JEDDAH: GCC Chambers of Commerce Union today reiterated its call to activate the European Free Trade Association (EFAT) agreement among GCC member states and Switzerland, encouraging Swiss companies.
The agreement aims to build joint projects with the GCC companies in the fields of industry, tourism, agriculture, banking services and technology.
This came in a speech delivered by the Secretary General of the GCC Chambers Union Abduraheem Hassan Naqi before the Gulf-Swiss Forum held in Geneva.
He lauded the GCC union's proposal to launch a number of joint GCC-Swiss funds for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises.
Naqi also highlighted that the woman in the GCC countries played an important role at the economic level.
Regarding the difficulties facing the trade exchanges between the GCC countries on one hand and Switzerland on the other, Naqi said the issuance of visas for GCC citizens is facing obstacles, calling for alleviating the measures imposed by the EU embassies in this concern.
Earlier Wednesday, the GCC Secretary General Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani and the accompanying delegation met in the city of Bern, Switzerland, with Swiss Foreign Minister Dede Burkhalter who is also Member of the Swiss Federal Council on the sidelines of the current event.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed aspects of common cooperation between the GCC member states and the Federal Federation of Switzerland and ways of enhancing them in all fields and reviewed the regional and international issues of mutual concern. (QNA)
