Doha works to reclaim spotlight
30 January 2025
Commentary
John Bambridge
Analysis editor
Four years on from the diplomatic crisis in the Gulf, and two years after the 2022 Fifa World Cup, Qatar has appeared in recent years to have lost some of its relevance relative to its larger neighbours, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
As those two countries have pushed forward with ambitious strategic projects and new infrastructure, the trajectory of Qatar has been less clear. Once a prominent diplomatic powerhouse in the Gulf, Doha saw its influence wane in 2017 amid the infighting within the GCC.
But the past 18 months have been a diplomatic redemption for the country, with the instrumental role that Qatar has played in negotiations between Israel and Hamas placing it front and centre of regional mediation.
As a now-favoured ear of the US and meeting place of Hamas officials and Mossad representatives alike, Qatar has regained a measure of its regional primacy – recalling its diplomatic spree in 2008-16, when Doha mediated and forged peace agreements in about 10 regional and international conflicts.
Now, Qatar has mediated two ceasefires in 18 months, with the latter potentially representing the deal that recements regional peace – though this remains subject to the resolve of US President Donald Trump.
Doha’s economic undercurrent is also swelling. The total value of the country’s project awards in 2024, which stood at $18.6bn, beat every other year since 2015 except for 2021, when spending spiked to $27.7bn ahead of the World Cup.
The value of project awards last year also exceeded project completions by $9bn, in a significant expansion of the active value in the market and a highly positive sign for the contracting sector.
There is also a broader, steady resilience to Qatar’s gas-fuelled economy that defies the vicissitudes of its oil-exporting neighbours, with the country maintaining both current account and fiscal surpluses, while steadily etching away at its debt, which spiked in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tourism is an emerging success story for Doha, with visitor numbers surging from 2.6 million in 2022 to over 5.1 million in 2024, and now major new development and touristic schemes – such as the Simaisma project with its 16 planned tourist zones across eight square kilometres – are going ahead.
The newly expanded Hamad International airport, which already handles nearly 53 million passengers annually, will support this, alongside other facets of Qatar’s Third National Development Strategy.
Altogether, Doha’s new multipronged approach – leveraging a combination of diplomatic soft power, tourism, renewed infrastructure spending and strategic economic planning – appears to be working effectively to reposition Qatar as an adaptive economic and political power in the global landscape.
This month's special report on Qatar includes:
> GOVERNMENT & ECONOMY: Qatar economy rebounds alongside diplomatic activity
> BANKING: Qatar banks look to calmer waters in 2025
> UPSTREAM: QatarEnergy strives to raise gas and oil production capacity
> DOWNSTREAM: Qatar chemical projects take a step forward
> POWER & WATER: Facility E award jumpstarts Qatar’s utility projects
> CONSTRUCTION: Qatar construction shows signs of recovery
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Firm to build Ooredoo’s Gulf fibre optic network
30 January 2025
Doha-headquartered Ooredoo Group has signed an agreement to build a new submarine cable connecting seven countries in the region with France's Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN).
Known as Fibre in Gulf (FIG) project, the network will link Qatar, Oman, the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.
Ooredoo said the project will provide all GCC states "low-latency, shorter and secure route" to a new corridor connecting Europe with up to 24 fibre pairs and a capacity of up to 720 terabytes per second (tbps).
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It said: "This advanced infrastructure will deliver exceptional connectivity benefits to hyperscalers, business customers, governments, artificial intelligence (AI) providers, data centres and telecom operators, by enhancing network reliability and security, as well as significantly enhancing connection speeds."
Ooredoo is ramping up investment to secure its role as a leading digital infrastructure provider in the region.
Recent initiatives cover AI, data centres, submarine cable systems, fintech, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
Its subsidiary, Ooredoo Oman, last year signed an agreement to land the 2Africa Cable System in Barka and Salalah in Oman.
In July, Ooredoo signed QR2bn ($546.2m) of financing from three local banks to expand its data centre network.
Qatar National Bank, Doha Bank and Masraf Al-Rayan agreed to provide the 10-year financing facility to help expand the firm's existing data centre network to meet demand for future AI applications.
The financing deal comes three months after Nvidia signed a deal to deploy its AI technology at data centres owned by Ooredoo in Qatar and five other countries: Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait and the Maldives.
The deal will make Ooredoo the first company in the region that can give its data centre clients in those countries direct access to Nvidia's AI and GPU technology.
