AACC Infomail No 9/2012

NEWS FROM ARAB COUNTRIES
أخبار اقتصادية من الدول العربية

AACC Infomail No 9/2012
13 March 2012

Dear Members,
Dear Madams and Sirs,
Kindly find enclosed information on projects and news from the Arab countries in English.

 

Construction & Infrastructure

Algeria: Tender for survey on passenger terminal

Algeria’s Ministry of Transport is inviting interested companies to submit their technical and financial tenders for conducting a survey on a new passenger terminal at the airport of Algiers. These tenders are to be submitted by the 14th March 2012. The new terminal should carry ten million passengers per year. Part of the project is also the construction of gates, parking lots and further relevant infrastructure. Some countries in North Africa planned projects for the enlargement of their aviation infrastructure already before the political revolutions one year ago, as for example the enlargement of the international airports in Tripoli and Sabha which are currently postponed. In Egypt, however, renovation works on the passenger terminal of the international airport in Cairo worth 400 million US-Dollars are already running.

 

Jordan: Tender for tourism and housing project

The company Al-Maabar from Abu Dhabi invited construction companies to submit their tenders for the construction of its tourism and housing project “St Regis Amman” by the 19th April 2012. The project consisting of two towers is to be realised at the fifth roundabout square near the city centre and the business district of Amman. In the first tower there will be a five star hotel, whereas the second tower named “The Residences” will be developed for housing units. The total construction area comprises 86.000 square metres and the building area 18.000 square metres. Construction works will be finished by the middle of 2014. The local subsidiary of KEO International Consultants (UAE) is covering the project management. The project will be realised by the “Al-Maabar Abdoun Real Estate Development Company”, a local subsidiary of Al-Maabar.

 

Kuwait: Prequalification for PPP hospital project

The Partnership Technical Bureau (PTB) invited interested companies to prequalify for the Public-Private-Partnership project “New Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Hospital”. Companies are invited to submit their tenders for design, construction, financing and operating the complex by the 3rd May 2012. The planned project is a collaboration of PTB and Kuwait’s Ministry of Health. The new hospital will have 500 beds and should be constructed on a total area of 271.800 square metres. In March 2011 the consulting company PricewaterhauseCoopers (PwC) received the implementation order for the project worth 1.8 million US-Dollars. This project is part of the development programme of the country’s hospital infrastructure imposed by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health. This year in January the local company Alghanim International received the order for enlargement of the Al-Razi hospital which should get further 192 beds.

 

Saudi Arabia: Minster of Health revealing plans for Hail

The Saudi Arabian Minister of Health Mr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah confirmed plans for the construction of 16 new medical centres in the north-western province Hail. The projects comprise a women’s and children’s hospital worth approximately 400 million US-Dollars as well as a hospital with 300 beds in the southwest of Hail. Saudi Arabia with its planned or already running projects in the medicine or health care sector worth in total approximately 15.8 billion US-Dollars is the biggest market in the GCC area. One of the biggest health care projects which will be put out for tender this year is the King Khaled Medical City project in Dammam, worth approximately 1.2 billion US-Dollars. The project will be realised on a total area of approximately 700.000 square metres and comprises the construction of a hospital with 1.500 beds, a housing complex, a research institute and an international training centre.

 

Saudi Arabia: Royal Commission Jubail planning new roads

Currently the Royal Commission Jubail is planning the construction of 122 kilometres of new roads for the industrial cities Jubail and Ras Al-Khair. At the end of February, the technical director of the Royal Commission Mr. Ahmad Hassan presented these plans at the “Saudi Roads & Bridges Forum” organised by MEED. The commission is also working on designing 19 new bridges in Jubail and nine new bridges in Ras Al-Khair.

 

Industry

United Arab Emirates: Emirates Steel planning stage four in Mussafah

Emirates Steel Industry (ESI) is planning the enlargement of its complex in Mussafah (Abu Dhabi) worth one billion US-Dollars. Stage four of the project comprises the construction of a brass rolling mill, a steel melting plant and a slab casting machine. The tender is expected to be announced in July, the contracts should be awarded in the last quarter of the year. Production will probably start at the end of 2015.

 

Oil & Gas

Iraq: For the first time in 30 years: three million barrels oil produced per day

Iraq’s Vice Prime Minister and Oil Minister Mr. Al-Shahristani announced in Baghdad that for the first time in 30 years the Iraq was able to reach a level of more than three million barrels oil produced per day. In 2011 the Iraq produced an average of 2.7 million barrels oil per day. After decades of wars and sanctions the Iraq is now again growing economically. For the revenues from the export of oil are the basis of the Iraqi economy and especially the country’s budget, this news is very important for other Iraqi economic projects too. However the country is not satisfied with the reached level but is planning to produce 12 million barrels oil per day in the coming three years.

 

Tourism

Egypt: Positive expectations for the tourism industry

Egypt is a partner country of this year’s Travel Trade Show named “Internationale Tourismus Börse (ITB)” which took place from the 7th March to the 11th March 2012 in Berlin. At the opening of the 12th German-Arab Tourism Forum of the GHORFA, the Egyptian Tourism Minister Mr. Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour explained that 2011 was a “difficult” year, but pointed out that the expectations for this sector are looking very promising. According to the Tourism Minister Egypt’s tourism sector will grow again. The country on the Nile has the ideal presuppositions and has never neglected its touristic marketing, not even in times of revolution. Egypt which last year welcomed 30 per cent fewer tourists than in 2010 wants to reach the 15 million tourists-level next year.

 

Others

Iraq: Iraq banning foreign security companies from oil fields

According to information from MEED, Iraq’s Ministry of Oil issued a directive prohibiting the work of private security companies on the 12 oil fields across the country which have been developed by international oil companies. All related service contracts are to be cancelled and should be taken over by the Iraqi oil police force which is able to guarantee the necessary protection. There are 31.000 oil police officers. After the American troops left Iraq in 2011 Baghdad started to reduce the work of foreign security companies. At the beginning of February the government presented a draft law with new restrictions to the parliament. Currently 109 security companies with more than 35.000 employees are registered in the Iraq guarding and protecting visitors, employees of foreign companies, diplomats as well as embassies, oil infrastructure and further objects.