The Gulf Cooperation Council's countries are focused on looking into alternative and diverse sources of income that could be incorporated into a wider economic policy, which is at present solely reliant on oil expenditure. Their main strategy is based on benefiting from the huge oil revenues by investing in new comprehensive investment projects in various fields, such as industry, various modern technologies, as well as several income-generating projects. At present the reliance on oil stands around 85 percent as an essential source of income, and there are fears that the GDP per capita - which is now $24,000 a year, and $20,400 from oil at an average barrel price of $90 - may result in major fluctuating changes due to the changing political and economic climate in the region. The affects of an economic recession and the recent Arab Spring - which has led to political and social changes in the region, with the resulting fluctuating oil prices - has led many in the region to realize the importance of enhancing the principle of diversification of wealth sources so as to meet the requirements of the GCC economic integration and growth. The attempt to implement new initiatives is accompanied by less reliance on local companies to provide the needs of the oil industry amid expectations of limited growth of small and medium sized enterprise sector which shoulders the biggest burden in the economic growth and the principal factor in the expected diversification of sources of income Omar Al Juraifani, an economic and financial analyst, said there are successful experiences in the Saudi economic arena, such as the experiences of the Investment Authority, yet it needs to activate its work, given the size of what it has added to the national economy, not only increasing the volume of profits achieved. Giant companies should be encouraged to set up industries in the Kingdom by giving them free land and tax holidays in return for the employment of jobless Saudi citizens. “I do not think that we are less able to apply the experience of Japan which attracted American companies and managed to set up its modern industries capitalizing on these companies. We want the Investment Authority to encourage foreign companies to open production lines for them in the Kingdom, not just representation offices. If this does take place, then the Saudi economy will have a very different situation than what exists now,” he further said.
