All Countries and All Sectors

Should the Gulf of Hormuz be closed to shipping, Saudi Arabia has proposed that the Kingdom’s Red Sea ports could be utilised for freight trans-shipment. The recent rise in tension in the Gulf region is a result of Iran making a series of thinly veiled threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation to a US-led tightening of sanctions against Tehran, including halting the country’s oil exports.

Alors que les travaux de l’autoroute est-ouest algérienne touchent à leur fin, le gouvernement porte désormais son attention sur la phase suivante du programme initié pour renforcer les infrastructures de transport nationales : l’amélioration des réseaux routiers urbains et provinciaux dans l’ensemble du pays afin de réduire les encombrements et améliorer les services de distribution aux utilisateurs finaux.

The country’s banks are turning to the international bond market to bolster their cash reserves, which are likely to be needed to help fund the country’s massive infrastructure programme over the coming decade.

Encouraged by the rapid development of its nascent oil sector – which began production in record time and helped push GDP growth up to 13.6% in 2011 – Ghana is hoping to cash in equally as quickly on its natural gas reserves but is still navigating the sizeable infrastructural hurdles that need to be overcome in the short term.

The launch of an RM3bn ($984.15m) mixed-use development in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, earlier this year is expected to provide a boost to the Malaysian state’s dynamic construction sector.

Momentum generated by a strong recovery in Kuwait’s real estate sector in early 2012 is expected to continue throughout the year. In February 2012, the National Bank of Kuwait revealed that real estate sales in January totalled KD318.1m ($1.14bn), a 64% year-on-year (y-o-y) increase, which represents the third-best level on record.