How important are English communication skills in Gulf zone areas?

yes of cause very important ..... as outsider ... it crosses all launage barriers. image ending up in place where you dont speak arabic , hindi or english.      i belive its  must

It's the basic substrate in work and in dealing with pople in and out foundation,also i think english is very important to get chances of work in gulf,espicially no body can work in gulf zone area without having excellent english 

As English is considered to be a global language, the Gulf countries cannot be excluded, as it is a part of the global culture.  Therefore, it is very important.

The english language is the global language and it is high time for Gulf countries to learn and use English as their second language. It will be beneficial to improve communication in business, technology, education, and others as far as the global market and the economy are concern. English is the only language that other foreigners and expats in the gulf can use to communicate. It is very important to study and learn it to become effective speakers and global communicators of English. 

English language considered to be one of the best used languages in business world. It is widely utilized as well in Gulf zone. This language is an important bridge to different nationalities to communicate.

depending on the line of work, whether it is government or private and also if it is international or local. 

in the government the main language is arabic as most local citizens do not familiarize with english on a daily basis as such most letters, orders or paper work is done in arabic. 

in private companies for example engineering and sales companies, they extremely require english as most private companies work with international companies be it for materials or equipment or what so ever so they tend to base the work force atmosphere in english. As a result within private companies locally they also tend to communicate in english even when the employees in both companies are arabs. 

finally theres the sales representatives, in this line of work its preferable to know both arabic and english as on a daily basis you will require to socialize with all types of customers and should be ready.

English may not be the most spoken language in the UAE, but it is the official language in a large number of countries. It is estimated that the number of people in the world that use in English to communicate

It is important as money is important!