International Business Opportunities

Kuwait’s prime minister says the government is scrapping a billion project to build a fourth refinery in the oil-rich country.
full story

Kuwaiti property sales fell 35.2% in February, the eleventh straight month of decline, official data has showed. Property sales, especially for residential units, have been falling since the state restricted private firms from residential deals last year. Gulf property markets are coming under pressure amid a global financial crisis that has brought to an end an economic boom in the oil-exporting region.

full story

Dow Chemical is in talks to revive a plastics joint venture with Kuwait that the country’s Petrochemicals Industries Co. abandoned last year. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris downplayed expectation of the talks keeping in mind the previous cancellation.Dow is also in talks with two other potential partners for deals that would offer similar benefits to the Kuwaiti joint venture.

full story

First Dubai Real Estate Development Co, a unit of Kuwait's Al-Mazaya Holding Co, has announced that it has more than quadrupled its capital to expand its operations and acquire Kuwait property developer First Waterfront Co, reported Bloomberg. The Gulf firm's capital increased to 94 million dinars (3m) from 22 million dinars, First Dubai said in a statement. The company plans to raise the capital to 100 million dinars by the first week of next month.
full story
http://www.ameinfo.com/images/ame_rss_logo.gif

A EU-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit will beginon Tuesday May 8, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The summit could lead to a free trade deal between EU and the GCC - which includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Omand and Qatar.

The two blocs had started to negotiate a free trade agreement in 2002, however they failed to agree on a commons set of rules regarding investments and market access.