The International Monetary Fund (IMF) welcomed the launch of a statistical center for countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Oman. In a statement, Deputy Managing Director Min Zhu of the IMF welcomed the initiative, saying the Fund "looks forward to collaborating closely with the regional center across the range of our activities." "The creation of GCC-Stat will undoubtedly contribute to strengthening data collection and dissemination in the GCC countries and enhance cooperation among regional and international institutions in the area of statistics," he affirmed. The statistical center was established on April 8 by the GCC in Muscat as an independent supranational institution dedicated to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of official data on member states for the benefit of decision makers, researchers, and other users. "I would like to congratulate the GCC for establishing this regional statistical center, GCC-Stat," said Louis Marc Ducharme, Director of the IMF's Statistics Department. Ducharme affirmed that "GCC-Stat will make a significant contribution for improving the quality of statistics across its membership, in particular through the harmonized implementation of international standards