Middle East Ceos Optimistic on Economy
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Ask Your Booksellers THE MIDDLE EAST The Middle East ( LE. 3 ) OBSERVER Observer - Libraries THE PUBLISHER: AHMED FODA 1_,A..ar CHIEF EDITOR: H.A. RAOUF for all Int'l New Books r MIDDLE EAST COUNSELORS: and Scientific Journals YASMIN FODA Publications Dept. AHMED SHAFIK Head Office and MAHMOUD FODA N.M.M. RASHED Advertisements : 41, Sherif Dir. of Public Relations: Street, Cairo, Egypt KAMAL MOKHTAR Tel.: 23939732 - 23926919 Head Office : 41, Sherif St., Cairo, Egypt Tel.: 23939732 - 23926919 Fax : 23939732 - 27485844 E-mails Addresses: [email protected] E-mails Address: 4 o [email protected] 4,14 ..3o• II& Ad .3alay [email protected] s I awl 4,1 also. e [email protected] Economic covering the Middle East , Arab Gulf and African Markets tt;IJ_,si.gt..,.1.).21 afoda@meobserverorg Web. www.meobserver.org Web site : www.meobservcr.org Please ask for our list Printed at Societe Orientate de Publicity of publications 60th YEAR No. 21 CAIRO WEDNESDAY, MAY 29 , 2013 ESTABLISHED 1954 (S.O.P.) - Cairo, Egypt 20.7% INCREASE IRAN'S EGYPT TO ISSUE SMART Flash IN WAGES IN NEW PETROCHEM CARDS TO FUEL STATIONS BUDGET REVENUE SURGES Egypt will begin using smart cards in the next few MILITARY The debates of the Shura weeks to distribute gasoline and diesel, Oil Minister EXERCISES Council's financial and eco- TO $2B. Iran has earned up to $2 Sherif Haddara said, in a step towards meeting IMF "EAGER LION nomic committee, under terms for a loan, Reuters said. Ashraf Badr Eddin, disclosed billion in revenue from its 2013" petrochemical projects since The first smart cards will go to fuel stations and then the that wages allocations in the programme will widen to include all car owners. From Ahmed Foda new budget increased by 20.7 the beginning of the new There are a lot of military Iranian year which started on The government is turning to smart cards to reduce the per cent to surge to L.E. amount of money it spends on subsidised energy products, drills being conducted in the 175.159 billion, against L.E. March 21, 2013, said a report Middle East recently, the lat- citing a top industry official, which eat up a fifth of all state spending. 142.672 billion in the current The International Monetary Fund is asking Egypt to act to est of which is the Eager budget, up by L.E. 29.532 bil- TradeArabia News Service Lion to be hosted by Jordan said. reduce its budget deficit in return for a $4.8 billion loan. lion after the tenure of 400.000 Egypt now sells many of its energy products at prices sub- within the coming few temporary workers. Five petrochemical projects weeks. More than 15,000 have come online during the stantially below the cost of production. Badr Eddin said that wages The government will issue cards to tanker trucks and 2,870 forces from Jordan, Saudi acquire 35 per cent of the period, reported the semi-offi- Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, cial Fars news agency. gasoline stations in June to regulate the distribution of fuel. aggregate revenues in the new This will help the distributors get used to smart cards and Lebanon, Bahrain, UAE, budget, but there is a great "These projects have raised work smoothly with the public when the scheme is extended Yemen, Qatar, Egypt, defect in the wages structure nameplate production of petro- to all car owners, Haddara told a news conference. Pakistan, Italy, Britain, in Egypt. chemicals by 2.728 million (Cont. on page 2) France, Canada, the US, IN tons," revealed National Turkey, Poland and Czech $800M. Petrochemical Company's OIL PRICES SET FOR BIGGEST will take part in the two- INVESTMENTS TO managing director Abdolhosain Dealers in Emirates markets. WEEKLY LOSS week military drills, a UPGRADE EAST Bayat. Oil is poised to post its biggest weekly loss In more than Jordanian military official "Since 2005, 51 petrochemi- a month, with Brent edging down towards $102 per bar- said. PORT SAID MIDDLE EAST CEOS cal projects have come on rel on Friday - pressured by ample supply and a sluggish The war games will CONTAINERS stream with $22 billion invest- economic recovery that could dent demand for fuel, address unconventional ment raising the nominal pro- Reuters said. threats facing international STATION OPTIMISTIC ON ECONOMY duction capacity of petrochem- Crude inventories in the United States are near record lev- security. Some world coun- Managing Director of Ebba A majority of chief executives in the Middle East are very confident about prospects icals by 38 million tons per els as the world's top oil consumer produced more from tries are seen absent from Maersk Containers Company year, said Bayat on the side- these exercises and appar- for business and economic growth over the next 12 months, according to a latest sur- shale, while shrinking factory activity in China capped fuel Klaus Larsen said that his lines of the inauguration of a demand growth in the world's No.2 user. ently they are not allies. company invested more than vey, Agencies said. hydrogenation unit at Tabriz , Improved US jobs and home sales data also sparked wor- These drills show for sure $800 million to upgrade infra- In conjunction with the Worlt.;=....:onornic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa 2013, PwC petrochemical plant. ries that the Federal Reserve could soon scale back bond pur- that there are military structure and utilities of East Middle East revealed the results of the 2013 Middle East CEO Survey titled "Matching confidence "In case of providing fman- chases and tighten liquidity in markets. preparations for getting Port Said containers station to with competitiveness." cial needs, production capacity Brent eased 2 cents to $102.43, stretching its losses into a involved in any sudden war be able to receive such giant The depth of confidence (53 per cent) sets Middle East CEOs apart from any other region in the of petrochemical products will fourth session. US crude inched down 9 cents to $94.16 a that might break out in the ships. The containers company world (36 per cent). This relative optimism is expressed both in terms of confidence about their com- hit 100 million tons in 2015," barrel. Mideast region .The ques- in East Port Said Port received panies' growth and the outlook for wider economic growth. In common with the global trend, confi- he added. Both were on track for a more than 2 per cent drop this tion remains is the coming last Saturday Ebba Maersk, dence among CEOs in the region is down compared to last year's survey (60 per cent). Commenting IMF CHIEF AVOIDS week - their biggest weekly drop since the week ended April war will erupt in the Mideast giant containers ship coming on the findings Hani Ashkar, Middle East Deals Leader at PwC, said: "The high confidence percent- 19. (Cont. on page 4) region or in the Korean from the Far East to Europe. age of Middle East CEOs led to a positive outlook for the economy. Compared to their global coun- CHARGES Peninsula? And Is the Eager GCC TO SPEND terparts, Middle East CEOs are expecting a major employment headcount increase with over two IMF chief Christine DUBAI ICD PLANNING TO Lion is a lion or an eagle? thirds expecting a five per cent or more rise." Lagarde avoided immediate $60B. ON GAS Domestic markets present a more open and competitive environment now than in the past. Around charges last Friday but was BOOST $2B. LOAN Ahmed Foda Investment Corp-oration of Dubai (ICD), the holding 44 per cent of the region's CEOs see organic domestic growth as a primary driver in 2013. named an "assisted witness" PROJECTS company for some of the emirate's best-known compa- GCC states, particularly Alternatively, 25 per cent view growth stemming from new operations in foreign markets and 13 per after French prosecutors COMMENT cent from new mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures or strategic alliances. nies, may increase the size of a $2 billion loan after signif- the UAE, Qatar and Saudi grilled her for two days over icant interest in the deal from lenders, banking sources EGYPT'S CREDIT Arabia, plan to award con- Many CEOs are positioning their companies to take advantage of emerging market opportunities a state payout to a disgraced that exists in Africa and Asia. A quarter of the Middle East CEOs appear to have their sights set on said. RATING CUT POSES tracts worth over $68 bil- tycoon when she was finance Strong demand for the loan is a sign of renewed confi- THREATS TO lion during the next five this 'south-south' opportunity as their main route to growth in the period ahead. minister, AFP said.Lagarde Thirty-eight per cent of CEOs count M&A and strategic alliances, among the top investment prior- dence among bankers in Dubai, which is recovering from the FOREIGN years to raise gas produc- was questioned for a total of aftermath of a real estate crash and sovereign-linked debt cri- ities for their companies in the upcoming 12 months. A massive 73 per cent target those M&A's and 24 hours by prosecutors BORROWING tion, according to a report. sis which followed the global financial meltdown of 2008, After less than 24 hours Gas will overtake oil in alliances in their own region, followed by 36 per cent for Africa, 27 per cent for South-East Asia, and working for a court that 27 per cent for Western Europe. Reuters said. from the announcement demand in the Middle East probes cases of ministerial The loan has been marketed since mid-March, with 51.6 misconduct over her 2007 made by the Central Bank of after 2025, with 50 per cent MEDITERRANEAN REFINERS BATTLE CRUDE SHORTAGE billion of the $2 billion target already pledged by the eight Egypt (CBE) on the rise of of all energy demand coming Sanctions against Iranian oil, Iraqi flow outages and a change in Russian export routes have handling of a row that result- arranging banks, one of the sources said, according to ed in 400 million euros Egypt's foreign reserves by for gas in 2040, said a white left Europe's recession-hit Mediterranean refiners short of their preferred oil grades at a time ($515 Reuters $1 billion to reach $14.3 bil- paper released by Deloitte when the rest of the world has plentiful supply.