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• 
  WEBINAR: Saudi Gigaprojects 2025

  12 June 2025

  Register now

  Date & Time: Wednesday 25 June 2025 | 11:00 AM GST

  Agenda:

  1. Latest update on the gigaprojects programme and the Saudi projects market in general, with full data analysis of the first five months of 2025

  2. Assessment of recent managerial changes on some gigaprojects plus insight on the ‘pause’ in gigaprojects spending last year and its impact

  3. Analysis on the latest contracts and spending up to the end of May 2025

  4. Highlights of key contracts to be awarded over the next six months

  Autodesk will further explore how technology is transforming the delivery of giga-scale developments – from early concept through design, construction and final handover. This session will highlight how digital workflows, collaboration platforms and data-driven processes are enabling faster decision-making, improving coordination and streamlining execution.

  1. Biggest challenges facing the projects market over the next five years

  2. The role of digital transformation and artificial intelligence and how they help project delivery

  3. Best approach for workflows with digital products with regard to industrialised construction

  4. How digital products improve sustainability efforts

  Click here to register

  

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  MEED Editorial
• 
  Dubai utility proceeds with multiple projects

  12 June 2025

  

   

  Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (Dewa) is pressing ahead with a number of significant tenders, expected to total more than $300m, aimed at enhancing and expanding the emirate’s power and water infrastructure.

  The first scheme, the bids for which are due to be submitted by 18 June, covers the supply and installation of cables at nine 132-kV substations.

  A day later, bids will be submitted for the first of two major contracts to supply and install glass-reinforced epoxy water transmission pipelines across Dubai. Offers for the second contract are due on 17 July.

  A fourth tender is for the construction of a new water reservoir of 45 million imperial gallons in Jebel Ali, with bids due on 10 July.

  Finally, prices will be submitted by 7 August for the contract to build the ABRJSATW, ESKNKWNJ, MDNTAWIR, MDNTLTF MRKZMALI, ORCHIDST, DANAROAD and HORIZON 132/11-kV substations.

  Data from MEED Projects highlights that Dewa awarded $1.52bn-worth of work on electricity transmission and distribution and water storage and distribution projects in 2024.

  ---

  READ THE JUNE 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Gulf accelerates AI and data centre strategy; Baghdad keeps up project spending, but fiscal clouds gather; Banking stocks rise despite lower global oil prices

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Data centres churn investments > AGENDA 2: Gulf seizes AI opportunities > SYRIA: US announces lifting of Syria sanctions > MEED TOP 100: Middle East stocks defy lower oil prices > TOURISM: Abu Dhabi hopes bigger is better with Disney theme park > TRADE: Emerging Gulf-Asia corridor grows despite headwinds  > SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh confirms capital expenditure cuts > INTERVIEW: Mena crucial to Veolia’s growth plan > IRAQ REPORT:  Iraq maintains its pace, for now > GULF PROJECTS INDEX: Gulf projects index leaps 4.3% > CONTRACT AWARDS: Region sees third month of weak awards activity > ECONOMIC DATA: Data drives regional projects > OPINION: Dealmaking trumps the Truman Doctrine

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Edward James
• 
  Prequalification finalised on Morocco road project

  12 June 2025

  

   

  Morocco’s Equipment, Transport & Logistics Ministry has prequalified a number of Chinese and local firms for the three lots of the 40-kilometre (km) section two of the Guercif to Nador highway between Saka and Driouch.

  The prequalified contractors are:

  Lot 1:

  • Mojazine Groupe (Morocco)
  • Les Grands Travaux Routiers (GTR – Morocco)
  • NGE Contracting/Capep (both local)
  • China Road & Bridge Corporation (CRBC)

  Lot 2: 

  • Mojazine Groupe 
  • GTR
  • NGE Contracting with Capep 
  • CRBC
  • SSMT (Morocco)
  • China International Water & Electric Corporation/FHCC (China/Morocco)
  • Societe Bioui Travaux (SBTX – Morocco)
  • Societe Generale des Travaux du Maroc/Sinohydro Bureau 5 (Morocco/China)
  • Staport (Morocco)

  Lot 3:

  • SBTX
  • CRBC
  • GTR
  • Mojazine Group
  • China International Water & Electric Corporation/ FHCC

  Two contractors – China Railway Construction Engineering Group and the local Enterprise Houar – failed to be prequalified.