The Middle East region – mainly Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Qatar – has a data centre operational capacity of about 340MW, which is expected to rise to around 537MW by 2029, according to US-based real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
Photo credit: Ooredoo
https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/13350784/main.jpg -
Saudi government awards $8.7bn telecoms contract
30 January 2025
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Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has announced signing a contract worth SR32.64bn with a Saudi government entity.
The contract covers the build, operation and provision of telecommunications infrastructure services over 15 years.
STC did not disclose the name of the government entity that awarded the contract.
The project duration for the preparation and execution of the project is 18 months, followed by 15 years of project operation, the firm said in a statement issued on 28 January.
In November last year, STC Group announced nine-month revenues and net profit of SR56.6bn and SR11.2bn, respectively.
The firm said at the time that it remains committed to enabling digital transformation in various vital sectors in Saudi Arabia through investment in digital infrastructure such as 5G, fibre optics and data centres.
It added: “The group continued its investment in advanced technologies like cloud computing, Internet of Things and fintech, while enhancing its cybersecurity capabilities.”
READ MEED’s YEARBOOK 2025MEED’s 16th highly prized flagship Yearbook publication is available to read, offering subscribers analysis on the outlook for the Mena region’s major markets.
Published on 31 December 2024 and distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the MEED Yearbook 2025 includes:
> PROJECTS: Another bumper year for Mena projects> GIGAPROJECTS INDEX: Gigaproject spending finds a level> INFRASTRUCTURE: Dubai focuses on infrastructure> US POLITICS: Donald Trump’s win presages shake-up of global politics> REGIONAL ALLIANCES: Middle East’s evolving alliances continue to shift> DOWNSTREAM: Regional downstream sector prepares for consolidation> CONSTRUCTION: Bigger is better for construction> TRANSPORT: Transport projects driven by key trends> PROJECTS: Gulf projects index continues ascension> CONTRACTS: Mena projects market set to break records in 2024https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/13350333/main.jpg -
Consortiums form for Saudi Secured Zone project
30 January 2025
Several teams and firms are preparing to bid for a contract to develop and upgrade five major land ports in Saudi Arabia.
Known as the Secured Zone Project, it entails upgrading the facilities at five land ports to enable the implementation of new customs’ concept of operations, according to an industry source.
The project client is Saudi Arabia’s Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (Zatca), which is procuring the project with the National Centre for Privatisation and PPP (NCP).
The five land ports are located in Al-Haditha, Halat Ammar, Al-Durrah, Al-Khafji and Wadiah.
The contract was first tendered in 2022 after Zatca and NCP prequalified nine companies that could bid for the project, which initially covered the five land ports plus another one in Al-Batha.
However, the project was re-scoped after Zatca reportedly received three proposals, resulting in the ongoing rebid process.
Zatca and NCP expect to receive bids for the retendered contract in April.
In 2022, the companies that were prequalified to bid for the contract were:
- Alghanim International General Trading (Kuwait)
- Modern Building Leaders Company (local)
- China Harbour Engineering Company (consortium)
- Vision Invest (local)
- El-Seif for Commercial Investments (local)
- Al-Rajhi Holding Group (local)
- Al-Yamama Company (local)
- Al-Kifah Holding Company (local)
- Serco Saudi Arabia
The retendered contract covers the design, finance and build or retrofit of the Secured Zones’ facilities and infrastructure, including equipping the land ports with specialised equipment required for the concept of operations.
The maintenance duration for the infrastructure is 20 years and seven years for the equipment.
The source said the total contract value could fetch up to $2bn.
Photo credit: Pixabay, for illustrative purposes only
READ MEED’s YEARBOOK 2025MEED’s 16th highly prized flagship Yearbook publication is available to read, offering subscribers analysis on the outlook for the Mena region’s major markets.
Published on 31 December 2024 and distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the MEED Yearbook 2025 includes:
> PROJECTS: Another bumper year for Mena projects> GIGAPROJECTS INDEX: Gigaproject spending finds a level> INFRASTRUCTURE: Dubai focuses on infrastructure> US POLITICS: Donald Trump’s win presages shake-up of global politics> REGIONAL ALLIANCES: Middle East’s evolving alliances continue to shift> DOWNSTREAM: Regional downstream sector prepares for consolidation> CONSTRUCTION: Bigger is better for construction> TRANSPORT: Transport projects driven by key trends> PROJECTS: Gulf projects index continues ascension> CONTRACTS: Mena projects market set to break records in 2024https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/13349960/main.jpg -
Firms await Shoaiba and Shuqaiq IPP tenders
30 January 2025
Utility developers and contractors are awaiting the procurement timeline for Saudi Arabia’s next gas-fired independent power projects (IPPs) in Shoaiba and Al-Shuqaiq.
