19 April 2008
The launch of the gcc common market has represented a new turn in the Gulf cooperation process since the council's inception in 1981.
Its substantial importance lies in the fact that it is expected to deepen the gcc citizenship, reinforce equal economic treatment of the gcc citizens, free movement of labour and capitals and realise the people's aspiration for integration.
The gcc common market was declared at the Doha summit in December 2007 and was based on Clause 3 of the amended agreement of 2001.
The agreement stipulates equal treatment of the gcc people in what concerns social insurance, retirement, practice of occupations and trade activities, free movement of labour and capitals and benefit from services.
Under the agreement, the gcc ordinary and official persons should be treated on equal footing with the citizens of each individual state in terms of residence, travel and work at both government and private sectors.
Under the agreement terms, any GCC national also has the right to engage in services, economic and investment activities, own properties, buy shares, establish companies and benefit from all education, health and social services everywhere in the GCC.
Amid these positive opportunities, there is an urgent need to avail of the Gulf common market to unify the labour market and commonly confront the challenges it may face.
For instance, the unemployment rate in the gcc states ranges from four to 15 per cent and the number of the gcc workers who have joined the labour market between 1995 and 2010 count around eight million.
The gcc states, in order to meet the requirements of the fast-paced growth in all fields, have increased their reliance on expatriate labour which soared from 1.1 million in 1975 to a current 13 million.
In 1975, the 1.1 million expatriate workers represented 38 per cent whereas the current 13 million expatriate population represents around 70 per cent of the total workforce, and almost 37 per cent of the 35 million gcc population.
Such high expatriate population has left negative impacts on the Gulf countries on all economic, social, political and security levels.
This has resulted in turning upside-down the demographic structure in the uae, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain where locals have become minorities representing in each state respectively 15.4, 29, 27.9, 31 and 50.6 per cent, posing a threat to distort the cultural and civilisational identity of these states.
On the other hand, the amount of cash remitted by the expatriate labour to their countries of origin was $2 billion in 1975 and reached a current $26 billion to add extra burden to gcc state budgets.
On the political and security level, most tangible drawbacks include the recent wave of unrest, staged by Asian workers to demand pay increase and calls by certain human rights organisations to grant them political rights in addition to the spread of crime and alien conduct in the host communities.
Out of awareness of these dangers, the gcc states continued their endeavours on individual and common levels to ease the cross-border movement of national labour and limit reliance on expatriate workers without impairing development programmes and plans and according to well-defined policies that include nationalisation of jobs and development of education and training.
All these efforts culminated in the 2007 Doha Declaration of the gcc common market.
The declaration, embodying the Gulf citizenship and translating it into facts on the ground, crowned the Supreme Council's decision, taken during Doha session in 2002 which stipulated equal treatment of gcc citizens and removal of all crippling factors by the end of 2003 with regard to private sector workers and by end of 2005 with regard to the government and social insurance sectors.
The gcc Supreme Council approved in its 25th session, held in 2004 in Manama to extend the social insurance umbrella by each Gulf state to cover its employees working for government and private establishments in other gcc states.
In line with this decision, the gcc labour ministers' council adopted special work plans to ease the movement of gcc workers within the Gulf states and facilitate their recruitment by private companies in the host countries.
These plans are being enforced in cooperation with the council's executive bureau throughout the gcc countries.
On the level of the government sector, the ministerial committee for civil service has issued a number of decisions, nationalising the maximum of jobs in the civil service sector, replacing expatriate labour with the available local and gcc workforce and ceasing to renew contracts for expatriates whenever the gcc alternative is found.
According to a report issued by the gcc secretariat in 2007, all member states are committed to giving priority to gcc workers and could only conclude contracts with expatriates in the absence of gcc alternatives.
The launch of the gcc common market has represented a new turn in the Gulf cooperation process since the council's inception in 1981.
Its substantial importance lies in the fact that it is expected to deepen the gcc citizenship, reinforce equal economic treatment of the gcc citizens, free movement of labour and capitals and realise the people's aspiration for integration.
The gcc common market was declared at the Doha summit in December 2007 and was based on Clause 3 of the amended agreement of 2001.
The agreement stipulates equal treatment of the gcc people in what concerns social insurance, retirement, practice of occupations and trade activities, free movement of labour and capitals and benefit from services.
Under the agreement, the gcc ordinary and official persons should be treated on equal footing with the citizens of each individual state in terms of residence, travel and work at both government and private sectors.
Under the agreement terms, any GCC national also has the right to engage in services, economic and investment activities, own properties, buy shares, establish companies and benefit from all education, health and social services everywhere in the GCC.
Amid these positive opportunities, there is an urgent need to avail of the Gulf common market to unify the labour market and commonly confront the challenges it may face.
For instance, the unemployment rate in the gcc states ranges from four to 15 per cent and the number of the gcc workers who have joined the labour market between 1995 and 2010 count around eight million.
The gcc states, in order to meet the requirements of the fast-paced growth in all fields, have increased their reliance on expatriate labour which soared from 1.1 million in 1975 to a current 13 million.
In 1975, the 1.1 million expatriate workers represented 38 per cent whereas the current 13 million expatriate population represents around 70 per cent of the total workforce, and almost 37 per cent of the 35 million gcc population.
Such high expatriate population has left negative impacts on the Gulf countries on all economic, social, political and security levels.
This has resulted in turning upside-down the demographic structure in the uae, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain where locals have become minorities representing in each state respectively 15.4, 29, 27.9, 31 and 50.6 per cent, posing a threat to distort the cultural and civilisational identity of these states.
On the other hand, the amount of cash remitted by the expatriate labour to their countries of origin was $2 billion in 1975 and reached a current $26 billion to add extra burden to gcc state budgets.
On the political and security level, most tangible drawbacks include the recent wave of unrest, staged by Asian workers to demand pay increase and calls by certain human rights organisations to grant them political rights in addition to the spread of crime and alien conduct in the host communities.
Out of awareness of these dangers, the gcc states continued their endeavours on individual and common levels to ease the cross-border movement of national labour and limit reliance on expatriate workers without impairing development programmes and plans and according to well-defined policies that include nationalisation of jobs and development of education and training.
All these efforts culminated in the 2007 Doha Declaration of the gcc common market.
The declaration, embodying the Gulf citizenship and translating it into facts on the ground, crowned the Supreme Council's decision, taken during Doha session in 2002 which stipulated equal treatment of gcc citizens and removal of all crippling factors by the end of 2003 with regard to private sector workers and by end of 2005 with regard to the government and social insurance sectors.
The gcc Supreme Council approved in its 25th session, held in 2004 in Manama to extend the social insurance umbrella by each Gulf state to cover its employees working for government and private establishments in other gcc states.
In line with this decision, the gcc labour ministers' council adopted special work plans to ease the movement of gcc workers within the Gulf states and facilitate their recruitment by private companies in the host countries.
These plans are being enforced in cooperation with the council's executive bureau throughout the gcc countries.
On the level of the government sector, the ministerial committee for civil service has issued a number of decisions, nationalising the maximum of jobs in the civil service sector, replacing expatriate labour with the available local and gcc workforce and ceasing to renew contracts for expatriates whenever the gcc alternative is found.
According to a report issued by the gcc secretariat in 2007, all member states are committed to giving priority to gcc workers and could only conclude contracts with expatriates in the absence of gcc alternatives.
© Bahrain Tribune 2008
