The Middle East

Ranked as one of the world’s leading destinations for retail investment, Saudi Arabia is in many respects unrivalled in the Gulf. With a young and rapidly growing consumer base of some 29m people, the Kingdom is the obvious point of entry for retailers looking to start branching out into other promising markets in the wider...

Petrochemicals and plastics remain at the vanguard of Saudi Arabia’s push to diversify its economy away from reliance on oil. Products in these segments make up the bulk of the Kingdom’s non-oil exports, with petrochemicals accounting for nearly 37% and plastics around 30%, according to figures from the Central Department for...

As growth in pharmaceuticals demand is flagging across much of the developed world, international players are casting about for new lands of opportunity. Saudi Arabia is likely to attract considerable attention. While the Kingdom’s market is not growing at the rates seen in countries such as China, India and Brazil, it has been...

Accounting for just under 30% of real GDP and providing 80-90% of state revenue, the oil and gas sector has been the dominant force behind Saudi Arabia’s economy for decades. Seeking to cement its position as a front-runner in the global market, the government has continued to invest heavily over the last decade to boost...

Traditionally viewed as a means to exploit technically challenging, marginal and maturing oil and gas reservoirs during periods when energy prices are high enough to offset greater production costs, the development of unconventional hydrocarbon sources has flourished around the world over the past decade from Southeast Asia to...

The government is committing vast resources to transportation infrastructure in many regions around the Kingdom. Jeddah is perhaps seeing the benefits of this spending more than anywhere else: alongside multiphase expansion plans for the international airport and Jeddah Islamic Port, Jeddah’s land transportation is witnessing...