Khalifa City Development

The project, developed in Khalifa City, near Abu Dhabi, was founded on the plan mooted by an international urban planning taskforce, which has two key objectives: to create a comprehensive urban plan to guide the evolution of the city into 2030, and to make recommendations regarding the most effective regulatory and institutional framework to manage the urban development of the city.
The new capital will be a contemporary Arab city reflecting a sustainable economy, rather than uncontrolled growth. The city will respect, be scaled to, and shaped by the natural environment of sensitive coastal and desert ecosystems. In addition, its urban fabric and community infrastructure will enable the social and cultural values of its future inhabitants.
As for the current increase in the residential and office rents that has put great pressure on family budgets and further caused an increase in the pricing of various products, Al Ahbabi added: “The increase in rents is mainly attributed to large sums of money entering the investment market in the form of institutions and companies after they were lying in banks. As a result of the developments in the private sector and the encouraging regulations in the recent years, these sums were taken out of banks and invested in various activities, which led to an increase in the demand for residential units. Although there were new buildings under construction, they did not meet the demand, especially considering that the percentage of demand is constantly higher, while the new buildings need time to be completed. The average time needed for a building under construction to be completed can be as long as two years, which represents a long gap between supply and demand, and it raises prices.”

Mediterranean Investment Forum "Med Invest 2009"

The Mediterranean Investment Forum "Med Invest 2009" was held in the The InterContinental Dubai Festival City on 26 - 29 March, 2009; under the patronage of Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, and with attendance of more than 500 business leaders and representatives of investment funds from Europe, the Mediterranean and the Arab World. Attending the inauguration was the country's Tourism Minister Elie Marouni as well as a number of envoys to Lebanon.

Also attending was former Minister of Commerce and Industry of Kuwait Yousif Al-Zalzala. Chairman of the Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal Group Raouf Abu Zaki, said that the Arab Economic, Development and Social Summit recently held in Kuwait helped issue a number of strategic decisions that aid Arab economic cooperation, including the unified Arab customs' agreement which begins as of 2010 to be implemented wholly in 2015. Abu Zaki underlined the need for increased Mediterranean-Euro-Arab cooperation in light of today's dire state of the global economy.

Med Invest 2009 organized by BusinessMed, BusinessEurope and Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal, proposes to provide the three following ingredients: Investment needs confidence: Projects of emerging countries, technology: Technology of the European Union and finance: Financing of the Gulf.

Source : http://www.iktissad.com/events/MIF/1

Digital Marketing conference ‘09

The Conference will share the latest methods and techniques for results driven marketers.

• Discover trends in social media which will impact your multi channeled marketing mix. Evaluate how to benefit from online behavioural change to drive your revenues.
• Learn the latest techniques in SEO, SEM and how to use both in partnership to feed traffic to your website. Stay ahead of your competition by understanding how to rank above the fold.
• Optimise your digital marketing strategy and maximise your budget by developing the right strategy and selecting the right tools.

As consumers become increasingly influenced by online activity, digital savy marketers are maximising ROI and winning market share. Join the experts to identify methods which drive results and stay ahead of your competition.

2009 highlights include

• Focused debates with international and regional leaders, providing you with an open forum to discuss which web 2.0 applications are proven to be effective for delivering leads, subscriptions and ROI.
• Case studies with in depth examples of how to develop positive feedback loops delivering quantifiable results for informed decision making.
• Middle East insights providing you with the latest data to adapt your campaigns to improve your bottom line.

Source : AMEInfo