The Middle East

With the highly competitive Kuwaiti telecoms market becoming increasingly saturated, the country’s three mobile operators are jostling for position. Central to all of their strategies is a greater focus on mobile data services.

The Omani government is moving forward with plans to raise prices for natural gas in an effort to recalibrate the supply-and-demand equation, with local demand for the feedstock rising rapidly on the back of industrial expansion and domestic supplies limited.

Saudi Arabia is stepping up its commitment to education and providing increasing opportunities for private investors in an effort to reduce the Kingdom’s unemployment rates and its reliance on imported workers.

Amidst a slowdown in the Middle East’s private equity industry, Jordan’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are set to get a boost from a new private equity fund.

Dubai has cleared the way for private investors to enter the emirate’s public transport sector, having laid the foundations for a partial privatisation of some operations in the state’s growing rail, road and waterborne networks.

At the high-profile Black Sea Energy and Economy Forum, Turkey’s top leadership expressed strong rhetorical support for the Nabucco gas pipeline project, while reminding Europe that the country plays the key role in Nabucco’s success and implying that more serious consideration needs to be given to its EU membership bid.