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IFP News
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Sep 6 2010 12:00AM
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Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) announced that its landmark $300-million development project, Jordan Gate, based in Amman, is due for completion early 2011 following the signing of a new agreement between Bayan Holding, Jordan Gate Company, Alhamad Company, the construction company responsible for delivering the project and Hektar as a new investor.
“With the signing of the new agreement, the Jordan Gate project is expected to be completed early next year,” GFH said in a statement.
Jordan Gate is the most extensive and significant infrastructure development in Amman. The project consists of two 43-story towers, with one of the towers to be transformed into a hotel to be operated by Hilton Hotels and the other tower to provide offices, multi-purpose lounges and halls for meetings, presentations and conferences. A commercial podium connecting the two towers will host shops, entertainment centers, a food court and other services.
GFH generated the concept of Jordan Gate and worked through Bayan Holding in partnership with the Jordanian government and enterprise authorities to secure the requisite permissions and to bring in the necessary investment and funding for the project.
“Jordan Gate is illustrative of GFH’s ability to create, raise funds, manage and deliver some of the region’s transformational infrastructure projects,” said Essam Janahi, executive chairman of GFH.
“The signing of this agreement is a very positive step in realizing our vision of creating a significant development that will help support the development of the Jordanian economy by providing world leading commercial infrastructure. Jordan Gate is a proven concept from the GFH infrastructure portfolio and we will be targeting to create maximum value for our investors and shareholders from the project.”
“I am pleased to witness this remarkable progress in this landmark project and would like to thank all of the parties involved in making this progress possible,” said Haider Majali, Vice Chairman of the Jordan Gate Company and GFH representative in Bayan Holding.
“Our agreement with Hektar means that we can now continue the development of Jordan Gate as planned, Jordan Gate will transform the commercial capability of the project and its impact on supporting the Jordanian economy and will surely support the initiatives taken by the Jordanian government to develop its foreign investment strategy,” he added.
ARAB NEWS
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Sep 6 2010 12:00AM
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Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) announced that its landmark $300-million development project, Jordan Gate, based in Amman, is due for completion early 2011 following the signing of a new agreement between Bayan Holding, Jordan Gate Company, Alhamad Company, the construction company responsible for delivering the project and Hektar as a new investor.
“With the signing of the new agreement, the Jordan Gate project is expected to be completed early next year,” GFH said in a statement.
Jordan Gate is the most extensive and significant infrastructure development in Amman. The project consists of two 43-story towers, with one of the towers to be transformed into a hotel to be operated by Hilton Hotels and the other tower to provide offices, multi-purpose lounges and halls for meetings, presentations and conferences. A commercial podium connecting the two towers will host shops, entertainment centers, a food court and other services.
GFH generated the concept of Jordan Gate and worked through Bayan Holding in partnership with the Jordanian government and enterprise authorities to secure the requisite permissions and to bring in the necessary investment and funding for the project.
“Jordan Gate is illustrative of GFH’s ability to create, raise funds, manage and deliver some of the region’s transformational infrastructure projects,” said Essam Janahi, executive chairman of GFH.
“The signing of this agreement is a very positive step in realizing our vision of creating a significant development that will help support the development of the Jordanian economy by providing world leading commercial infrastructure. Jordan Gate is a proven concept from the GFH infrastructure portfolio and we will be targeting to create maximum value for our investors and shareholders from the project.”
“I am pleased to witness this remarkable progress in this landmark project and would like to thank all of the parties involved in making this progress possible,” said Haider Majali, Vice Chairman of the Jordan Gate Company and GFH representative in Bayan Holding.
“Our agreement with Hektar means that we can now continue the development of Jordan Gate as planned, Jordan Gate will transform the commercial capability of the project and its impact on supporting the Jordanian economy and will surely support the initiatives taken by the Jordanian government to develop its foreign investment strategy,” he added.
ARAB NEWS
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Sep 1 2010 12:00AM
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Recent statistics released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) indicated that Middle Eastern airlines increased demand by 16.8% in July year-on-year, and by 19.4% over the first seven months of the year.
