The 4th GCC youth festival of literature and art and the 18th Omani Youth Literary Forum and Art and Literature Festival got underway today in Oman. Director of Arts, Heritage and Culture Ministry Salim bin Juma al-Bahlooli said in his speech that what distinguishes this gathering that it embraces two cultural events: the first one is the 4th GCC youth festival of literature and art which is organized within the Gulf common events package supervised by the Youth Commission of the GCC Secretariat General. The second event is 18th Omani Youth Literary Forum which is one of the most important literary stations on the cultural scene in the Sultanate. Walid al-Farhan delivered the GCC General Secretariat\'s word in which he said that Gulf youth events and activities are the main incubators that provide the opportunity to achieve the lofty goals of Their Majesties and Highnesses the GCC leaders aim at reunion and collaboration at all levels. Poets and short story writers participate in literary forum\'s contests which last until Sept 26th. Selected texts will compete for four awards in each area. Meanwhile, the GCC Art and Literature Festival Commission held its meeting on the sidelines of the opening ceremony. According to Oman News Agency, the meeting discussed a number of aspects related to the Festival, including a discussion of forum agenda, mechanism to integrate the forum with the literature and art festival, participation of delegations, works presented by participants and views of delegations\' heads and setting up a future mechanism for such events and how to deal with them.