All Countries and All Sectors

With efforts to accelerate the pace of economic growth and boost domestic employment taking centre stage under the new government of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit, a new law is under discussion that would focus state incentives more squarely on investments that add value, create jobs and make use of local resources.

Oman is pushing ahead with plans to deploy a nation-wide rail network, with this excepted to boost the economy by expanding logistics capacity and linking up the Sultanate’s ports and production centres.

Investment in a range of property, from low-cost housing to top-end resorts, is driving Sabah’s construction and real estate sector, while labour reforms may be set to keep costs for contractors down. Some 20,000 affordable housing units will be built in Sabah over the next five years under a new partnership formed between the Sabah Housing and Town Development Authority (SHTDA) and Malaysia’s Probil Sonati Development, local press reported on February 8.

As it negotiates a new phase in exploration and production, Malaysia’s hydrocarbons industry received heartening news recently. Indeed, a large discovery mid-February off the shores of eastern Sarawak should help to temporarily halt the nation’s slow declining oil and gas output, dovetailing nicely with moves to boost exploration and production from marginal and deep-water prospects.

With the economy likely to post another year of strong growth in 2011, and a positive and stable outlook beyond, the Indonesian property sector, according to analysts, looks set to continue its steady advance.

Brunei Darussalam’s Islamic financial sector is set to expand in the coming years, following a series of advances that will strengthen its operational and regulatory base and bridge some of the gaps that have restricted the development of new products and services.