scholarly journals THE GCC DIPLOMATIC RIFT AND ITS REVERBERATIONS UPON ROMANIAN PRESENCE IN THE REGION

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-123
Author(s):  
Ioana Florina Maglas

By virtue of their economic influence, the Arab States of the Gulf are highly interlinked within the global community. Dimensions of globalization (such as outward looking focus on international trade, openness, growing business opportunities and investment) are shifting their interests to a broad spectrum of partners leading to increased connectivity platforms and links. Apparent deteriorating ties seriously undermines relations among GCC[1] players and adversely affects its functioning. Current dispute, centered on allegations about Qatar’s foreign policy, caused much consternation, in fact, unequivocally conflicted with the interests of other members and escalated tensions. A scheme of prolonged economic isolation for the Gulf state of Qatar presents challenges and opportunities for Romania (particularly in food security initiatives in Qatar), however, in light of inter-regional realignments, a united GCC stance must consequently prevail to promote stability and reinforce its status of regional power in the Arab World, that would develop and maintain a strong bilateral relationship between Romania and the GCC. [1] (Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a political and economic union currently consisting of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates)

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D. Roper ◽  
Lilian A. Barria

This article examines labor and migration in the Gulf and variations in the legal provisions for workers. Since the 1970s, there has been a significant increase in South and Southeast Asian worker migration to the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council or GCC (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates). Over the last four decades, these migrant workers have replaced Arab migrants throughout the Gulf. In order to deal with the massive influx of these workers, Gulf States have instituted a sponsorship system (kafala) which becomes the legal basis for residency and employment. This article analyzes the kafala system used in each Gulf State and explores the factors which account for differences in the structure and legal basis of the sponsor-employee relationship as well as variations in the application of the system to Arab and non-Arab migrant workers. We find that the economy of the GCC country heavily influences the type of kafala system used.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bassam Alfeeli ◽  
Ma’moun Al-Rawashdeh ◽  
Ali Bumajdad ◽  
Haider Al Lawati ◽  
Mohamed Abdelgawad ◽  
...  

AbstractA growing number of initiatives on nanotechnology research, education, and industry have been recently launched by several Arab countries to quickly build scientific capacity and track worldwide developments in nanotechnology. Some countries, namely, the oil-rich countries, have allocated large funds to support these initiatives, which are intended to serve the national interests in energy, water and food supply, medicine, and local industry. The other Arab countries are also pursuing nanotechnology, however, with fewer funds but with more human resources. This study assesses the current status of nanotechnology in the Arab Republic of Egypt, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Kingdom of Morocco, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Republic of Tunisia, State of Kuwait, State of Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study is aimed at having a top-level overview of the status of existing, underdevelopment, and planed educational and research programs relevant to nanotechnology. The overview also includes nanotechnology research focus areas, challenges, and opportunities.


Author(s):  
Abbas Abdelkarim

This paper endeavours to contribute to developing a comprehensive framework of institutional support system in a situation where citizens and citizen-owned SMEs form a minority in their own country. This is significant because it is not confined only to the case study of this Paper, (United Arab Emirates), but is prevalent in all countries of Gulf Cooperation Council. Examining the current situation of Emirati-owned SME reveals many challenges and opportunities.  After developing an empirical framework for SME support and providing analysis of the Emirati SME scene, the paper uses the benchmarking approach (and Singapore has been selected for this purpose), and refers to other relevant literature, to discuss and develop constituents of the proposed support system. It concludes that Emirati SME support system may not be sustainable if not linked to a broader strategy for the development of the country’s entire SME sector. Such a strategy, which the paper has not extended into, remains to be an area for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4107
Author(s):  
Eihab Fathelrahman ◽  
Stephen Davies ◽  
Safdar Muhammad

This research measured the welfare impacts of food trade liberalization in India, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) using the partial equilibrium model—World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS). Macroeconomic settings, domestic policy objectives, and food security indicator data are used to assess the implications of the simulations on food availability and stability. Simulation results for India, Egypt, and Pakistan indicate annual welfare gains (consumer surplus) of 2571, 340, and 25 million USD, respectively, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE have gains of 14 and 17 million USD. Results show that tariff elimination would have wide-ranging welfare impacts across food commodities within these countries. Moreover, reductions for specific commodities directly relevant to food energy and protein availability would have a greater direct impact on the poor. Lowering the highest tariffs on those commodities might raise the real incomes of more than 350 million persons by 7.5% or more and could create shifts in consumption towards more diversified and nutritionally sound diets.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir Srairi

The paper develops a framework to explore the risk disclosure practices of 29 Islamic banks operating in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries over the period of 2013-2016 and examines the potential factors which might be affecting risk disclosure. To analyze the level of risk disclosure, the paper develops a composite index by using the content analysis technique. We also employ OLS technique to examine factors affecting Islamic banks’ risk disclosure. The results indicate a very high difference in risk disclosure between countries. Only two countries, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, have a higher level of risk disclosure. The findings also suggest that reporting on some risk disclosure types especially displaced commercial risk and rate of return risk is very low. The regression results show that Islamic banks with a stronger set of corporate governance mechanisms and an active Shariah board appear to disclose more risk information. Other factors that influence risk disclosure practices of Islamic banks are bank size, leverage, cross-border listings and the level of political and civil regression. The study recommends that Islamic banks have to revise their communication strategies and provide more risk information related to rate of return risk and display commercial risk. In addition, GCC regulators should establish risk disclosure regulations which have to become mandatory for all Islamic banks. To the best of our knowledge, the paper provides the first analysis related to the determinants of corporate risk disclosures of Islamic banks in the Arab Gulf region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Han

