For more than 50 years, the World Bank has been a major partner to the Gulf Cooperation Council members. Through technical assistance initiatives, the governments of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have harnessed the Bank’s global knowledge and development experience.
Long-term vision, development planning, and the management of sustainable macroeconomic and fiscal policies are currently the Bank’s most important programmes. Reforming the business environment, encouraging investment through support for talent development, and cultivating a vibrant and entrepreneurial small company sector are among them. Giving advice on health, education, and social protection systems, as well as developing programmes to address climate change and gender, urban development and economic management, trade and competitiveness, governance, transportation, energy, land management, and digital development, are all important.
Supporting this type of development in GCC countries has added to the Bank’s worldwide experience in tackling difficulties in high- and middle-income countries while also assisting it in delivering global public goods. Supporting women’s economic empowerment, particularly efforts to equalise the conditions for economic inclusion, has had far-reaching consequences across the region.
In order to finance development projects, the World Bank Group collaborates with the GCC and its institutions. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the Bank provides finance to GCC-based private sector enterprises looking to expand their operations, while the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) provides guarantees, particularly for renewable energy and climate change initiatives
