General of the Council of Saudi Chambers considered the Gulf-African Investment Conference 2010 as an opportunity to build long-term business and agricultural partnerships, stressing the importance of the Gulf-African cooperation in the fields of economic integration, benefiting from comparative advantages in both sides, and the need to explore attractive investment opportunities that are viable for development in various fields. "African states are a suitable destination for Gulf investments, given the geographical proximity, and competitive advantages, which is a tool for integration rather than economic competition, and that this direction is compliant with the policies of the GCC countries, which aim to diversify investments, and search for new secure markets that are scalable for growth and expansion, especially that the African continent contains many minerals and natural resources that are important for modern industry, and it also has large arable lands. African countries are a promising market for Gulf products, especially petrochemicals and other intermediate and transformational industries". Al-Sultan predicted that the conference will strengthen the growing multi-faceted economic ties between the Gulf countries and Sub-Saharan African countries, and push it forward, and that it will also move institutional relations to broader horizons, and focus on identifying various investment opportunities in accordance with the strategies required to convert initial plans into actions and concrete projects. "One of the major challenges facing projects is poor infrastructure. That is why; among the first participants in the conference will be the construction sector in all the Gulf States, in order to carry out infrastructure work in these countries." --MORE
