A spate of new announcements from international oil companies suggests Egypt’s mature oil and gas sector remains formidable.

Despite significant political and economic problems in Egypt and falling crude production levels, the country’s oil and gas sector remains attractive to international companies. READ MORE HERE

Human Rights Watch reports, by their very nature, never present a rosy outlook as they are given to highlighting the atrocities of governments and the lack of dignity and freedom they present to millions of their hapless citizens across the world.

And so its 2012 World Report is no exception. Paying special emphasis to Arab Spring, the report grimly notes that while the revolutions that broke out across the region euphoric, there is nothing inevitable about transitions to democracy. READ MORE HERE

Love My Tours /Foter

Close to 500 new hotels - or 496 to be exact - are being built in the Middle East Africa region, according to STR Global, the hospitality consultancy.

These hotels will feature 133,438 rooms, according to the consultancy, with Dubai leading the way with 13,349 rooms under construction. READ MORE HERE

Riyadh and Jeddah had a stellar 2010-2011, clocking the second and third highest growth rates in the world according to The Brookings Institution’s 2011 Global MetroMonitor.

Their performance was only bettered by the Chinese economic engine Shanghai, which saw its income rise nearly 10% during the 2010-11 period. READ MORE HERE

enggul /Foter

January 15, 2012

Egypt is now among the ten riskiest sovereigns in the world, according to the latest report from CMA Datavision. In other words, Egypt is among the nations most likely to default on its debt.

While that does not necessarily mean that Egypt will default, its spread has risen as investors are nervous that the country could default. READ MORE HERE

Excerpt from Citibank report:

In October this year, $16.9bn of projects were awarded across MENA. On a cumulative basis, just over $82bn of projects have been awarded across the region in the year to end October. This compares favourably with FY10 when almost $80bn of projects were awarded. Saudi Arabia is the main driving force accounting for a third of the 2011 total. Iraq accounts for 20%.The UAE has awarded almost $14bn in the year to end October, almost $20bn below FY10.
Read More

By Alon Ben-Meir

Due to a host of common denominators in the Arab world including the lack of traditional liberalism, the tribes’ power, the elites’ control of business, the hold on power by ethnic minorities, the military that cling to power, and the religious divide and Islamic extremism, the Arab Spring could sadly turn into a long and cruel winter. These factors are making the transformation into a more reformist governance, slow, filled with hurdles and punctuated with intense bloodshed. At the same time, each Arab country differs characteristically from one another on other dimensions including: history and culture, demographic composition, the role of the military, resources, and geostrategic situations. This combination of commonality and uniqueness has had, and will continue to have, significant impacts on how the uprising in each Arab country evolves and what kind of political order might eventually emerge.

syrialooks /Foter

Read More

Whether western countries and ME liberals like it or not, Islamic parties have emerged victorious in elections in North African states. Before typecasting and dismissing them, Islamic parties deserve to get a fair chance at leading their people.

The Western world and media are terrified of the rise of Islamic parties in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. READ MORE HERE

Egyptians have achieved a major milestone by holding the first leg of their staggered parliamentary elections, and they can take a moment to rejoice. But they know better than anyone else that the road to fulfilling their destiny is strewn with many more hurdles. READ MORE HERE