Middle East

Qatar Concrete Company is pioneering a new concrete mixing technology that may well revolutionise the production of this essential construction material in hot countries. Executive directorAntoine Abboud talks to Gay Sutton about the challenges and solutions.

Winning the bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup has generated a construction boom in Qatar that is attracting interest from all over the world. One company that will be helping to ensure that demand for construction materials is met is Qatar National Cement Company.

Since its inauguration in 2008, investment holding company Foulath has established its position as one of the most comprehensive steel producers in the Middle East, and has developed a unique business model that it is now transferring to Egypt and Oman. Ben Sansom reports.

Robert Tarazi, managing director of Qatar’s leading ready-mix concrete company Beton WLL, talks to Gay Sutton about preparing the company for significant growth.

Iraq has disclosed detailed information about the revenue it received from oil and gas exports in 2009 in a special report.

Iraq's disclosure of the $41 billion it received demonstrates its commitment to the EITI standard, the global standard for transparency of resource revenues.

The information is published in Iraq's first EITI Report, which details production figures and revenues from the sales of oil abroad in 2009.

Two mineral exploration licences have been granted to the Gold & Minerals JV (G&M) by Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Ministry for Mineral Resources, for a period of five years.

KEFI Minerals, an AIM-quoted gold and copper exploration company, is the operating partner of G&M, holding a 40 per cent interest. To date the company has a total of three granted exploration licences and a total of 15 exploration licence applications in the Middle Eastern country.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is to purchase 84 new Boeing F-15 fighter aircraft from the US government and upgrade 70 of its existing F-15s.

Boeing chairman, president and CEO Jim McNerney welcomed the announcement. "For Boeing, this agreement represents the continuation of an enduring partnership between the company and the Kingdom that dates back to 1945 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt presented a DC-3 Dakota airplane to King Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," he said.

Canadian business software company Intelex is to open its first overseas office in the United Kingdom.

The office will open in London in February 2012, and will serve as a beachhead for the company’s coming European and Eurasian expansion, as well as helping to serve existing clients in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Stephen Ross, Intelex’s vice president of sales and a 10-year veteran of the Intelex team, will relocate to London, England, to help launch the new office.

Sulaiman Al-Rumaih, vice president of the Energy and Industrial division of the Tamimi Group, talks about the dynamic expansion of the business within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and beyond. Jayne Alverca reports.