During the past week, a meeting of the permanent committee was held for the statistical work of the countries of the Cooperation Council, in which the Information and Electronic Government Authority participated in the representative of the Kingdom, and despite the fact that it was the twelfth meeting of the committee, it was not just a periodic meeting, as it represented a joint station to complete strategic planning and deepening integration in the Gulf information space, and I read from the lines of a message titled that “the Gulf states are heading in a steady pace towards building their information sovereignty.”
In my humble opinion, the most important point in this context is the pursuit of “information independence”, after the region has relied for decades for external indicators and analyzes to assess its reality, which is the dependence that exposes us to strategic risks, as Western indicators may not be always neutral, and may be designed according to agendas that do not necessarily correspond to our interests, and provide a narrative from our region that does not reflect its full reality.
Because of my work in the field of economics and the need of this sector for data and information, I see that this trend is not a technical luxury, but rather a maximum strategy in today’s world, the data is no longer merely deaf numbers, but rather the most valuable origin, and it is the language in which policies are formulated and the fateful decisions are built, and therefore the possession of a unified and integrated Gulf data system means the ability to read reality from the perspective of norms and Gulf circumstances, And the future anticipated by his family, “Al -Adra with his people.”
In a reading of the numbers issued by the statistical center of the Cooperation Council states, we can see the power of our economies for the world, as the Gulf GDP reached 2.2 trillion dollars in 2024, and there are more than 57.6 million people of the citizens of the GCC countries, including approximately 9.6 million students in the study seats (during the year 2023), and the area that mediates the world trade between East and West, and its total commodity exports in 2023 amounted to about 2023 823.1 billion dollars, and the total assets of commercial banks operating 3,527.0 billion dollars in 2024.
Gulf statistics should not be seen with a separate view, because it is in fact a network of interconnected data that allows us to answer many fundamental questions, and the most important answer and conclusion from these data, is that we need to build an independent Gulf database, stemming from our national statistical devices and under the supervision of the Gulf Statistical Center, which provided 83 technical support missions to member states last year, and with what gives us the ability to possess Our own narrative, and a real picture of our achievements and challenges, so that we can build our decisions on the basis of trust and reliability, away from any external effects.
The recent Gulf statistical meeting emphasizes the existence of a coordinated move between the brothers, and that the leaders of the region are fully aware that the data is “future oil” and that information sovereignty is the cornerstone of building sustainable economies and knowledge societies capable of competing globally, and therefore the meeting is not just a technical step, but rather a basis for enabling the Gulf decision, and a solid pillar for a more prosperous future.
