Dubai – Three tendencies should guide the economies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in coming years: energy efficiency, sustainable use of water resources and job generation. This is the evaluation of Edmond O’Sullivan, the president at MEED, a company in the media and market research area that is specialized in the region, who participated on Tuesday (26) in a breakfast with businessmen, organized by the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.
"The company that contemplates these three tendencies in its [business] proposal will have a great advantage,” said Sullivan to ANBA. The event took place in the sidelines of Gulfood, a food sector fair that is taking place in the emirate and brought together Brazilian businessmen and importers. “There is a transformation process in progress in the region,” he pointed out. The GCC is made up of Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.
In the pillar of energy efficiency, local governments want to reduce their consumption of oil and gas, especially for generation of electricity. The demand is on the upswing, but countries plan to turn less fuel to the domestic market and more to the foreign market.
That is where the interest in technologies and products for more economic generation, transmission and consumption comes. Without solutions, the result will be a great hike in energy prices. "Furthermore, they want to leave the position of greatest greenhouse gas issuers, and even to become the lowest issuers,” added Sullivan.
In water, all you have to do is look out the window and see that water is much lacking in the Arabian Peninsula, covered by deserts. “Arabia is very poor in water. It almost doesn’t rain. Governments are greatly seeking efficiency,” said the executive.
This involves not just the more advanced distribution systems, but also awareness in consumption and better use of industrial water resources. "If we look at the food industry, it will be under pressure to become more efficient,” he said. "The technology developed in this sense (for economizing water) may be very well received,” he stressed.
This has a great impact on agricultural production, which is not being stimulated in the region, to make water available for human consumption, promoting incentives for imports and investment in production in other countries.
One of the food sector companies that invests abroad and imports significant volumes is Al Ghurair Resources, the grain division of the conglomerate that goes by the same name and is headquartered in the Emirates. The company president, Essa Abdullah Al Ghurair, is concerned with food safety, condemning food waste, and defending that local businessmen guarantee local supply through agricultural investment in other countries.
"I would say that our area of operation ranges from Malaysia to Morocco,” said the businessman, in an interview at the group stand at Gulfood. The company has agricultural investment in Algeria and Malaysia, in the former, in grain storage and in the latter in the plantation of palm trees for production of oil. "Agriculture is a key sector,” he said.
How about outside Asia and Africa? According to the executive, the company strategy consists in concentrating its strength in some regions, not to pulverize. "But my cousin, Jamal Al Ghurair, has investment in Brazil, in the area of sugar,” he said.
Although it does not invest, Ghurair imports much soy, soy chaff, maize and even some wheat from Brazil. According to Ghurair, the company’s commodity area has a turnover of 6 million dirham (US$ 1.6 billion) a year.
Jobs
Some countries in the region, specially Saudi Arabia, have high unemployment among the native population, which results in governments prioritising job generation. In Saudi Arabia, for example, there is a “Saudisation” policy of employment and companies that do not reach certain labour quotas may lose benefits.
While pointing out the search for efficiency, Sullivan adds that oil exports, diversification of the economy and population growth are great inducers of the strong economic growth of the GCC in recent years.
*Translated by Mark Ament