  The 104km Guercif to Nador highway is being implemented in three sections. Prequalification for section 1 from Guercif to Saka was completed in late March.

  The estimated $700m project, partly funded by the African Development Bank, is part of the kingdom’s plans to upgrade its public infrastructure in preparation for co-hosting the 2030 Fifa World Cup alongside Portugal and Spain. The programme includes the expansion of over 1,000km of highways.

  In May, Societe Nationale des Autoroutes du Maroc awarded MD5bn ($540m) of contracts for nine packages covering construction works on the Rabat-Casablanca continental expressway.

  ---

  READ THE JUNE 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

  Gulf accelerates AI and data centre strategy; Baghdad keeps up project spending, but fiscal clouds gather; Banking stocks rise despite lower global oil prices

  Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the June 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

  > AGENDA 1: Data centres churn investments > AGENDA 2: Gulf seizes AI opportunities > SYRIA: US announces lifting of Syria sanctions > MEED TOP 100: Middle East stocks defy lower oil prices > TOURISM: Abu Dhabi hopes bigger is better with Disney theme park > TRADE: Emerging Gulf-Asia corridor grows despite headwinds  > SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh confirms capital expenditure cuts > INTERVIEW: Mena crucial to Veolia’s growth plan > IRAQ REPORT:  Iraq maintains its pace, for now > GULF PROJECTS INDEX: Gulf projects index leaps 4.3% > CONTRACT AWARDS: Region sees third month of weak awards activity > ECONOMIC DATA: Data drives regional projects > OPINION: Dealmaking trumps the Truman Doctrine

  To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here

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  Edward James
• 
  Who will fund Syria’s $1tn rebuild?

  11 June 2025

  

   

  Following the end of its brutal civil war in December, Syria now faces an enormous task to rebuild its economy and society. More than half of Syrians are thought to have been displaced, either moving within the country or fleeing abroad; 90% of those still there live in poverty, according to the UN.

  The World Bank has estimated that Syria’s GDP shrank by more than half from 2010 to 2020 and it has continued falling since. Just how far it might have dropped is hard to know, given the lack of reliable data. IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said on 22 May the Syrian authorities need to rebuild basic economic institutions “including the ability to produce economic statistics”.

  The cost of turning the economy around is another imponderable. One widely touted estimate is it will take $400bn to rebuild or replace everything broken, but Economy and Industry Minister Mohammad Nidal Al-Shaar has put the figure far higher. He told the Arab Media Summit in Dubai in May: “We need at least $1tn to reconstruct and rebuild a new Syria.”

  For now, the sums coming in are relatively modest, given what is needed. In March, international donors pledged $6.5bn in aid, some of which will be handed out over several years.

  “We don't know if the money's going to pour in, but, if it is going to, it isn't pouring in yet,” says Christopher Phillips, professor of international relations at Queen Mary University of London.

  Commercial deals are being signed, however. The Ministry of Economy and Industry issued 345 industrial licences in the first quarter of 2025, in sectors such as food processing, chemicals and textiles, creating an estimated 4,242 jobs.

  Larger projects are meanwhile generally still in the form of memoranda of understanding (MoUs), rather than definite contracts. In mid-May, for example, Dubai’s DP World signed an $800m MoU to develop and operate a terminal at Tartous Port. Later that month, a consortium led by Qatar’s UCC Holding signed a $7bn MoU to develop five power plants.

  Such agreements have been made possible by the removal of many, though not all, international sanctions. On 23 May, the US lifted most of its trade restrictions on Syria. Ten days earlier, President Donald Trump had pledged to remove the sanctions, following lobbying by Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

  European Union, UK and Japanese sanctions are also being eased.

