UAE IT sector expected to grow to $4.7 billion.

UAE IT sector to grow from USD 3.2 billion in 2009 to USD 4.7 billion in 2013, driving demand for IT expertise

Posted: 04-03-2010 , 09:35 GMT

Dulsco has announced that it has witnessed a significant surge in demand for IT professionals in the UAE, reflecting the excellent growth potential of the IT sector, which according to the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry is expected to grow from USD 3.2 billion in 2009 to around USD 4.7 billion in 2013.

Dulsco believes that the UAE government’s increased focus on attracting global IT firms and its efforts to promote e-governance and provide online services have been key factors in creating exciting employment opportunities in the IT sector. Moreover, the UAE has also been investing in telecommunication and IT infrastructure as well as human resource as part of a strategy to develop the UAE into a premier regional hub for IT, which will help expand the country’s economic base by tapping into a potential market of nearly two billion people in Asia and the Middle East.

Satnam Grover, Senior Manager, Contract Staffing, Dulsco HR Solutions, said: “We believe that the growth of the IT sector in the UAE is dependent on two things: infrastructure development and human resource development. However, expenditure on IT infrastructure has always been one of the priorities of the UAE Government and the private sector, so I believe it is time to focus on recruiting world-class IT expertise.”

“HR will certainly play an important role in the growth and development of the IT industry, which will in turn boost recruitment activities in the IT sector. Dulsco is committed to complement the ongoing trend in the job market by developing customised HR outsourcing and recruitment solutions that cater to the demands of the IT sector. we can provide organisations with IT manpower and knowledge resources without requiring our clients to take long-term staffing commitments, this gives us the competitive edge in the market,” Grover added.

Dulsco’s HR Outsourcing division provides long-term, short-term and temporary staffing options for any office environment, including IT professionals, data entry operators, finance and administration, front and back-office support, counter sales, call-centre agents,. Dulsco also offers payroll management designed to provide Clients an option to outsource their HR department as a process hence allowing them to concentrate on core business activites.

Source: Albawaba

Bangladeshi PM unveils ambitious digitalisation plan.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=128470

Telecoms plan unveiled
Fibre-optic network to connect unions; hospitals, schools to get computers, net facilities

Unb, Dhaka

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday unveiled an ambitious digitisation plan for building Bangladesh as a country fully furnished with modern telecommunications system for faster delivery of services to the people.

Under the mega-scheme ‘Digital Bangladesh: Plan of Connecting People’, all Union Parishads will be linked with fibre-optic network, upazilas will also get Community e-Centre, and hospitals and schools get computer, web-cam and internet.

Already, 100 Union Parishads have been selected for giving fibre-optic cable connections while another 1,000 unions will be bound with the cross-country cable network soon.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of Concept Paper on ‘Digital Bangladesh: Plan of Connecting People’ at a city hotel, the PM urged the country’s scientists, technological experts and engineers to turn Bangladesh self-sufficient in using technologies rather than depending on foreign countries and agencies.

Prime Minister’s son, eminent computer scientist Sajeeb Wazed Joy, presented the theme paper of the function presenting and suggesting the priority tasks to turn Bangladesh into a true digital country.

Pushing a button of a computer, the premier opened the technical part of the agenda, aimed at breaking the digital divide between the advanced world and a developing country like Bangladesh.

Hasina disclosed that Community e-Centre will be set up in all upazilas of the country. Already, five upazilas have got Community e-Centre and 128 upazilas computer labs.

She said in line with government’s commitment to provide quality health services to the mass people, the government will give computers, web-cam and internet facilities to all hospitals of the country.

Besides, e-centre for Rural Community will be set up at 8,500 post offices of the country to ensure proper management of the postal services.

Moreover, the government is making arrangement to provide videoconferencing facility between PM’s office and the cabinet division, deputy commissioners of 64 districts and 7 divisional headquarters.

The government is also constructing necessary infrastructures to set up Hi-tech Park in Gazipur and install country’s own satellite to strengthen local telecommunications system, she informed.

Hasina said it is not possible to implement all the development programmes by the government alone and urged all concerned to help the government turn Bangladesh into a digital, modern country by 2021.

“I strongly hope joint ventures under public-private partnerships will fulfil our dream of building a digital Bangladesh,” she said.

Hasina mentioned that the ICT Policy 2009 has already been approved and the ICT ACT 2009 formulated, which will expedite the country’s ICT industry’s growth and joint efforts of public and private sectors.

