GCC integration: Power grid to be discussed by GCC finance officials in Riyadh

The finance under-secretaries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) held a preparatory meeting in Riyadh on October 2, ahead of the GCC finance ministers meetings, due in Doha on November l8, on a memorandum for a project linking GCC states with a power grid network.

"There are certain authorities currently undergoing the executive procedures for the project, as the gulf Institute for investment was assigned to prepare a study on the project's capital requirements and possible alternatives to finance it since it is a major foundation of the Gulf economic integration," Director of the Gulf and Arab economic cooperation department at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Finance, Adnan Al Khodair said.

Khodair anticipated taking suitable measures on the movement of local manpower among GCC states before the GCC economic and financial cooperation committee's meeting in Doha later this month.

The GCC higher council decided in its 16th summit in Oman in 1995, to adopt all measures aimed at facilitating the movement of local manpower.

Gulf finance ministers assigned to the Gulf organization for industrial consultations in May to carry out a marketing study of the power grid network. The GCC states will request companies implementing the project to pay a certain amount of money annually in return for their use of the network.

The project will reduce the consumption of electricity and decrease its cost. It is part of a large network to link the west and the east of the Arab world.