Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have been seeking to draw up a mechanism for inter-GCC cooperation to exchange expertise and studies and encourage research in the domain of housing care, two Gulf officials said on Saturday.
Abdullah Rashed al-Kayoumi, the chairman of the fifth meeting of the technical committee at the GCC housing ministries, that began earlier in Kuwait on Saturday, said at a news conference that the meeting was designed to harmonize regulations and rules, adopted by the GCC states in the housing sector. Welfare of the GCC citizens in health, education and housing constitutes the greatest preoccupation for the GCC leaders, he said.
"The housing problem exists in all the Gulf countries and they are dependent on the budgets ... And all the Gulf governments have been seeking to meet the demands by priority," he said.
Walid Ghaleb Toufic, the manager of the department of public utilities in the GCC general secretariat, said at the news conference that the member states started collecting information about the housing care systems in the GCC states.
Toufic said Kuwait was charged with preparing a comparative study of the housing regimes to determine the aspects of similarities and divergence. Participants in the meeting have already discussed activities and mechanisms of the collective work of the past year and activating it next year, he said, adding that an agreement was reached on preparing housing data and promoting the training programs in the housing domain. (Albawaba.com)