The July statistic was a little lower than the 18.0% recorded in June, reflecting the global recovery in demand that took place at around this time last year. However, the region still outperformed its global peers by some margin, reflecting the increased levels of long-haul traffic being diverted through Middle East hubs.
In a bid to cater to the increased demand, the Middle East region also added 12.8% capacity in July and 13.2% in the first seven months. IATA warned that the strong recovery witnessed by most regions around the world was now entering a slower phase. Global demand rose by 9.2%, compared to the 11.6% recorded in June. However, July passenger traffic was 3% higher than the pre-crisis levels of early 2008. Elsewhere, Latin American carriers posted 14.2% growth last month, followed by Africa (13.0%), Asia Pacific (10.9%), North America (7.9%) and a still-struggling Europe (6.2%). IATA said that the meteoric growth in freight demand throughout the world would slow in the second half, as inventories are now largely replenished.
However, the Middle East still outperformed every other region apart from Africa, with a 30.1% growth in cargo demand. This figure was significantly higher than the industry average of 22% growth, but lower than the Middle East’s 39.6% rise in June. Africa saw demand rise by 35.2%, followed by North America (27.1%), the huge Asia Pacific market (25.3%), Latin America (also 25.3%) and Europe (12.1%).
According to officials at IATA, the recovery in demand has been faster than anticipated. However, looking forward towards the end of the year, the pace of the recovery would likely slow. The jobless economic recovery is keeping consumer confidence fragile, particularly in North America and Europe. This is affecting leisure markets and cargo traffic. Following the boost of cargo demand from inventory restocking, further growth would be largely determined by consumer spending which remains weak.
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Sep 1 2010 12:00AM
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The volume of Iraqi investments at 59 projects at industrial estates in the Kingdom reached $ 70 million (JD50 million) until the end of June, 2010.
Director General of the Industrial Estates Corporation Amer Majali said during a meeting with an Iraqi delegation representing the Investment Promotion Commission in the Salahiddin Governorate that most of Iraqi investments were in the chemical, plastic, food and packing industries.
“Total investments at the industrial estates until the end of June stood at more than JD1 billion catering for 507 industrial facilities that provided 30,000 job opportunities,” he added.
The delegation hailed role of the corporation in attracting foreign investments and providing services to investors.
(PETRA)
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Aug 30 2010 12:00AM
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Jordan’s tourism revenues in the first seven months this year hit 1.414 billion Jordanian dinars (about 2 billion U.S. dollars), up 26 percent from the same period last year, official figures showed.
The number of visitors during the January-July period rose by 23 percent to reach 4.8 million, compared to 3.9 million in the same period of 2009, according to the figures from Jordan’s Tourism Ministry.
Statistics showed the Arab kingdom received about 2.7 million overnight tourists in the first seven months, compared to about 1. 8 million visitors in the same period of last year.
About 2.1 million same-day tourists visited the country in the first seven months, a 17 percent year-on-year increase.
Tourism revenue is an important part of income of Jordan, which boasts many famous tourist sites, such as the rose-red city of Petra, the dead sea, Mount Nebo, Jerash, Madaba and Wadi Rum.
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Aug 29 2010 12:00AM
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The Syrian government approved plans to issue the country’s third mobile phone license, and will also convert the two existing networks into stand alone networks.
The Cabinet announced that it will launch a bid for a third mobile license in a threephase process that includes initial rehabilitation, investment and technical rehabilitation and the financial auction. The Cabinet also granted initial approval to turn the contracts of the two incumbent operators, MTN Syria and Syriatel, from the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) system into licenses, once the two companies pay their financial obligations to the Treasury, which implies that the two incumbent operators will have to buy out their current BOT agreements. The country is estimated to have about 9.1 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of March 2010, equivalent to a 44% a penetration rate. Syria has been planning to issue a third license since at least 2008.
Source: SANA
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Aug 26 2010 12:00AM
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The Syrian Cabinet has authorized private investments in the building and operating of airports and power generation stations as part of the government’s initiative to create public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects.