The PM said some 1,500 laptops have been distributed to various educational institutions while computer labs equipped with internet facilities will be set up gradually.

“Our children are working successfully in various international institutions. If they are given necessary facilities, they will make tremendous contribution to the effort for turning Bangladesh into a technology-based modern country,” she told.

Post and Telecommunications Ministry arranged the function with its Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju in the chair. International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun I Toure addressed the function as special guest.

Post and Telecommunications Secretary Sunil Kanti Bose and BTRC Chairman Maj Gen (rtd) Zia Ahmed also addressed the function.

UAE awards $20 billion nuclear deal to South Koreans.

Koreans Pounce on UAE Tender

 

By Chris Gadomski, Managing Editor, Nuclear Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance

The United Arab Emirates took a bold step into the nuclear club with a $20 billion tender award to the Korean Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) for four APR1400 nuclear reactors with a toal capacity of 5.6 GW.

For a small country with 9 percent of global oil reserves, huge natural gas reserves and a rapidly growing demand for electricity, it was no surprise that the UAE concluded that nuclear energy represented an economic and environmentally sound leg of its future energy strategy. What was surprising was the award went to a Korean consortium that out-maneuvered both an Areva-led French and a GE-Hitachi consortium with a bid reportedly $16 billion lower.

The late December 2009 contract award has changed the picture of the global nuclear power industry in at least three ways:

• The UAE now appears destined to be the newest member of the nuclear club with the first reactor scheduled to come online in 2017. With this breaking of the ice, how soon will other Middle East nations follow? Regional neighbors Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have all expressed interest in nuclear reactors for peaceful electric power generation.
• Korea becomes the fifth nation following the U.S., France, Russia and Canada to export its nuclear technology. A government-owned utility, KEPCO is the world’s third largest nuclear energy business with an installed nuclear generation capacity of 17,716 MW. KEPCO operates 20 commercial nuclear power units as of 2009, with eight more units currently under construction and 10 more units planned to be built by 2030.
• Both the French and Russians hope to develop robust export markets for their technologies. With the Korean win based on price and a recognized perception that they can deliver complex infrastructure projects on time and on budget, will Asian vendors now dominate nuclear energy technology exports markets?

 

Demand Drives Nuclear Option

Analysis conducted by official UAE entities in early 2009 concluded that national annual peak demand for electricity is likely to rise to more than 40 GW by 2020, reflecting a cumulative annual growth rate of 9 percent from 2007 onward. These estimates have been recently revised downward to 33.5 GW by 2020, nevertheless representing an 81 percent increase from the 18.5 GW of installed capacity at the end of 2009.

As part of this evaluation, the UAE determined that known volumes of natural gas that could be made available to the nation’s electricity sector would be insufficient to meet future demand, providing adequate fuel for only 20,000 to 25,000 MW of power generation capacity by 2020.

Cost and Ability Win the Day

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (ENEC) selected a team led by KEPCO to supply for $20 billion the full scope of works and services for the UAE Civil Nuclear Power Program for four APR1400 nuclear reactors, including engineering, procurement, construction (EPC), nuclear fuel and operations and maintenance support.

Other KEPCO subsidiaries and Korean partners will participate. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. will play a leading role as the EPC contractor. Korea Power Engineering Co. will provide the plant design and engineering service. Korea Nuclear Fuel Co. will provide the nuclear fuel and the Korea Plant Service and Engineering Co. will maintain the plants. Doosan Heavy Industries, Korea’s only company that specializes in power plants, will supply nuclear power systems components. Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Samsung C&T Corp. will also participate.

ENEC says that a high percentage of the $20 billion contract is covered under a fixed-price arrangement, with the first of the four units scheduled to begin providing electricity to the grid in 2017 followed by three additional units coming online by 2020. An additional $20 billion in orders is expected through ongoing participation in nuclear power plant operation support for 60 years after the completion of construction.

Other characteristics of the deal include performance incentives under which Korean investors will have an equity interest in the project to ensure that the necessary experience, technology and skills are available to achieve on-time and on-budget delivery and safe and reliable operation of the plants. The Koreans will also develop the human resource in the UAE through extensive training and education programs that will enable the UAE over time to develop the intellectual capacity to eventually staff a large part of the nuclear energy program with national talent. ENEC and KEPCO have also reportedly agreed to work on other business ventures in the utility and energy fields outside these nuclear plant projects.

