The race to host a central bank for the western Gulf region sees Bahrain and the UAE emerging as the top two candidate nations and, barring any more fanciers, one or the other is likely to be the location of a central financial institution for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). If the organization achieves its 2010 target of monetary union, the choice will probably be either Abu Dhabi or Manama. The two cities are bidding hard.Late entries, however, cannot be ruled out, with Saudi Arabia also tipped to enter the lists. News of this came at a routine meeting of the region’s central bankers in Abu Dhabi at the end of October 2006. During a break at this event, GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman bin Hamad al-Attiyah said that Saudi Arabia had not yet submitted a bid to host the institution, but elsewhere Hamad al-Sayari, the governor of the Saudi Arabian
