Objectives

A committee composed of their Highnesses and Excellencies Ministers in charge of housing affairs undertakes planning of the joint cooperation efforts in this field. The committee held its first meeting at the premises of the Secretariat in 1983. At that meeting the committee instructed the competent authorities and the joint working groups to undertake the following:

Unification of standards of the construction sector and building materials
Training and exchange of experience
Unification of the methods of classification of standards and the registration and licensing procedures for engineers
Developing housing databases
Maintaining the traditional architectural heritage in designing residential projects
Giving priority in housing projects to the materials classified at the GCC States

Achievements

Over the past years, and in the light of the above, the GCC States have achieved several steps in the field of housing, the most important of which are:

Unification of building and construction standards. A list of 52 building materials has been examined. The GCC Standardization Organization gives priority to the materials available at the GCC States.
In the field of training, the technical education and vocational training institutions as well as the Ministries of Housing are developing mechanisms for joint cooperation and identifying the required skilled labor, particularly in the field of construction, and promoting the training programs at the various education and training institutions with a view to fulfilling the GCC States’ needs of qualified individuals in the field of housing, in general, and nationalization of jobs.
Preparation of program of visits between officials; the Secretariat was instructed to develop a program for visits between the officials, technicians and administrative staff at the concerned authorities and prepare reports on the results of such visits.
Classification of contractors and consulting offices, standardization of the registration and licensing procedures of engineers and consulting offices and developing an acceptable formula that can be submitted to the Ministers for approval.
Connecting the housing databases into the world web and facilitation access thereto. The first phase of the database project has been completed, and a technical team is carrying out its duties according to a specific schedule. The second phase for developing national information databases, which will constitute a comprehensive housing information database for the GCC States, was also approved.


Within the framework of the Arab joint action, events of the 7th Arab Forum will be published in books to be distributed to Arab countries as well as the periodic Statistical Book. The Secretariat has exchanged information with the technical Secretariat of the Council of Arab Ministers of Housing. The Ministers have recommended that the Center for authentication, maintenance and repairing of Jerusalem’s antiques be annexed to the Arab Organization for Culture, Education and Sciences, in addition to the participation in the preparation for the Arab regional Conference on National Housing Strategies and presentation of necessary working papers.