The UAE tender, which was in the works for more than a year, was to have been awarded in Q3 2009. The Areva-led French consortium offering the 1600MW EPR was widely viewed as the leading contender to win the contract award, largely as a result of French geopolitical influence in the region, frequent visits to the UAE by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon, the perceived safety and operational advantages of the EPR and French investment in regional military bases. Ultimately, however, the competitiveness of the Korean offer, reportedly $16 billion less than the French offer, was the undoing of the other consortia.

Source: powergenworldwide.com

Nigerian oil service firms to benefit from reforms.

ABUJA, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Nigerian oil services firms are set to gain the most from plans to increase local participation in the industry but funding their growth could prove a challenge, executives and government officials said on Thursday.

Wide-ranging reform plans for Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry include measures to encourage greater involvement by Nigerian companies as the OPEC member tries to leverage greater benefit from its natural resources. “The real opportunities are in service companies. IOCs (International Oil Companies) outsource most of this work to foreign companies,” Ernest Nwapa, General Manager of Capacity Building at state-run oil firm NNPC told a conference in Abuja.

Nigeria’s oil is mostly pumped by foreign oil majors, including Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) and Total (TOTF.PA), in partnership with NNPC.

The building of infrastructure, including oil rigs and pipelines, is often contracted to foreign companies. But an ambitious Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is currently before parliament which could redefine the country’s decades-old relationship with its foreign partners and allow Nigerian firms greater involvement.

“The focus of the government is to encourage smaller, local companies,” Pedro Van Meurs, an adviser to the government on the PIB, told the three-day conference.

Nigeria’s Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan, also spoke about the focus on local industry.

“I want to reassure Nigerians and our foreign partners of our unwavering commitment to pursuing the reform in this sector with an eye on our national interest primarily,” he said at the opening ceremony on Monday.

Foreign oil companies have largely been supportive of the government’s desire to increase local participation in the industry, not least because a lack of community involvement has fuelled resentment in the restive Niger Delta.

Years of attacks by militants in the wetland region have prevented Nigeria from pumping much above two-thirds of its 3 million barrels per day oil production capacity in recent years.

“It is not difficult for local companies to penetrate the oil and gas industry. Systems are in place and it is getting better,” said Olubunmi Obembe, General Manager of Nigerian Content for Total Exploration and Production Nigeria.

Obembe said local firms faced issues over funding when competing against foreign companies for business because oil contract negotiations are long, requiring extended loans.

“Funding can be a problem. The financial system in Nigeria is not mature enough, banks borrow for the short-term and so they can only lend short-term,” he said.

Source: Reuters

Indonesian minister says ASEAN exports to grow to 8.5%

Asean exports to grow 7% to 8.5% in 2010 Indonesian minister. 

By K.P. Lee and Shie-Lynn Lim, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia -(Dow Jones)- Southeast Asian nations will see a rebound in exports this year between 7% and 8.5% due to stronger intra-Asian trade and a recovery in domestic economies, Indonesian Trade Minister Mari E. Pangestu said Sunday.

The European sovereign debt problems will also not likely derail the economic growth of the 10-member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Pangestu told Dow Jones Newswires at the sidelines of a regional conference here.

“The source of growth for Asean trade has been Asia and during the financial crisis…I think Asia will still be the main source of growth for our exports,” she said.

The forecast export growth will rise further to between 12% and 15% in the next five years, driven by shipments of resource-based products including wood, gas, palm oil, coal and rubber, Pangestu said.

Exports from the trade-dependent bloc grew 2.3% in 2008 from a year earlier.

Pangestu also said the grouping is expecting higher foreign direct investment from the U.S. as Asean moves toward a single market under the Asean Economic Community plan targeted for 2015.

U.S. direct investment in Asean halved to $3.01 billion in 2008 from $6.35 billion a year earlier as the global financial crisis curbed capital investments.

Over the past decade, U.S. investments have also moved away from the region, in favor of China and later to India to take advantage of lower costs and to benefit from fast-growing consumer markets.

“We need the U.S. to see Asean as a single market,” Pangestu said, adding that member countries of the Asean bloc will be mounting a trade mission in May.

Asean desperately wants to be seen as a single market with a combined population of 584 million people. To date, wide economic disparity among members has slowed the region’s ability to leverage its market and compete for investments from the U.S. and Europe against its more populous neighbors.

