RIYADH – The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) announced that the volume of trade exchange between Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states reached a total of SR239 billion. This is during the period between January 2020 and September 2021, according to the latest report of the authority. The total volume of exports between the Kingdom and the five GCC states including the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Qatar during the period amounted to SR140 billion while the total imports accounted for SR99 billion. The GASTAT report comes at the time of the high-profile visit of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, to the GCC states. He arrived in Qatar on Wednesday on the third leg of his current GCC tour. The landmark visit is tipped to be a major milestone in the development march of the six Gulf states, as well as in accelerating the pace of economic integration among these countries in a way realizing the well-being and welfare of their peoples. The Crown Prince’s Gulf tour is also expected to further strengthen bilateral economic and commercial cooperation among the GCC countries. This is through stimulating both the government and private sectors to enhance qualitative trade and investment exchanges and bilateral partnerships. Several pacts are also being concluded between Saudi Arabia and these states on the sidelines of the visit that would contribute to further increasing joint investments and trade exchanges between the GCC states.