Quality of the Deal is measured by its Main Goal

The American administration is working nowadays on presenting a draft law to the Congress according to which weapons estimated by 20 billion US dollars will be sold to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, according to a news published by New York Times last Sunday.
The pretext of Bush’s administration is to help these countries face the Iranian “danger”. The deal comprises advanced bombs directed by satellites in addition to modernizing its jet fighters and new ships.
The term “advanced”, mentioned above, does not mean at all matching the Israeli superiority in the region in terms of the quality of weapons, because the American administrations are very clear in this respect to exerting every effort to preserve Israel’s superiority as asserted by Bush’s administration. This was manifested by offering military aids to Israel by a value of 30 million US$ in parallel with the contract of the deal already mentioned.
No doubt that the quality of weapons of the 20 billion US$ is less than that of the 30 billion US$. But the question which should be asked is the following: Will the new deal be clean of the bribery of “Al-Yamama” deal, according to which the British (British Aerospace) company sold Saudi Arabia more than 100 military plans during the 80’s of last century, but it was discovered later on that a big bribery has been paid to one of the Saudi princes who is very closed to the West and specially to Washington?

Paralyze of Industry in Gaza

Newly-issued statistics by the Palestinian Federation of Industries showed that 10% only of the total industrial sectors working in Gaza Strip have managed to date to preserve partially on continuing working. Many factories in Gaza Strip were forced to close with tightening embargo imposed by Israel on the sector after Hamas Movement controlled it.
Chairman of the Union, Bassem Khouri, said expected that the total number of those who are unemployed who use to work in the different sectors of industrial production in Gaza governorates to each 120.000 workers at the end of next month in case the crossing point remained closed.

Iraq Calls for a Bid to Buy 50.000 tones of Wheat

The Iraqi cereal council announced a tender for buying at least 50.000 tons of hard wheat on condition that the proposed bids remain valid for two weeks.

Ahli United Bank Accepts an Offer to Possess “Qatar al Dowali”

The “Ahli United Bank”, located in Bahrain, said that the Kuwaiti contributor, “Tamdeen Investment Co” and other investors represented by it, have accepted the offer of possessing the bank of “International Bank of Qatari”.
The third biggest bank in Bahrain added that “International Bank of Qatar” will pay 2.25 dollars for one share to buy a share of 55% in the “Ahli United Bank”.

Branches of Cairo Bank in Emirates Move to Egypt

Within the steps taken for selling Cairo Bank to Egypt Bank, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Egypt Bank, Mohammad Ozali, announced that the bank started to move the five branches of Cairo Bank in the UAE for the interest of Egypt Bank.
It is worth mentioning that 80% of the shares of Cairo Bank will be sold, and 5% of the shares will be allocated to workers in the bank, whereas the remaining 15% will be circulated as shares in the stock market.

“ASEAN” Celebrates the Anniversary of Its Establishment with a Dream of a Joint Market

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which celebrates the 40th anniversary of its establishment, have assembled in Philippines to hold talks on preparing a mini constitution and establishing a wide joint market similar to the European Union which would grant it a new momentum.

The Tunisian Tourism Increases the Volume of the Foreign Currencies

Tunisian minister of tourism, Tijani Haddad, said that tourism sector has achieved important results. The number of tourists in 2006 reached more than 6.5 million tourists, with an increase of 9.2% compared to 2004.
This increase brought more revenues of foreign currencies raising them from 2290 million dinars in 2004 to more than 2825 million dinars in 2006 with an increase of 23.4%.

“Global Investment House” Wins 162 million US$

Global Investment House” announced that it achieved net profits of 162 million dollars during the first half of 2007, whereas the revenues of the company reached 1 million US$. It is worth mentioning that the company achieved during the first half of last year net profits of 119 million US$.

