Gulf bloc sees FTA with EU before year-end

Gulf Co-operation Council Secretary-General Abdurrahman Al-Attiyah disclosed that the free trade agreement between the European Union and GCC member-states would be signed before the end of this year. The Gulf bloc’s head had met with senior Spanish officials earlier this month to discuss the preparations for inking the FTA, including King Juan Carlos I and Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. Al-Attiyah said he received confirmation from the Spaniards that Madrid would host the FTA’s signing ceremony before the end of 2008.

UAE owns world’s 10th largest financial surplus

The UAE’s state budget surplus clinched 10th position worldwide in 2007, according to the International monetary Fund. The Gulf state’s balance of payments (BoP) is forecasted to reach US$39.11 billion (AED143.53 billion) in 2008, the IMF projected. The BoP surplus is set to edge up 56 per cent this year to US$60.91 billion (AED223.54 billion).

Dubai: Managing debt

Credit may be tight and could get tighter, but officials and analysts agree that Dubai will be able to ride out the worst of the storm engulfing international financial markets. Though concerns have been raised over the high levels of debt carried by some of Dubai's state-owned institutions, these have been tempered by the existence of a series of fallback options as well as by the underlying strength of the emirate's diverse economy. Confidence in Dubai's banking system was given a boost on October 12 when the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government announced that all deposits in all national banks and interbank lending operations within the country would be guaranteed for a three-year term. The federal government also pledged to inject sufficient liquidity into the financial system, as and when necessary.

NoozzVIEW; Dubai looks behind storm clouds for silver lining

Turbulence in global markets could give Dubai and the UAE opportunities to strengthen is position as a world financial hub, according to the governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre, Dr Omar Bin Sulaiman. His shrewd analysis, offered to an international financial conference in London, recognises that the sophisticated financial facilities offered by Dubai could attract substantial amounts of capital from other more troubled markets. “As well as presenting challenges, the effects of the global financial crisis will potentially open up opportunities that were unthinkable only a few months or even weeks ago,” he said.

Saudi Arabia: Weathering the storm

As investors and stakeholders continue to closely follow developments in financial markets around the world, economies within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and in particular Saudi Arabia, are starting to feel the effects of the global financial turmoil. One sector that is on everyone's mind is project finance. It is estimated that over US$260 billion worth of projects are currently underway in the Kingdom. Many are being financed by major financial institutions, both local and international. The Finance Ministry has made reassurances that the projects will not be affected by the turmoil, stating they would continue to be funded by reserves and oil receipts, and adding that the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has the ability to meet the Kingdom's liquidity requirements.

US$10bn liquidity boost for Saudi-UAE banks

Saudi Arabia and the UAE poured up to US$10 billion into their banking systems to boost liquidity as Gulf policymakers prepared yesterday to discuss a joint response to the global crisis. The Saudi central bank made deposits worth up to US$3 billion with banks struggling to cope with the turmoil while the UAE Ministry of Finance funnelled AED25 billion (US$6.8 billion) into the system as part of a AED70 billion rescue facility. States across the world's biggest oil-exporting region are trying to cope with the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, which threatens to put the brakes on a regional economic boom.

Japanese firms in Dubai to set up chamber of commerce

Japanese companies operating in Dubai are preparing to set up a chamber of commerce and industry to promote the exchange of information, officials of the Japan External Trade Organization said. The first Japanese chamber in the Middle East will begin operating after winning approval from the local authority possibly at the end of October, they said. A group of 30 companies established an organising committee at the end of August and applied to the authority for approval in September.

Iraq economy: Bypassing politics

The launch of the country’s first post-war oil licensing round is evidence of a government increasingly determined to press on with economic development, against the political and bureaucratic odds. When it emerged in a report by the US Government Accountability Office in August that Iraq had amassed a budget surplus in 2005-07 of some US$29 billion, while the American administration had disbursed some US$48 billion towards reconstruction since the 2003 invasion, there was predictable outrage among certain congressmen—calling for the Iraqi government to deploy more of its own revenues towards capital spending. However, the problem is less a desire on the part of the Iraqis to sponge off hard-pressed US taxpayers rather than an investment programme hampered at every point by political infighting and labyrinthine bureaucratic processes. Yet, in economics as in security, Iraqi politicians are eager to wrest back control of their own destiny.

Dubai unveils US$100m Ethiopia plans

Dubai will invest about US$100 million in several Ethiopian economic sectors beginning in October, a visiting group of financiers said. Sultan Ahmed Ben Sulayem, head of the Dubai World delegation, said the Dubai government firm would invest in mining, trade, agriculture, real estate and catering. ""A team of experts from Dubai is in the process of finalising agreements with the government,"" he told state-run Ethiopian television.

News Analysis: World risk map to be redrawn

Once the dust settles on the US and European economies after the devastating economic storm of the last month, the world will never again look quite the same. The assumed superiority and invulnerability of the Western economies will no longer be an assumption underpinning corporate and country credit ratings. The World Economic Forum predicts that global growth forecasts will reflect a shift of economic power to high growth and highly populated areas and highly populated economies and wealthy oil-producing nations.

Iraq: Battle for business begins

A fall in the number of attacks across Iraq has emboldened a growing list of companies, including ArcelorMittal, Royal Dutch Shell and Cairn Energy, to explore opportunities in the resources-rich country for the first time since the invasion. Southern Iraq, where British forces have been based since 2003, is an area of particular interest, sitting on one of the world’s biggest oil and gas reserves. It also has a strong industrial and agricultural base and the country’s only port. Michael Wareing, co-chairman of the Basra Development Commission, a body set up with help from Britain’s Department for International Development to encourage investment in Basra, said that foreign interest had surged since an Iraqi-led offensive in the spring to wrest control of the city and its surrounding province from Shia militiamen.