  On a trip to Damascus in late May, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan said the easing of sanctions would help in “reactivating the Syrian economy”.

  Commerce resumes

  Trade is slowly building up. Phosphates are being shipped from Tartous Port to Romania and more traffic has been passing through the Nassib border crossing with Jordan – in early June, Amman lifted import bans on some Syrian goods.

  There have been other positive signs too. The Damascus Securities Exchange reopened on 2 June, after a six-month pause, and the country is expected to rejoin the Swift international banking network soon.

  Passenger traffic is building up at Damascus International airport, which now has direct links to Turkey, Jordan, the UAE and Qatar. In May, Flydubai became the first UAE carrier to land at Damascus in almost 12 years; Emirates is due to follow by mid-July. Turkish Airlines subsidiary AJet will start flying to the Syrian capital in mid-June.

  However, serious domestic problems remain. In late April, there were armed clashes between Druze factions and government forces in southern Damascus. In early May, government security forces clashed with pro-Assad fighters in the northwest. More than 1,000 people were killed in these incidents.

  President Ahmed Al-Sharaa included a wide range of voices in the cabinet he announced on 29 March, with representatives from the Alawite, Christian, Druze and other minority groups. However, the most important roles went to his former colleagues in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and it is clear he favours a strong, central government with little autonomy given to different groups or regions. Given the government does not control the whole country, that may be a difficult stance to maintain.

  There have also been cross-border issues with Israel, which is occupying a swathe of territory in southern Syria beyond the 1974 ceasefire line and has conducted hundreds of airstrikes on Syria since December. Among the more recent incidents, on 30 May Israel struck what it claimed were missile storage facilities in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartous. Israeli officials also claimed on 3 June that two projectiles had been launched from Syria towards its territory.

  Riyadh has positioned itself as a guarantor and has led the way in re-engaging with Damascus
  Nanar Hawach, International Crisis Group

  Restoring regional relations

  Wider international relations hold the key to the Syrian economy’s prospects. In particular, Gulf countries are a potential source of investment that Al-Sharaa is keen to exploit. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been making the running, while the UAE has been more cautious, not least because of its opposition to Islamist groups gaining political power.

  Al-Sharaa’s pragmatic political approach has brought some useful gains already. The World Bank is planning to restart operations in Syria, after the country’s debts to its International Development Association arm were paid by Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Those two countries are also helping to pay Syrian public sector salaries.

  Saudi Arabia may prove to be the most important Gulf partner going forward, according to some analysts.

  “Saudi Arabia remains the key player shaping the regional response to Syria. Riyadh has positioned itself as a guarantor and has led the way in re-engaging with Damascus,” says Nanar Hawach, a senior analyst covering Syria at the International Crisis Group. “Saudi Arabia sets the tone for how the region deals with Syria.”

  But Syrian officials have also been keen to engage potential investors from further afield, including Turkey, the EU, the US and China.

  “How Al-Sharaa has behaved so far has actually been quite cautious internationally,” says Phillips. “Not trying to align with any one camp or the other, not shutting off avenues. What we're seeing from Syria, is a quite pragmatic approach to foreign affairs.”

  Syrians will be hoping that approach pays off economically before too long.

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  Dominic Dudley
• 
  Record-breaking year for Jordan’s water sector

  11 June 2025

  

   

  Jordan’s utilities sector made a record-breaking start to 2025 with the award of the $3bn Aqaba-Amman water conveyance and desalination project contract. 

  The long-planned project is a major step forward in addressing Jordan’s water scarcity and represents the kingdom’s largest planned water infrastructure project to date. 

  The Aqaba-Amman award means that by the end of May, there had been $3.5bn of contract awards in 2025, according to regional projects tracker MEED Projects, which exceeds the cumulative total for the previous 10 years.

  It is also only the second time on record that Jordan will award more than $1bn-worth of water construction projects in a calendar year. The last time was in 2007, when there were $1.1bn of contract awards.