The Cabinet issued a decision authorizing the Ministry of Transport to contract directly with private sector companies to build and operate new airports, as well as to develop and operate existing ones. It also issued a decision allowing local, Arab and foreign investors to build and operate new power plants on build, operate and transfer (BOT) terms. The Parliament still needs to ratify a draft law that will legalize private investments in the power sector, as well as another law that will set the framework for public-private partnerships.
Source: Syria Report - Country Risk Weekly Bulletin – Byblos Bank
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Aug 26 2010 12:00AM
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The number of Jordanians who visited Syria in the first half of the year grew “tremendously” compared to the same period of 2009, figures released indicated.
Approximately 963,703 Jordanians visited Syria by land between January and June 2010, a 59 per cent increase compared to the same period of the previous year, when 392,236 visited the neighboring country, the Syria Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.
Jordanians represented the largest nationality of foreign tourists in Syria during the period in question, compared to 216,326 non-Jordanian Arabs, 93,348 non-Arab visitors.
Tourism experts attributed the increase to the cancellation of the departure tax. In October last year, Jordan and Syria agreed to reciprocally exempt their citizens traveling by land between the two countries from departure taxes, effective January 1, 2010.
“The cancellation of the tax encouraged Jordanians to go to Syria for shopping,” Amjad Maslamani, deputy director of the Jordan Society of Tourism and Travel Agents, told The Jordan Times yesterday, noting that most Jordanians go to Syria for “shopping tourism”, not tourism to tour historical sites.
He explained that the majority of those tourists are same-day visitors.
However, the rise in Jordanian tourists to Syria has negatively impacted domestic tourism, according to Maslamani, who revealed that the private sector is developing plans to encourage local tourism by offering Jordanians lower prices to travel within the Kingdom for their holiday.
The SANA report also indicated that Jordanian visitors to Syria increased due to promotion campaigns launched by the Syrian ministry of tourism.
Meanwhile, some 162,703 Syrian visited Jordan in the first six months of 2010, according to Jordan Tourism Board figures.
Jordan Inbound Tour Operators Association President Mohammad Samih said the majority of them came for business.
Jordan Times
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Aug 26 2010 12:00AM
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Jordan’s state-owned National Electric Power Company (Nepco) will launch a tender in September 2010 for its third power plant to be developed by the private sector.
The power plant is expected to generate 600 megawatts of electricity. The plant will be developed in two phases where the first phase is expected to be completed by 2013 and the second phase in the following year.
Source: MEED
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Aug 20 2010 12:00AM
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The Saudi Council of Ministers approved its Ninth Development Plan (NDP) that carries an estimated cost of SAR1,444.6bn, or $385.3bn, over the 2010-14 period.
The NDP aims to enhance citizens’ standard of living and quality of life, upgrade labor force skills, ensure balanced regional development across the country, diversify the production base, and raise the competitiveness of the Saudi economy. The plan emphasizes the need to pursue economic, social, and institutional reforms, including transparency, accountability, and through improving the business environment. The NDP aims to realize average annual real GDP growth of 5.2% during the five-year period, compared with an annual average growth of 3.7% in 2005-09 and 3.1% in 2000-04. It also projects non-oil real GDP to grow by an annual average of 6.6% and foresees a decline in the share of the oil sector in GDP from 30% currently to 19.6% in 2014. Further, it expects gross fixed capital formation to grow by10.4% annually for the next five years, as well as a rise in net exports and a moderate growth in consumption, which would help increase average per capita GDP at constant prices by 15% to approximately SAR53,200 in 2014. The NDP budgets an average yearly spending of SAR289bn, representing a rise of 67% from a yearly average OF SAR173bn i 2005-09. It said most of the prospective funding will be concentrated in the social sectors, in line with the government’s plan to expand and improve the quality of education and health services across the country. The financing requirements of the three major development sectors, human resources, social and health development, and economic resources, are set to increase by 111%, 135%, and 221%, respectively. The three sectors represent 85% of the planned allocation.
Source: Barclays Capital – Byblos Bank
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