MAY 2008

Big Momma and her kids

The barriers between us
Border fences go up

Give peace a Jimmy Carter
Ex-president's efforts for mediation should be welcomed

Libya’s tyro-tourist oasis
Still a long way to go

Europe making neighbors
Expansion policy questioned

So Pacific-ally Lebanese
Deja-vu on far-away island

Uncle Tehran wins again
Ahmadinejad boosted

Heeling the Arab media
Arab League (self-) censorship

Progress, driven to insanity
UAE's traffic crashing

Information technology part of healthcare‘s remedy
IT part of healthcare remedy

Exorcizing propaganda from communication
Exorcizing propaganda from communication

Commodities inflation just taking off on a long flight
Commodities going up

10 trends Defining Private Equity in 2008
10 trends in Private Equity

Prosperity’s anticipation
Land values hold their ground amid economic erosion

An unsure prescription
Rising costs of imported drugs leaves less on pharmacy shelves

Taming the block rock
Sleepy area turned party central pits residents against revelers

Kidsville comes to town
Growth is a retail industry

Crude without a culprit
Oil spill in Northern Lebanon darkens economy of fishing village

Dawn of the new Amman
Shaping growth in the Hashimite capital key to a sustainable future

Ads that don’t add
Little linkage between what people read and where advertisers spend

Dubai’s global runway
Al Maktoum International Airport set to land the title as the world’s largest

A Gulf of Masterpiece
Persian artist and collectors sculpt the UAE’s galleries in their image

Calling from 30,000 ft
In-flight mobile calls, text messaging and emailing are set for take off

Glory to the most high
Feats of engineering wonder reach into the lower atmosphere in GCC

Wheels and deals
Khodro expands low-cost auto-production into Asia, Africa and Europe

Campus goes global
Reversing roles, universities take the classroom to their students

Trade across the Maghreb
A look at the mixed fortunes of North African Economic integration

Harboring commerce
TangierMed set to be the flagship of trade in the Mediterranean

Selling to the free market
Public to private

Woven like a sweater
Specialized threads keep a stitch ahead of Chinese competition

Investment cracks the shell
Behind in the regional FDI game, Tripoli finally takes to the field

Making things mobile
Government spends millions to improve mobile service

Fresh from the sea
H20 purifying technology gathers steam in the GCC

Christopher Gasson
A look at how to quench the thirst of our ever-expanding populations

Lebanon Lebanon Defaulting on staff
Banking sector battles to keep qualified workforce

Secrecy Laws – Hush money
Accounting for the darker side of deposits in Lebanon

IPO Watch – Gulf still soaring
GCC's IPOs fly high, bucking downward US trend

Money Matters by BLOMINVEST Bank

Staking claims in the Middle East
Insurance industry expanding, though as yet an underperformer

What is Takaful? Some Sharia Fundamentals
What is Takaful? Some Sharia Fundamentals

The future of individual life insurance in the Middle East
The future of individual life insurance in the Middle East

Mergers & Acquisitions
Mergers & Acquisitions

Insurance across the region
MENA needs to capitalize on its massive potential

Challenges & Trends
Biggest challenges and concerns to industry growth

The Takaful way
Sharia-compliant Islamic insurance revealing itself upon the market

Packages at a premium
Plenty of insurance companies but still under insured

Insured at the money pot
Banks muscling onto terrain of traditional insurance companies

Business Process Outsourcing
The 21st century trend is changing the insurance industry as we knew it

Assured to insure
Wave of privatization makes Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco’s markets ripe for foreign firms

The ICT era of the MENA
Sector surging forward

Speed-dialing growth
Regional expansion of ICT networks expected to be among fastest on Earth

Dubai Internet City
Dubai Internet City

Banking the “unbankable” guest worker by mobile phone
Banking the “unbankable” guest worker by mobile phone

HP strong performance
Giving back to the community

Windows serving the future
Microsoft’s new 2008 innovation to reshape how we use computers

Chris Braam – Q&A
Vice president of sales for Middle East and North Africa, Nokia

Spinning communication’s web
Region’s telecom growth among world’s fastest

Claude Bassil – Q&A
A chat with mtc touch’s general manager

EFG Hermes Telecom Fund
EFG Hermes Telecom Fund

Tuning a market competitive
Regional regulators roam through strategies for their ICT industries

The partnership for Lebanon
Sustaining post 2006 war initiatives

Marwan Juma – Q&A
Chairman of Information Technology Association of Jordan (int@j)

The evil computers do
Crime now more common on the internet than in the real world

Policing property in the digital world
Policing property in the digital world

Company bulletin

Global economic data
Life insurance premiums; technology balance of payments

Urban Planning – Education next door
The benefits of blending universities into the neighborhood