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The current chapter proposes a theoretical framework to assess the sustainability of economic growth in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States. The authors integrate insights from endogenous growth models and consider the unique socioeconomic characteristics of the GCC region to provide a comprehensive and tailored approach to understanding the determinants of economic growth and formulating effective policy measures to foster sustainable development and growth. This chapter highlights the environmental challenges faced by GCC; based on this, the authors suggested indicators to construct a theoretical framework (Economic Growth, Climatic Indicators, Energy Indicators, Social Indicators, and Economic Resources Indicators). The authors propose that policymakers and researchers in GCC States should take these factors into account when devising policies or conducting research aimed at fostering sustainable economic growth. Overall, this chapter presents significant insights for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders involved in promoting the sustainable economic advancement of the GCC States.

The elimination of economic impediments and dismantling of trade restrictions have increasingly become a common feature in the economic integration across nations in the world. Many countries in several regions in the world have increased their intra-flows of goods and also inputs. The Arab region has experienced an increase in their labour flows, in particular during the period of oil boom. Consequently, the remittances among the Arab countries registered a steady increase; especially remittances from the Arab Gulf countries (Gulf cooperation council region). Using the panel data fixed effects estimation, the study investigates the relationship between remittances and economic integration in the Arab region covering the period 1983–2003. Despite the rising tide in intra-Arab labour flows, we argue, the harmonisation of economic policies and the removal of further obstacles to intra-labour flows are necessary to give a further fillip to economic integration in the Arab world. Moreover, our work shows that a reduction of the gap between per capita gross domestic products of the Arab countries is important for enhancing Arab economic integration.

From Europe moving forward into Asia, the Silk Road has the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) on the way. These countries alphabetically include: “Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.” While these countries have long been dependent on oil for development, they are currently planning to reduce this dependence and consider innovation as an important mean for future development. This chapter explores the past progress of innovation in the GCC countries; and highlights future directions ahead. In this respect two end countries of the Silk Road, Italy and China, are also considered. The chapter views innovation from the wide angle of the Global Innovation Index, which has 7 main dimensions, consisting of 21 sub-dimensions, which are refined into 81 international indicators. An approach for looking into the current state, the past progress, and the future directions of innovation in the countries concerned is developed and followed using available data. Although the outcome is based on the currently available data, the approach can be re-used for newer data providing continuous benefits to directing future development.

Education reform has increasingly become a top political priority in most countries, as education is thought to be the solution to social and economic challenges. While some of these reforms were successful, others had no impact at all and ended in failure. In the past two decades, Kuwait has continuously attempted to reform its education system, aiming to shift its economy toward a knowledge-based economy by improving the skill sets of its human capital. However, these attempts ended with failure. The aim of this chapter is to provide an explanation of the causes behind the failures by documenting and analyzing the recent reform project, which was launched in 2010 in collaboration with the World Bank. Due to the Ministry of Education’s (MOE’s) lack of official documentation related to the reform process the ethnography approach was used to develop critical documentation of reform process. The ability of educational institutions, including the MOE, to lead and manage educational reform is a crucial factor that affected the sustainability and success of the reform. Consequently, the success of any reform requires the government to prioritize top policies, implements certain social changes, and ensures skilled human capital is incorporated into the educational institutions.

This case study of the State of Qatar examines government educational policy and economic development in Qatar’s strategy to diversify its oil and gas-based economy into knowledge production. Qatar presents a particularly interesting case since its substantial investments in the past decade in education, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), research and development (R&D), and coastal development and tourism are all highly intertwined both in practice and from a national policy perspective. Armed with billions of dollars of sovereign wealth funds (SWF) from its gas and oil industries, the government of Qatar has embarked on both domestic and overseas investment campaigns including education, sports, internet and telecommunications, healthcare, overseas land purchases (food security), cultural institutions and museums, increased desalinated water capacity, and coastal development and tourism projects. Education and research, most notably Qatar Foundation’s Education City, Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), and the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), stand at the heart of Qatar’s investment in human development and long-term economic and social sustainability. Despite large outlays in knowledge economy initiatives, the country, however, is facing significant challenges in rapid population growth, reliance on expatriate labor for its skilled labor needs, an underdeveloped education system, and an undiversified economy which revolves around hydrocarbon rents.

While COVID-19 temporarily created worldwide immobility, the gradual opening up of borders spurred one of the largest return migration episodes ever, and it continues to this day. Disappearing jobs, decreasing wages, inadequate social protection systems and networks, xenophobia, wage theft and overall uncertainty are among the prominent factors that have influenced this movement. Emigrants from the Gulf-India Migration Corridor were particularly affected by these forces and returned en masse, uncertain of their future. When people come back to their home country after living abroad, particularly due to exogenous shocks, it raises concerns about whether their decision to return was truly voluntary, their ability to adjust to being back home and the long-term effects on their reintegration. Additionally, it is uncertain what kind of impact return migrants have on their home country’s development. In this chapter, the authors examine the recent trend of return migration since the outbreak of COVID-19 and how it affects the Gulf-India corridor. The authors also take a closer look at the state of Kerala through a unique survey conducted by the authors and provide possible future scenarios for emigration in this region, along with recommendations for policy.

This chapter aims to explore and examine the extent of Islamic corporate governance practices in 35 Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) in Malaysia, Gulf Cooperation Council countries and the United Kingdom, particularly in its six major areas, namely approaches to Islamic governance, regulatory framework and internal policies, roles and functions of shari’ah board, attributes of shari’ah board members on independence, competency and transparency, and confidentiality, operational procedures and perception of IFIs of the shari’ah board’s performance. A questionnaire was developed by benefiting from the Islamic corporate governance standards identified by International Financial Services Board and Accounting and Auditing Organization for IFIs, which included mainly about 50 standards with sub-sections as questions. The study demonstrates the state of Islamic corporate governance practices in these countries. The survey findings affirm that there are significant differences and diverse Islamic governance practices amongst IFIs in the case countries. The study hence provides evidence that there are shortcomings and weaknesses to the existing governance framework, which needs further enhancement and improvement.

This chapter focuses on the definition of the Arab World. This is followed by a treatise on the meaning and purpose of comparative education. Next, the origin and development of comparative education in the Arab World is discussed. Trends and progress of comparative education in the region receive significant attention and discussion. Finally, the research methodologies and research interests of comparative educationists are examined.