Pangestu said rising inflation in China, particularly in the coastal regions, had caused some investors to look again at the region, with some firms relocating from China to Indonesia and Vietnam.

China is also a fast-growing investor in the region, particularly with the China-Asean free trade agreement that came into effect Jan. 1.

Source: NASDAQ

Russian-Korean car company, Tagaz, to invest $2 billion in Bangladesh.

 

Tagaz team looks into technicalities before setting up car plant

Jasim Uddin Haroon

A high-powered team of Tagaz, a Russia-Korea car manufacturer, is now in Dhaka to finalise a car-manufacturing project in Bangladesh.

Earlier in October, the Tagaz Bangladesh unveiled a US$ 2.0 billion plan to manufacture cars in Bangladesh aiming to grab the country’s fast growing market and explore the scope of export abroad.

Industries Minister Dilip Barua was present during unveiling of the plan at a function in the city.

Abdul Mannan Nasir, Bangladesh representative, told the FE Sunday: “A high-powered team of Tagaz from Korea has arrived in Dhaka and they are now discussing different technical issues.”

He also said: “Chairman of Tagaz from Russia will visit the site shortly and see for himself the others things.”

Tagaz is a Korea-Russia joint venture and it has two plants in Russia and one plant in South Korea.

Mr Nasir said they had already purchased around 350 acres of land at Bhoirab in Kishoreganj to set up the proposed plant.

Officials at the Tagaz Bangladesh said it wants to manufacture cars in Bangladesh, mainly because of its low labour cost and the advantage it enjoys in export to neighbouring countries and Europe.

Source: thefinancialexpress-bd.com

An article from a few months earlier states:

Taganrog Automobile Assembly Plant (TagAZ) Korea, a company which assembles Hyundai vehicles under license, plans to invest around US$2bn to assemble cars in Bangladesh.

TagAZ Korea has already bought 350 acres of land near the country’s capital city of Dhaka to set up an assembly plant. The facility is expected to be completely set up in the next 24 months, Xinhua says.

The company, a South Korean-Russian joint venture, decided on establishing a plant in Bangladesh owing to a combination of low labour costs and the region’s strategic location for the export market. TagAZ Korea will now become the first vehicle manufacturer in the country.

“A sedan costs US$10,000 in South Korea but we can reduce the cost here by around US$3,000 due to low labour cost and other facilities,” the Chinese newswire quotes Abdul Mannan Nasir, managing director of Cimillae Development, a concern of TagAZ in Bangladesh, as saying.

Another factor that attracted TagAZ Korea to Bangladesh is the availability of special benefits in exporting its goods to markets in Europe, the report says.

Published on Thursday, October 15, 2009

Source: Automotiveworld.com

Indonesia sees mining investment go up by 39%.

JAKARTA, Dec 31 (Reuters) – Indonesian mining investment is expected to hit $2.5 billion next year, up from $1.81 billion in 2009, supported by greater certainty after the introduction of new mining regulations, a senior government mining official said on Thursday. Southeast Asia’s largest economy has struggled to lure foreign investment into mining in recent years, compounded by some politicians taking a nationalist line on resource exploitation and also because of uncertainty over regulations tied to a new mining law passed in 2008. “We expect investments to reach $2.5 billion next year as we hope to see more new investors if the new mining rules are going well,” said Bambang Setiawan, Director General of Mineral, Coal and Geothermal at the Energy and Mining Ministry. Major global resource firms operating in Indonesia include Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Newmont Mining Corp (NEM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), but much of the investment was made decades ago. Some foreign firms have already shelved investment plans since last year, partly due to uncertainties over the new mining law, which also includes contentious items such as shorter-term mining permits rather than longer-term contracts of work. Miners will also have to process minerals in Indonesia and to set aside some of their coal for the domestic market. Setiawan said registered investment should also rise because more small and individual miners were required to report their mining and investment activities to the government under the new law. Previously, only big mining companies which had signed contracts of work with the government reported, so that investments from small miners were not included in the official records. The government had said it plans to issue 4 new regulations attached to the new mining and coal law in January, 2010.

Source: Reuters.

Swedish company to increase investment in Bangladesh.

Swedish Hedge Fund Brummer to Set Up New Bangladesh Stocks Fund

By Netty Ismail

Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) — Brummer & Partners, the largest Scandinavian hedge-fund manager, plans to set up a fund to buy Bangladeshi stocks, betting the south Asian nation will attract investors seeking the world’s next low-cost labor hub.

