GCC program was
established in order to examine the most appropriate economic diversification and investment
strategies that would benefit all the six member states. Those investors further establish
economic preconditions as a way of ensuring that the well-being of the economy was
guaranteed. It can be argued that the Gulf economies are currently performing in their full
potential as there are multiple opportunities and demands for resources, driven by high social
and economic expectations .Lastly, the biggest challenge for the GCC is to develop a way of
achieving the collective economic vision and at the same time build a sustainable society
(Lauridsen, 2010). For this to be achieved, the countries ought to look beyond oil and gas as
their main source of revenue, and come up with new alternatives.
Discussion
The key driver of Gulf States economies are the huge oil reserves and the ever
increasing demand for oil products .Therefore, the GCC regional states are striving towards

GCC VISIONS 3
diversification .However, oil resources have been on the decline across the world and as a
result, there is an increase in prices as well as the demand of the commodity (Al-Maamary,
Kazem,& Chaichan,2017).The policies for the diversification of the economy under the GCC
demonstrates that most of the economies under this umbrella mostly depend on oil revenues
more than other economic activities. Such a situation would often result to lack of incentives
to develop an well-organized economic foundation within the countries .It is important to
note that the establishment if a solid economic foundation determines the ability of a country,
through taxation, to reinforce its power both locally and globally (Ulrichsen,
2014).Therefore, production and distribution states ought to always understand as opposite
immoderations on a continuum.The dependency of these states on hydrocarbons has proven
to be a challenge as the production has been fluctuating over the past decade. That being said,
such strains bring in a number of challenges towards the accomplishment of economic
diversification in the Gulf countries (Kiel, 2012).
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are determined to strengthen their economic
powers and increasing welfare. They aspire to achieve this by considering the common
aspects of the economies and harmonising their visions through joint economic policies. As
the GCC states share common vision concerning economic development, they have
highlighted some of the fundamental areas of diversification that would ensure that
dependence of oil and gas is reduced (Krane, & Hung, 2016).Such include; education,
knowledge-based economies, conservation of environments and tourism. The strategies for
national growth possesses a long history in certain GCC states on an approach that aimed at
pursuing certain laws on oil selling prices. While other countries focus on developing
education others in the GCC states are primarily focusing on improving the desirability of the
economies in the global arena (Rupp, 2009). In addition, some of the most recent alternatives

GCC VISIONS 4
give emphasis to commercial diversification as well as the drastic increase in the involvement
of the small enterprises (Todaro, 2009).
Development planning of the GCC countries
Nowadays, the Arab Gulf states are emphasizing more on political precedence in their
quest for key economic drivers, as they seek to widely pursue long term development focus.
What follows is the examination of the existing plans, with key focus to the major economic
growth for all the six GCC states (Gengler, 2016). Economic development is a rather new
concept in the GCC states with the exclusion of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Physical planning
has been conducted in these countries to certain degrees particularly in the prosperous years
of the 1970s, with the objective of harmonizing the tangible development of cities among
other key projects (Waldman, 2016).That being said, plans mirrors the historical contexts in
which they were founded. The contextual factor appears to be of great relevance in the
frameworks of these planning efforts. Such plans include neoliberal economic focus, which
constantly dominates the understanding of multiple GCC economic plans (Luciani, 2013).
Currently, an ambitious investment program is being conducted in an effort to expand the
capacity of industries such as real estates, transport, manufacturing and tourism among
others, with the amount invested exceeding $ 1 trillion for the next decade (Hvidt, 2014).
I. Qatar National vision 2030
The Qatar National Vision 2030, is a master vision that acts as a
roadmap towards the country becoming a developed society with the
capabilities of assuring sustainable development , through the
provision of high standards of living for all its citizens by the year
2030. (Lahn, & Stevens, 2011).
The plan provides long-term outcomes for the country as well as
frameworks within which national strategies and their implementation