All Countries and All Sectors

The completion of a sizeable local tower project, continuing expansion of the country’s largest mall and moves by a major Kuwaiti retail firm into the UK market have underlined the rising growth and confidence in the domestic retail sector. This confidence is being seen in new investment and projects, with Kuwait’s largest mall and shopping centre, The Avenues, building a $500m extension scheduled for completion by September 2012.

The four largest banks in Abu Dhabi reported an increase in annual profits for 2011 and, in two cases, have substantially exceeded analysts’ expectations. Meanwhile, lending in the UAE overall was up in 2011 and is expected to continue through 2012, with growth being driven in part by retail banking, including loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

With two new cement plants coming online within the past few months, Nigeria’s cement production capacity has increased substantially. This expansion should mean the domestic production will not only be able to meet the demands of the local market – which has been subject to significant price volatility in recent years – but also export to regional economies.

With an increase in both government and private sector spending as a series of new infrastructure, tourism and social services projects are rolled out, Oman’s construction sector is set to experience robust growth in the coming years. The sheer scale of the building programme, however, could test the capacity of the industry.

In late February, the Philippine’s Department of Energy announced it was forging ahead with plans to offer 15 offshore territories to foreign investors for oil and gas exploration. The secretary of energy, Jose Almendras, said the government hoped to award contracts to the winning bidders this month, underscoring the government’s desire for work to begin as soon as possible.

Ahora que el gobierno del Perú ha aprobado una ley para establecer un nuevo Ministerio de Desarrollo e Inclusión Social y un mayor gasto público en salud y educación en el presupuesto nacional para 2012, la siguiente tarea del gobierno es continuar con la segunda fase de su promesa electoral: obtener resultados tangibles.