An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report said that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has witnessed a significant increase in trade with Asian countries, the Qatar-based daily Peninsula reported on Monday.

Asia overtook the European Union to become GCC's largest trading partner in 1994. In the following 11 years, the share of Asian nations in total GCC trade rose from 23 percent to 32 percent.

The bulk of this shift is accounted for by China's booming economy, said the report.

GCC-China trade jumped from 1.9 percent of total GCC trade in 1994 to 6.3 percent in 2005. There has also been a significant jump in GCC-China investment which lacks specific data due to unquantifiable bilateral business activities.

Meanwhile, GCC producers are working on a number of oil refineries in Asia, while Asian firms have been successful in bidding for large-scale projects in the GCC owning to their low- cost but relatively high-skilled labor force.

According to the report, Asian consumer goods are becoming increasingly prominent in the GCC region and lower cost of such goods has helped to keep imported inflation under control.

The GCC, comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, was established in 1981 to boost cooperation and integration among its member states.

Source: Xinhua