Courtesy of Reuters, an interesting report on the fall of the Bin Laden business empire: Soon after Prince Mohammed bin Salman became second in line to the throne of Saudi Arabia, he turned his sights to the sprawling empire of the Saudi Binladin Group. In 2015, the prince, then 29, approached Bakr bin Laden, chairman of […]
Read more »Via Times of Central Asia, a report on Ashgabat’s efforts to diversify its gas exports and find investors in its hydrocarbon projects: Turkmenistan possesses huge natural-gas reserves but for now has only one buyer of its gas — China. As the Turkmen economy is experiencing a downturn caused by low gas prices in the world market, […]
Read more »Via Future Directions International, an article looking at Saudi Arabia and China’s investment influence in Pakistan: Background During his visit to Pakistan in 2015, President Xi of China entered into an agreement with Islamabad to invest around US$46 billion in the country. It was estimated that a full 80 per cent of that sum – […]
Read more »Courtesy of The New York Times, a detailed interesting look at Saudi Arabia, where low crude prices and the war in Yemen have sent a shock through the kingdom’s budget and forced it to revise its social contract even as it seeks to diversify its businesses: This is what it takes to run a mega-dairy […]
Read more »Via Frontera News, a look at the role of Egypt in China’s Silk Road strategy: Egypt’s transfer of two uninhabited Red Sea islands to Saudi sovereignty sparked street protests and a social media backlash: #Egyptissold. Yet Tiran and Sanafir are pinpricks next to the much bigger land grab by Beijing onshore. Granted, the twin islands […]
Read more »Via the Geopolitical Monitor, an interesting look at how Egypt’s economic struggles have allowed Saudi Arabia to increase its hold over a major geopolitical prize of waterborne trade – the Suez Canal: The Arab Spring uprising left Egypt with an assortment of leaders and an uncertain future. After the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak in February […]
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