Archive for November, 2009

A $25B joint venture was announced earlier today between Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. and Deutsche Bahn AG, to build a railway system in the very liquid Gulf state of Qatar — the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas and the issuer of $7B of 4x oversubscribed bonds last week. Qatari Diar is a real estate company owned by the state’s sovereign wealth fund. It owns 51% of Qatar Railways Development Co., while Deutsche Bahn owns the remaining stake. The three phase project has an expected completion date of 2026, but Reuters reports that a major section will be done by 2022, when Qatar hopes to host the FIFA World Cup. The project includes passenger and freight trains, as well as connections to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

As Gulf states continue to spend tens (make that hundreds) of billions of dollars on infrastructure and other domestic projects, TradeFlow21 believes that it is a terrible mistake, for whatever reason, for American businesses and politicians to miss opportunities to do business and deepen ties with the Gulf. Qatar’s GDP is expected to grow over 9% this year and upwards of 35% next year, both clips by far the fastest among the GCC.

A published report by NCB Capital, a Saudi subsidiary of the National Commercial Bank, cited a study by the German Aerospace Centre that estimates the region’s deserts “receive annually average solar energy equivalent to 1.5m barrels of oil per sq km.” The Arabian Desert, which covers an area of 2.3m sq km (900,000 sq mi), would yield the equivalent of 1.1 trillion barrels of oil per year, assuming solar panels were erected on one-third of the available land. The UAE’s recent committment to support 7 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020 further suggests that other Middle East states, particularly those where shortfalls are reportedly “looming,” may soon follow suit (see full article in Financial Times, via Zawya). From TradeFlow21′s perspective, the commercial opportunities for green industries, including water desalination/filtration, are immediate and immense. For more information on doing business in the Middle East, contact Lew Nescott, Jr. at 203.848.7257.