GCC finance chiefs on Wednesday approved proposals to set up a monetary council and a charter for a monetary union, the Arab bloc's secretary general said. Finance and economy ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council approved the monetary union charter and the council's bylaws said GCC Secretary General Abdurrahman Al-Atiyyah. The endorsement of the proposals constitutes a major step toward adopting a single currency, Atiyyah said. The monetary council, agreed in principle by GCC central bank governors in 2006, would be the forerunner for a GCC central bank, which will issue the single currency. The decisions taken by the ministers on Wednesday will be referred to as recommendations to GCC heads of state when they hold their annual summit in Oman later this year, Atiyyah said. They must be approved by the heads of state before they come in force. Atiyyah said the ministers had decided to defer a decision on the location of the monetary council until they discuss the issue with Gulf foreign ministers on October 26. The GCC has set a 2010 target date for a single currency. The Saudi delegation to the meeting was led by Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Saud Al-Thani, governor of the Qatari Central Bank, chaired a meeting of governors of GCC central banks and the director general of the International Monetary Fund. He said there were no obstacles to setting a unified Gulf currency. The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
