Dr. Abdulaziz Sager participated at the Conference titled “The Arab Spring One Year After: Challenges, Prospects and Strategies for Change”, organized by the European Policy Center at Brussels on the 29th-30th of March 2012 and chaired the session on ” Economic Performance: Managing the Transformation to Open and Fair Market Economies”.

GRC Chairman Dr. Abdulaziz Sager participated in a panel discussion at the JEF in Jeddah on Sunday 4 March 2012. Dr. Sager tried to analyze the necessary steps to achieve further integration between GCC countries and play a more effective role within the political and economical international arena. he said that the success of the Gulf Cooperation Council experience is beyond doubt, however there is still room for improvement in many areas. He elaborated while answering a question from the audience that four factors also contributed to the creation of the GCC federation: The delay in implementing the previously agreed GCC rules, the economic differences among the GCC countries, and the strong ties linking families ruling these states. The federation, he said, is still facing challenges that will be discussed and modified. Answering a question whether China, the world’s second biggest economy, is looking to become a world political power, he said: “China has domestic issues that it needs to tackle. It’s still not ready to take this step.