Rising oil prices is forcing Gulf states to invest in gas production. Some analysts estimate that the cumulative supply shortfall for the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council up to 2015 will reach at least 7,000bn cubic feet. To put the number into perspective, according to BP the UK's entire remaining proven gas reserves total just under 17,000bn cu ft. "There is a Middle East regional gas crisis brewing," says Rajnish Goswami at Wood Mackenzie, the Edinburgh-based energy consultancy.
Bihani Cement Ltd, the flagship company of the Braj Binani Group, which has interests in cement, zinc and fibre glass, is growing globally. "We are trying to replicate what Anil Agarwal did to Vedanta," says Vinod Junej a, deputy managing director, Binani Cements.
For years, food policy in the Middle East and North Africa was very simple: hydrocarbon exports paid for carbohydrate imports. Rising agricultural commodities prices and a large population increase mean that the traditional policy is now untenable even if crude oil trades at about $120 a barrel, forcing countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia, to reconsider how it feeds its population. "The region has woken up to the new food market reality," says Abdolreza Abbassian, an expert at the Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome.
All UAE nationals are eligible for free health insurance that will cover their expenses at both public and private healthcare centres across the country and emergency treatment abroad, the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD) announced yesterday. The new health insurance scheme would include mandatory periodic medical examination - Weqaya - and a comprehensive health insurance scheme - Thiqa.
The worldwide shortage of food grains, coupled with high food prices, is driving leading food companies and investors from the UAE to Pakistan in search of lucrative deals in the agriculture sector in of one of the world's major food exporters. With the entire world passing through an era of record high food prices and acute food shortage predicted in the near future, leading Gulf investors are planning joint ventures and direct investment in Pakistan's farm and livestock sectors, a private TV channel reported.
London: Is frog the answer to diabetes? "Yes', if researchers are to be believed. A joint team of experts from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and United Arab Emirates University has discovered that a substance on the skin of South American "paradoxical frog' boosts the production of insulin
London: The construction work on the world's first "green city' has started in the Gulf. Masdar City, on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi city in the United Arab Emirates, will be zero-carbon, zero-waste and car-free. The city will be built at a cost of