The principal buyer, Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC), cancelled the transaction advisory tender for the initial next set of gas-fired IPPs, the 2,400MW Al-Rais IPP and the 3,600MW Riyadh 16 IPP, MEED reported in November.
Industry sources told MEED that instead of procuring the Al-Rais and Riyadh 16 plants, SPPC was now planning to procure two new gas-fired power plants in Shoaiba and Al-Shuqaiq.
As of January, SPPC has not yet appointed or confirmed a transaction advisory team for the Shoaiba and Al-Shuqaiq IPPs, according to industry sources.
This could imply that the tender for utility developers may not be ready before 2026.
The advisory work will determine the final capacities of both power plants, whose tentative capacities are estimated at 2,600MW each.
“I believe there is an ongoing review of the kingdom’s electricity demand growth and supply, and they may not start the procurement process for the Shoaiba and Al-Shuqaiq IPPs until that is completed,” one of the sources told MEED.
SPPC awarded the contracts to develop four combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants with a total combined capacity of 7.2GW in 2024. It awarded the same capacity in 2023.
The new CCGT plants will replace ageing fleets that run on liquid fuel as well as boost baseload capacity as the ratio of renewable power in the grid increases in line with a target to reach 50% by 2030.
Mena generation capacity
The overall power generation capacity across 17 Middle East and North Africa (Mena) countries is expected to rise from 442.5GW in 2020 to 633.5GW by 2030, according to a forecast by GlobalData last year.
This equates to a compounded average growth rate of over 4% annually during the forecast period.
The total estimated power capacity across the 17 countries as of 2023 was 484.3GW.
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Published on 31 December 2024 and distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the MEED Yearbook 2025 includes:
> PROJECTS: Another bumper year for Mena projects> GIGAPROJECTS INDEX: Gigaproject spending finds a level> INFRASTRUCTURE: Dubai focuses on infrastructure> US POLITICS: Donald Trump’s win presages shake-up of global politics> REGIONAL ALLIANCES: Middle East’s evolving alliances continue to shift> DOWNSTREAM: Regional downstream sector prepares for consolidation> CONSTRUCTION: Bigger is better for construction> TRANSPORT: Transport projects driven by key trends> PROJECTS: Gulf projects index continues ascension> CONTRACTS: Mena projects market set to break records in 2024https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/13349817/main.gif -
Turkish firm wins Kuwait rail link design contract30 January 2025
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Kuwait’s Public Authority for Roads & Transportation (Part) has awarded an estimated KD2.4m ($8m) contract to Turkiye’s Proyapi Muhendislik ve Musavirlik Anonim Sirketi.
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The report added that the design works are expected to be completed within one year.
In early January, MEED reported that Part was preparing to award the contract to the selected bidder.
In November 2024, MEED reported that Kuwait’s Central Authority for Public Tenders (Capt) received five offers for the tender, and that Turkiye’s Proyapi Muhendislik ve Musavirlik Anonim Sirketi submitted the lowest bid with a price of KD2.4m ($8m). This was less than half the price of the KD6.7m bid submitted by China Railway Siyuan Survey & Design Group Company.
The other two bidders were Spain’s Sener, with a price of KD8.8m, and France’s Systra, with a price of KD9.7m.
In September 2023, MEED reported that Part received initial offers for the study and detailed design work for phase one of the project.
The KNRR forms part of the GCC rail network. GCC railway projects have been progressing with renewed impetus following the signing of the Al-Ula declaration by the six member states in January 2021.
READ MEED’s YEARBOOK 2025MEED’s 16th highly prized flagship Yearbook publication is available to read, offering subscribers analysis on the outlook for the Mena region’s major markets.
Published on 31 December 2024 and distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the MEED Yearbook 2025 includes:
> PROJECTS: Another bumper year for Mena projects> GIGAPROJECTS INDEX: Gigaproject spending finds a level> INFRASTRUCTURE: Dubai focuses on infrastructure> US POLITICS: Donald Trump’s win presages shake-up of global politics> REGIONAL ALLIANCES: Middle East’s evolving alliances continue to shift> DOWNSTREAM: Regional downstream sector prepares for consolidation> CONSTRUCTION: Bigger is better for construction> TRANSPORT: Transport projects driven by key trends> PROJECTS: Gulf projects index continues ascension> CONTRACTS: Mena projects market set to break records in 2024https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/13349787/main.gif