Page 90 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

74 Dubai & Co.

TABLE 3.1
Freedom % for Selected Countries around the World—cont’d

Country Freedom %
UAE 60.4
Saudi Arabia 59.1
India 55.6
China 54.0
Russia 54.0

The average rating for the GCC countries was higher than for
any of the celebrated BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) emerg-
ing markets. Half the GCC states—Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait—
scored better than Italy’s 63.4. While multinationals rush to build
their franchises in India and China, few executives realize that these
markets are actually less free from a business perspective than those
of the GCC states.

International Trade

The pride of the GCC countries’ economies is their long history of
international trade. Indeed, their circumstances have demanded
such a role. The harsh terrain of the region, with very limited agri-
cultural resources, has compelled the people of the Gulf to trade
fish, pearls, dates, and other goods in order to procure the broader
range of goods available in the outside world. Being situated at the
crossroads of Africa and the Levant (with waterways leading to
South Asia) enabled the traders of the Gulf to create value as
middlemen, brokers, and transporters of goods from one region to
another. Even the Qur’an makes reference to the caravans
of the winter and summer trading seasons—including caravans
carrying goods to Yemen and to the Levant. Two powerful trading
civilizations of the Gulf in times past were Yemen and Oman, and
both have a deep sense of this cultural heritage. Today, however,
Yemen is a marginalized economy, left behind due to a relative lack
of natural resources and a modern history of political division as
the GCC member states have propelled themselves forward.