: Social media is increasingly used as a platform by medical providers. The positive contribution is also balanced by risks and governed by codes of professionalism by the medical community. The values of medical professionalism include universal tenets and also those unique to the Arab world and the United Arab Emirates. We propose that institutional guidelines and self governance in the medical community is important, as well as further dialogue on this important subject.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 490-498
Author(s):  
Samer Hammoudeh ◽  
Wessam Gadelhaq ◽  
Yahya Hani ◽  
Nadia Omar ◽  
Darine El Dimassi ◽  
...  

AbstractCystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic autosomal recessive disease that involves multiple systems. Both life quality and expectation are affected by the debilitating multi-system involvement of the disease which includes pulmonary, gastrointestinal, reproductive, and endocrine symptoms. Very few studies have covered the epidemiological aspects of the disease among Arab countries. To systematically review the available epidemiological literature on cystic fibrosis in order to describe the epidemiological state of this disease in the Arab world, this review used PubMed to search for relevant articles related to patients with cystic fibrosis, with no restriction on gender or age. Google scholar and the snowballing technique were used to locate further articles. A total of 17 articles met the inclusion criteria for this review. These articles were from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates. The articles scored 1.5–6.5 out of 8 on the quality assessment. The epidemiological data reported varied based on country and type of study. The establishment of CF registries is definitely a priority in the region, as well as the need for more research involving CF patients particularly those involving the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of these patients.


Author(s):  
Fahad M Al-Anezi

Abstract Background Electronic health (e-health) approaches such as telemedicine, mobile health, virtual healthcare and electronic health records are considered to be effective in increasing access to healthcare services, reducing operational costs and improving the quality of healthcare services during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, a pandemic resulting from the spread of a novel coronavirus discovered in December 2019. In this context, the aim of this study was to identify the most important factors influencing decision making on the implementation of e-health in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), which are in the process of digitizing healthcare services. Methods This study reviewed the literature to identify the important factors influencing decision making on e-health. In addition, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted in order to identify the most important criteria to be considered in decision making on e-health. The survey link was forwarded to 978 healthcare practitioners and 42 experts (purposive sampling), from which a final sample of 892 (864 practitioners and 28 experts) was achieved, reflecting a response rate of 87.45%. Results Of the 44 factors identified under seven themes (strategic, quality, management, technology, function characteristics, economic, sociocultural and demographic factors), 22 factors were identified to be the most important criteria. Conclusions Findings from this study suggest that decision making in relation to e-health is a complex process that requires consideration of various factors. It was also found that attention should be paid to sociocultural and demographic factors, which may need to be considered in increasing healthcare access during the COVID-19 outbreak.


1997 ◽  
Vol 171 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Ghubash ◽  
M. T. Abou-Saleh

BackgroundThere have been numerous studies of the prevalence of postpartum depression and its putative risk factors in Western Europe and North America, but very few studies in developing countries including the Arab world.MethodNinety-five women admitted to the New Dubai Hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for childbirth were studied. All subjects were assessed in the postpartum period using clinical and socio-cultural instruments: the Self Report Questionnaire (SRQ) at day 2, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at day 7, and the Present State Examination (PSE) at week 8 ± 2 and week 30 ± 2 after delivery.ResultsThe prevalence rate of psychiatric morbidity was 24.5% by the SRQ, 17.8% by the EPDS, and 15.8% by the PSE. A number of psychosocial factors emerged as putative risk factors for postpartum depression.ConclusionsThe prevalence rates of postpartum psychiatric morbidity and its risk factors in this Arab culture are similar to the results obtained in numerous previous studies in industrialised countries. These findings have implications for the early detection and care of women at risk for postpartum depression.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Sarah G. Alzahrani ◽  
Lauren Copeland

Understanding differences among consumers across varying cultures is of great importance to the success of international retailers. Ignoring the influence of culture and centralized marketing has led to a decline in profits for some international companies. Studying the culture of Middle East countries, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCCC), Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman, is essential before marketing in these countries. Additionally, the GCCC is one of the top 10 luxury markets in the world. Hofstede model of national culture is crucial for GCCC due to the fact culture norms regarding dress and appearance are nationally adopted. A sample of 170 participants from the GCCC was collected using an online questionnaire of 45 items measuring national culture dimensions and need for uniqueness when shopping for luxury goods. It was found that power distance in all GCCC countries was a significant predictor of having a need for uniqueness, as well as indulgence. Power distance had a positive relationship with the need for uniqueness while indulgence had a negative relationship with the need for uniqueness. For other dimensions, findings indicated that long term vs short term orientation, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism were not significant predictors leading to uniqueness. Additionally, the important construct for uniqueness among GCCC consumers is unpopular choice followed by avoiding similarity. Creative choice is less important among the three constructs of uniqueness for GCCC participants. 


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