A Big Touristic Project on the Syrian Coast

The Syrian Ministry of Tourism has approved the contract signed between the Council of Tartous City located on the Syrian coast on one hand, and Concord Company in partnership with “Syria Marine” and “Concordodi” company on the other hand, for the investment of “Al-Fadel” site with a total cost of 172 million dollars for 45 years.
The period of execution is 42 months.

The Iraqi Government Stopped from Receiving Projects Executed by America

An American military inspector concluded that Iraq stopped to take responsibility of the Management of the New Buildings and the Project of Reconstruction which cost Washington more than 5 billion US$. This measure will force the US to manage these buildings and projects or give them to the local governments.

The Turkish Touristic Sector Seeks to Develop the Iranian Tourism Industry

The Cultural and Touristic Consultant in the Turkish embassy in Tehran, Mohammad Kaia said that developing the Iranian tourism industry is one of the goals and policies which the Turkish tourism seeks to achieve. A visit of a delegation comprising five technicians of the Iranian company for touristic development to Turkey next month has been announced with the aim of holding meeting between industrialists and activists in the touristic sector of both sides, as it was the case in the meeting of “opportunities of tourism industry investments in Iran”, as well as executing joint projects.

The Russian GDP Doubles within Ten Years

The Russian Ministry of Finance, Aleksey Leonidovich Kudrin, said that there is a possibility that the Russian GDP to double by 2012 compared to 2002 in case growth rate remained 7.2 per year. He added that if the GDP increased by 6.8% per year, then it will take 12 years to double.

Companies Indexes

 “Shuaa Capital” Establishment, the biggest investment bank in Dubai in terms of market value, achieved net profits of 75 million dirhams “20.42” million US$ in the first quarter of this year compared to 1.97 million dirhams in the same period of last year.
 “Doha Bank”, the fourth biggest bank in Qatar in terms of market value, said that it opened its first branch in the U.A.E to benefit from the increasing trade and investment deals between the two countries.
 “Tamweel” company, the second biggest company for real estate financing in the UAE in terms of market value, achieved a jump of 47.4% in the total net profits during the second quarter of this year recording 57.53 million dirhams “15.67” million US$. Exceeding the analysts’ expectations.

Small Indexes

 The Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy said that Russia’s production of oil in the first half of this year has increased by 3% compared to the index of the same period in 2006 reaching 242.94 million tons.
 The annual inflation percentage according to the consumer’s prices in Kuwait has risen from 5.15% in March to 5.37% in April.
 Statements showed that Germany remained on the top world wide in terms of machines industries despite the fierce competition world wide. The percentage of the possession of the German companies of the world market of machines industry has risen from 18.9% in 2005 to 19.1% last year.

Bids & Contracts

 The First Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Dmetri Medvedev, said that the Russian “Gazprom”, and the Italian “Eni” company will sign very soon all the documents related to laying gas pipeline “The Southern Current” crossing Russia to Europe via the Black Sea.
 “Aabar Petroleum Investments Company” in Abu Dhabi said that it will sell the drilling unit “Dalma Energy” in return for 446 million US$ to “Gulf Cap” Group.

Exhibitions & Conferences

 The first exhibition of the Tunisian Traditional Industries is due to be held between 1-26 of next month in “Yasmine Hammamet” city on the Mediterranean.
 The activities of the fourth exhibition of electronic games started yesterday at the exhibitions center in Hong Kong with the participation of 120 foreign companies. The exhibition, which is expected to host 550.000 visitors, will be continued for five days.
 The activities of the International Meeting for Information and Telecommunications Security has been opened today in Damascus under the auspices of Minister of Telecommunications and Technology Dr. Amro Salem. _ The meeting is organized by Al-Salam Group for Holding Exhibitions and Conferences with the participation of many of Arab and foreign experts and consultants in the field of information and telecommunications security technology.

Indicators is a daily economic watch newsletter about the Near East, issued by New Orient News agency in Beirut, Lebanon. It is available on Voltairenet.org in Arabic and English. Also worth a read is Tendencies, the daily Near East political watch newsletter, available in Arabic, English and French languages.