All Countries and All Sectors

These have been busy times recently in Turkey's energy industry, with news of a major privatisation coming alongside reports of new oil exploration in the Black Sea. Meanwhile, the ongoing dispute over use of the Bosphorus by oil tankers flared into life again, with accusations and denials flying over alleged unnecessary closure of the straits by the Turkish authorities.

Despite the recent focus on major gas deals, Qatar is also still trying to put itself on the map in sectors that require a more human kind of energy with the Doha Asian Games. Scheduled for 2006, preparations for this athletics tournament have placed a series of construction projects centre stage, all of which aim to make the small Gulf emirate a regional business and tourism hub.

At the heart of contemporary Bulgarian politics lies an intriguing paradox: while international observers are quick to praise the country's "healthy and positive" macroeconomic indicators, the population at large is still anxiously waiting to see the benefits of their nation's difficult transition towards a market-led economy.

Qatari officials made use of the second US-Islamic World Forum, held in Doha January 13-15, as a stage to express moderate Arab concerns about US foreign policy, particularly with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

With a batch of positive figures rolling in as December closed, Turkey's economy looked to be in good shape as the year 2004 began. Meanwhile, as the stock market broke its historic high, analysts seemed confident that any potential knocks in the months ahead would not do too much harm. The questions now are how to sustain this momentum - and how deep this recovery is really going.

Although Qatar played host to the World Petroleum Congress earlier this month, more attention has been focused recently on the country's expanding gas industry.