  The contract for the build, operate and transfer project was signed on 12 January by Jordan’s Ministry of Water & Irrigation and a consortium led by Paris-based firms Meridiam and Suez.

  The project’s desalination plant will have an initial capacity of 300,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d), expandable to 835,000 cm/d, using reverse osmosis technology. It also includes 450 kilometres of pipelines to transport desalinated water from the Gulf of Aqaba to Amman.

  The developer consortium also includes Egypt’s Orascom Construction and France’s Vinci Construction Grands Projets.

  Wastewater tender

  In addition to the Aqaba-Amman project, another significant water development this year is the tendering of package five for the West Irbid wastewater network project. Water Authority Jordan (WAJ) has invited bids for sewerage collection systems and gravity trunk lines for the towns of Soum and Kufr Youba. 

  The project will be financed by a loan and grant administered by the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD). The West Irbid wastewater treatment plant project, for which WAJ secured $30m in financing last year, will treat 12,000 cm/d once completed.

  Power contracts

  In the power sector, there had been $33m of contract awards by the end of May, according to MEED Projects. The full-year total last exceeded $100m in 2022, when there were $111m of contract awards, and the last time there was a significantly large total was in 2018, when there were $910m of contract awards.

  The totals may improve soon. This year, Jordan’s Energy & Mineral Resources Ministry (MEMR) sought interest from firms for a 200MW solar photovoltaic project. This project will be developed on a build, own and operate basis and will connect to the national grid via National Electric Power Company (Nepco).

  Additionally, Nepco plans to procure a gas-fired power station with a design capacity of around 500MW, which is expected to be developed using an independent power project model. Advisers are currently being sought for this project.

  In February, Nepco secured a €67.1m ($70.2m) financing package from the EBRD and the EU. This package, consisting of an EBRD loan of up to $56.5m and an EU investment grant of up to €12.4m ($13m), will fund the construction of a high-voltage electricity substation in northern Jordan.

  This substation aims to improve the grid’s capacity to handle existing and new generation, facilitate cross-border interconnections and reduce transmission losses. The project includes the construction of four overhead transmission lines, supporting Jordan’s renewable energy targets for 2030.

  Regional leader

  Today, solar and wind power account for over 30% of Jordan’s total installed capacity of approximately 7.1GW as of 2023. This makes Jordan one of the leaders in renewable energy installed capacity in the Middle East and North Africa region relative to its overall generation capacity. 

  Completed projects include the 89MW Fujeij wind power plant, which became operational in 2019, and the 373MW Qatrana gas-fired combined-cycle power plant, which was commissioned in 2011. Both are backed by long-term power-purchase agreements with Nepco. 

  These projects highlight Jordan’s ability to attract financing, particularly from GCC states, for its renewable energy projects.

  Reassurance required

  Looking ahead, the status of upcoming water and power projects indicates both progress and challenges. While significant strides have been made with the Aqaba-Amman water project, some projects face delays. 

  According to data from MEED Projects, there are $3.3bn of power projects either under way or planned in Jordan, with generation plants accounting for 59% of this total. 

  Despite Jordan’s strong renewable energy resources and regulatory framework, inconsistencies in energy policy, such as the introduction of additional taxes and reluctance to allocate land for renewable energy projects, have created bottlenecks and reduced investor confidence. This has led to several slow-moving projects.

  The fact that only one developer team submitted a bid for the Aqaba-Amman project shows the limited appetite for large-scale projects and Jordan’s utility sector in general. Smaller water treatment and desalination schemes, as well as power substation projects, have proven to be more successful at attracting bidders. 

  For Jordan to overcome these challenges, it must reassure investors and contractors. The award and successful execution of the $3bn Aqaba-Amman project will go a long way towards providing the market with the reassurance it needs.

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  MEED's July 2025 report on Jordan also includes: 

  > ECONOMY: Jordan economy nears inflection point
  > GAS: Jordan pushes ahead with gas plans

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  Colin Foreman