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‘New Diwaniya’, the birth of an Iraqi city
Authorities in Diwaniya, located in Iraq’s Al-Qadisiyah province, announced the start of discussions with various contractors keen to be involved with designing and building a new city in Diwaniya. The new city will cost $1.5 billion and will have a total surface area of 20 square kilometers. The new site will be adjacent to the existing city of Diwaniya, which lies 155 kilometers to the south of Baghdad. The city — which will be called ‘New Diwaniya’ — will involve construction of several thousand new homes, as well as hospitals, shopping malls and sports recreation facilities.
Total pursues Middle East projects amidst losses
The French petrochemical company Total posted $989 million in losses during the last quarter of 2008. Nevertheless, the company stated that it would adapt its petrochemical production to new trends in product demand. At the same time, the company reiterated its commitment to ongoing projects in Jubail refinery in Saudi Arabia and the Qatofin cracker in Qatar. The company’s losses resulted from the devaluation of inventory holdings due to the fall in the value of oil prices as the global recession deepened. On the other hand, Total’s gas production increased by 25 percent in the Middle East in 2008, to 569 million cubic feet a day, in contrast with a total fall of two percent globally to 4.8 billion cubic feet a day. This came as a result of Total’s positive results in its Yemen and Qatar liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects.
Jordan’s investment board to attract FDI
According to figures released by the Jordanian Investment Board (JIB), private sector investment in Jordan increased by five percent in 2008 to $3.2 billion, up by 45 percent from 2007. This comes at a time when the JIB will be launching a new five to seven year strategy to attract foreign direct investments (FDI). The main investment sectors and opportunities are in the agri-food, pharmacuticals, information technology, cosmetics, textile & garments and automotive sectors. The board will be targeting 12 countries for new FDI, including three Arab states: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE. The other countries include China, France, India, Italy, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and Turkey. Of the $3.2 billion in investments, 60 percent went to the industrial sector, 30 percent to tourism projects and the rest was split between various sectors. With few natural resources, Jordan has struggled to compete with other regional countries like Saudi Arabia, which attracted $18.3 billion, Egypt at $10 billion and the UAE $8.4 billion.
