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Gulf States: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 16:41, 20 December 2012
by Paul Bacsich, Sero
Partners and Experts in Gulf States
- Charlie Watt
Gulf States in a nutshell
The Gulf States is a convenient short name for the Arab states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, though all bordering the Persian Gulf, we regard as best treated separately.
Together with Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States are members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, and are often called the Gulf Cooperative Countries'.
Not all of the countries neighboring the Persian Gulf are members of that council. Iran is excluded, as is Iraq, although both nations have a coastline on the Persian Gulf. Yemen is in negotiations for GCC membership, and hopes to join by 2016.
A GCC common market was launched on January 1, 2008. The common market grants national treatment to all GCC firms and citizens in any other GCC country, and in doing so removes all barriers to cross country investment and services trade.
All GCC members and Yemen have since joined the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA) when that organization was founded. However, this is unlikely to significantly affect the agenda of the GCC as it has a more aggressive timetable than GAFTA and is seeking greater integration.
The Gulf States share with each other and with Saudi Arabia a regional culture that is sometimes referred to as "khaleeji (gulf) culture". They all speak Gulf Arabic and share similar music styles (sawt, fijiri, ardha, and liwa), cuisine, and dress. Most Arabs living near the Persian Gulf also trace their ancestry back to Arab tribes of either Najd (in what is now central Saudi Arabia) or Yemen. (The culture of Iraq is unique and distinct from the Gulf states, which is why it is not considered a Gulf state.)
All the states are hereditary monarchies with limited political representation. Only Bahrain (Majlis al Watani) and Kuwait (Majlis al Ummah) have legislatures with popularly elected members.
The Sultanate of Oman also has an advisory council (Majlis ash-Shura) that is popularly elected.
In the UAE - a federation of seven monarchical emirates - the Federal National Council functions only as an advisory body, but now a portion of its members are elected from a small electoral college nominated by the seven rulers.
In Qatar, an elected national parliament has been mooted and is written into the new constitution, but elections are yet to be held.
All of the Gulf States have significant revenues from oil and gas and have small local populations. This has raised their per capita incomes above those of neighboring countries. To meet the labour shortages, they host large numbers of temporary non-citizen economic migrants from South Asia and Southeast Asia. In the past there have also been a significant number of immigrants from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Egypt.
In addition, pearl diving and the pearl industry were in the past the main economic activity of many of these countries, particularly Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait.