Qatar, Bahrain build friendship bridge

Essam Khalaf, assistant undersecretary for roads, from the Bahrain Ministry of Public Works: "The affects of the causeway will be massive for both countries. Politically and economically, it would benefit both sides as it would make Bahrain more accessible as a trade partner as well as physically unite the two countries."

In September 2001, Denmark-based Cowi signed an $11.3 million contract with Qatar's Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture for the project's preliminary engineering and environmental investigations.

Clipped from Arabianbusiness.com.

Dubai's megaprojects

Gulf News has got a very interesting article about Dubai's megaprojects.

01. Arabian Ranches

02. Business Bay

03. Culture Village

04. Discovery Gardens

05. Downtown Burj Dubai

06. Dubailand

07. Dubai Marina

08. Dubai World Central (DWC)

09. DWC Residential City

10. Emirates Living

11. Dubai Festival City

12. International City

13. Jumeirah Beach Residence

14. Jumeirah Park

15. Jumeirah Village

16. Palm Jebel Ali (PJA) and Dubai Waterfront (DWF)

17. The Lagoons

18. Palm Deira

19. The Palm Jumeirah

20. The World

Real Estate in Numbers

THIS WEEK'S NUMBER: 4.2 million

The area in square feet of retail space in phase one of Mall of Arabia.

Mall of Arabia is the major retail component of City of Arabia in Dubailand and often quoted as becoming the largest shopping mall in the world when it is finished.

The number of retail outlets is going to be 1200 and the project is expected to be completed within 21 months from now.

Assessing the escrow effect

Recently a new escrow law was implemented in UAE. One of the main elements was that developers have to provide bank guarantees to a substantial proportion of the development thus giving off-plan buyers a certain comfort.

Here is a comment published in ArabianBusiness.com by David Nicholson on Friday, 07 September 2007

Real Estate in Numbers

THIS WEEK'S NUMBER: 1.7bn

The amount in USD that Mishal Kanoo, the chairman of the Kanoo Group is believed to own as personal fortune making him the world's 7th richest Arab.

Kanoo Group is the Middle East region's largest independent family-owned group of companies.
Source: CEO Middle East, August 2007 Vol. 2 Issue 7.

Dubai World invests USD 5.2bn in MGM Mirage

Rumors have been going whether we will eventually see a real casino in - not the Nevada, but the Dubai - desert. Is the latest mega-transaction from Dubai World a step in this direction?

As several analysts and industry players point out it will certainly provide the Emirati company with some hands on exposure to the gaming and entertainment market in Las Vegas:

Dubai World's first foray into the Las Vegas market will also provide it with a number of business opportunities Stateside as well as on-the-job experience. Albert Momjian, head of Calyon IB, tells Arabian Business in this article.