KUWAIT, May 28 (KUNA) — A working paper, submitted by the Arab
Monetary Fund to the conference of heads of GCC finance and budget
committees, showed that 74.9 percent of national income of oil-rich Arab states came from petroleum and gas sales.
The fund”s Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jassem Al-Manna”i stressed that oil income was "essential to economic activity in most GCC states." He added that one of the money-making fields, other than petroleum, was the re-export of some products specifically in the United Arab Emirates and the
transformation industries in Saudi Arabia.
He also cited the financial services and aluminum industry in Bahrain, the liquid gas sector in Oman and Qatar, the tourism sector in Oman, the petrochemical industry and the banking and financial sector in Kuwait.
He made several suggestions to reform the economies of individual GCC states.
He also called for rationalizing state spending and encouraging competition
by the private sector.
He called for lowering income taxes on local and foreign companies, specifically those involved in infrastructure projects.