The fund “should not be larger than $100 million” as only about a third of Bangladeshi companies’ outstanding shares are publicly traded, said Patrik Brummer, founder of the Stockholm- based firm, whose assets are at their peak of about $7 billion. The fund will be formed within the next three months, he said.

The nation of 162 million people, equivalent to about half of the population of the U.S., may join the ranks of the fastest-growing economies in the region as it benefits from its geographical proximity to India and China and low labor costs. The economy, which expanded 5.9 percent in the year to June, was shielded from the financial crisis because of its “limited integration” in the global economy, according to the World Bank.

“If you believe in labor arbitrage as a true trend, that will benefit Bangladesh,” Brummer, 60, said in an interview at the three-year-old Westin Dhaka hotel. “The predictability for this country is much higher than most countries that I know of; it is largely uncorrelated to the world economy.”

Bangladesh’s ready-made garment exports have shown resilience because of the so-called Wal-Mart effect, where consumers substitute more expensive products for cheaper ones such as those from the South Asian nation, the World Bank said in a September report. Buyers are also shifting production to Bangladesh, which may have become the world’s lowest-cost producer, from China, the Washington-based bank said.

Stock-Market Rally

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in December 2005 included Bangladesh in a list of 11 developing countries that, according to its analysts, have the greatest potential to emulate the long-term economic success expected from China, India, Brazil and Russia. JPMorgan Chase & Co. named Bangladesh one of the “Frontier Five” markets worth investigating in an April 2007 note, along with Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria and Vietnam.

“Bangladesh has a lot of raw potential and is full of opportunities for those ready to dig in,” said Douglas Clayton, Phnom Penh-based founder of Leopard Capital LP, which manages a Cambodia private-equity fund and is raising money to invest in Sri Lanka. “In time, we’ll probably launch a fund here.”

The Dhaka Stock Exchange General Index, which gained 21 percent this year, eclipsed its previous high reached in 1996 as shares of GrameenPhone Ltd., Bangladesh’s largest mobile-phone company, almost tripled on debut on Nov. 16. GrameenPhone, controlled by Norway’s Telenor ASA, raised 4.9 billion taka ($71 million) in Bangladesh’s biggest initial public offering.

The stock market’s daily turnover has grown to about $100 million over the last few months, from an average of $20 million a day in 2007, according to Brummer.

Bubble Danger

“One danger in this kind of an environment is that you get a bubble at one stage,” Brummer said. “If a lot of foreign investors take an interest in this market, being such a small market, then it can explode.”

The manager set up in July 2008 a Bangladesh hybrid fund to invest in stocks and private equity. About half of that fund’s $53 million will go into a private-equity fund, which the firm started this year. The International Finance Corp., part of the World Bank, has committed $10 million to the private-equity fund, which is set to attract more money from other investors, he said.

The private-equity fund, targeting returns of at least 20 percent, plans to hold minority stakes in “successful companies that have a bright future,” Brummer said. It has invested in the export business of Bangladesh’s largest automotive battery maker and a supermarket chain operator, both part of Dhaka-based Rahimafrooz Group.

Stockholm to Dhaka

“There has been a lot of change in the city of Dhaka, a lot of construction activity,” said Brummer, who first visited the capital city in 2005 and travels there four times a year.

The Stockholm-based manager is an investor in bracNet, a wireless broadband company in Bangladesh that Khalid Quadir, who runs Brummer & Partners’ unit in Dhaka, started in 2005. KDDI Corp., Japan’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, agreed to buy 50 percent of bracNet on Nov. 12.

Brummer started his hedge-fund business in 1996 after spending 22 years at Alfred Berg, the largest brokerage in the Nordic region. Alfred Berg was acquired by ABN Amro Holding NV in 1995.

Brummer & Partners attracted net inflows of $1.7 billion this year, he said.

The firm’s multistrategy fund, which invests in Brummer & Partners’ own strategies and accounts for more than a third of its total assets, “has become a very popular vehicle,” he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abOlqUUVJMtM&pos=7#

UAE to increase fleet of Airbuses.

