Launched in 2010, the Emerging Gabon Strategic Plan (Plan Stratégique Gabon Emergent, PSGE) aims to reduce Gabon’s reliance on oil production by 2025 through the development of three sectoral-focused pillars: Green Gabon, which targets timber, agriculture and ecotourism; Industrial Gabon, which emphasises value addition through local processing of raw materials; and Gabon...
While oil has been the driving engine behind Gabon’s economy since independence, the country’s other underground resources have in many ways been equally prominent. The mining sector has traditionally been a major currency earner for Gabon. The country is the world’s fourth-largest producer of manganese, with reserves of 150m tonnes and...
Saudi Arabia’s metals industry is currently going through significant upheaval. While aluminium production has been growing since the first bauxite was successfully mined from the Kingdom’s Al Ba’itha mine in May 2014, steel production has dropped amid declining prices. Nonetheless, with so many large-scale infrastructure projects ongoing in...
Following a decline in global oil prices for more than a year and a half, in December 2015 the Saudi government announced domestic energy prices would rise overnight. On December 29, 2015 the price of petrol rose from SR0.60 ($0.16) per litre to SR0.90 ($0.24) for Octane 95, while 91-grade rose by more than 65%, from SR0.45 ($0.12) to SR0.75...
Saudi Arabia has long been a major investor in its military, with defence outlays representing a significant portion of the national budget. Despite the drop in oil prices since mid-2014, which in the short term is having a noticeable impact on the government’s military spending, defence spending is likely to continue to grow, with multi-...
Saudi Arabia has put in place ambitious plans to raise the value of its mining operations to reach SR260bn ($69.3bn) by 2030. Currently, the direct and indirect contribution of the sector to the Kingdom’s GDP is estimated to be around SR80bn ($21.3bn), with the sector accounting for 265,000 jobs, according to a speech made by Ali Al Naimi,...
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