(MENAFN – Khaleej Times) Emirates Airline, the Arab world’s largest carrier, will increase its purchase of Airbus A380 aircraft beyond the 58 super-jumbos it has booked so far, in spite of delayed deliveries of planes it has already ordered, the Dubai-based airline’s chairman said on Wednesday. Emirates Chairman and Chief Executive Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said the airline would not cancel any of the A380s it has ordered and hinted that the airline might even take over some A380 orders from other airlines that are seeking to postpone their own scheduled deliveries. “We are always one of the first-movers to take advantage of the market,” Shaikh Ahmed said. He said that some A380 deliveries had been delayed for “just a short period,” without being specific about the extent of the delays or the number of planes affected. Speaking to the media at a Press conference ahead of the Dubai Airshow, Shaikh Ahmed, who is also the President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman of Dubai Airports, declined to disclose the amount of compensation Emirates is seeking from Airbus for the delays.

However, he indicated that the airline would raise the issue of compensation in its discussions with Airbus at the Dubai Airshow, which starts on Sunday. Emirates so far has received five of the 58 super-jumbos it has ordered from the European plane-maker. The airline expects better revenues in the second half of the year, Shaikh Ahmed said, adding that “it should be a very good year for us.” Emirates posted a 165 per cent rise in first-half profits to nearly $205 million earlier this month, thanks to lower operating costs. Revenues, meanwhile, fell by 13.5 per cent during the period. Shaikh Ahmed’s comments follow remarks by Emirates’ President Tim Clark at the World Travel Market in London on Tuesday, in which Clark said that the airline’s route expansion plans would be affected next year due to delayed deliveries of its A380. Clark said the delivery setback would affect “one or two” of the 15 A380s the airline was originally scheduled to receive by June of next year. “We should have had 15 aircraft by June 2010. We are getting two in December and then the remaining eight between January and November next year, so one or two are being pushed back,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Dubai Airshow organisers, meanwhile, said that 890 companies from 47 countries would exhibit at the five-day event, an increase over the previous event in 2007, when it attracted 850 exhibitors. To date, 150 new-to-market exhibitors from 20 countries will make their debut at the biennial event, and up to 50,000 visitors are expected, said Alison Weller, director of F&E Aerospace, the air show organiser. The growth in exhibitor numbers attests to the confidence the aerospace industry continues to show in the Middle East, and in the UAE in particular, Weller said. About 130 aircraft will be displayed in a static park, including the 14 aircraft types participating in daily flying displays.

 The airshow runs from November 15 to 19. The display will feature the Italian Airforce’s Frecce Tricolori and Patrouille de France aerobatic teams. They will be joined by a US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor, a Eurofighter Typhoon of the UK’s Royal Air Force and ane L-15 Falcon jet trainer from China-based AVIC, the first time a Chinese-manufactured trainer is being sent to an international airshow. By Issac John

Saudi oil forecast to earn $4tr in 10 years.

(MENAFN – Arab News) At the current forecasts of $85 per barrel in 2011 and increasing the oil price by $5 per year over the next 10 years and conservatively assuming a constant production of 10 million barrels a day, the Saudi economy will generate revenues of $4 trillion, according to a report released by Deutsche Bank yesterday. “We expect the Saudi economy to enjoy a V shape recovery and return to trend growth of 4-5 percent during the coming years due to five strong economic indicators,” said the report authored by Pascal Moura, head of research at the bank.

The report, titled ‘Accessing Wealth Transfer: Equity Basket,’ comprehensively discusses each and every aspect of the economy.

“Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading petroleum exporter and holds more than 20 percent of the word’s proven petroleum reserves as well as significant gas reserves. This unique access to natural resources puts the country in an ideal position to dominate several industries and channel considerable oil revenues into infrastructure investment, boosting the non-oil private sector. Using our DB oil price forecasts of $85 in 2011, we estimate the oil price increase will generate an additional $60billion in revenues in 2011. The country demographics are unique with the population growing by about 3 percent per annum and 70 percent of the population below 30 years of age. We expect the economy to enjoy a V shape recovery and return rapidly to a trend growth of 4-5 percent per annum, well ahead of the developed world,” the report said.

“In recent years the authorities have continued to diversify away from the hydrocarbon industry, strengthening the financial sector and implementing structural reforms to boost private-sector-led growth.

“The strong oil price over the next 5-10 years should allow the government to continue its diversification efforts and promote the non-oil economy. Industries such as power generation, telecommunications, natural gas and petrochemicals are all likely to benefit during the coming years, which should also help to increase employment opportunities.

By Mahmood Rafique

Source: MENAFN