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Interviews

GCC leaders gathered in Riyadh last month. Free trade talks with the UK are continuing

UK-GCC free trade deal is still best bet, says minister

Britain’s investment minister has told AGBI he still supports a free trade agreement between the UK and the GCC, despite the protracted negotiations and calls for Gulf states to strike bilateral deals instead.  Speaking on the sidelines of the Arab British Economic Summit in London on Monday, Dominic Johnson, a minister of state in the […]

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths

DXB to grow to ‘absolute maximum’ ahead of airlines’ move

Dubai International Airport is to be expanded “to its absolute maximum” in the next few years, its operator has told AGBI, so there is time to prepare the city’s second airport for the arrival of Emirates’ and Flydubai’s entire fleets. Dubai Airports’ CEO, Paul Griffiths, added that the development plans for Al Maktoum International (DWC) […]

Riyadh Air Saudi aviation

Riyadh Air positions Saudi as major player in Gulf aviation

Gulf airlines are bracing for an escalating challenge from Saudi Arabia’s new global carrier Riyadh Air, which is scheduled for take-off in 2025. The highly hyped airline, whose launch was first revealed by the kingdom in March, is targeting 100 destinations in its first five years.  This is a scale of ambition likely to reshape […]

Wind turbine against blue sky with blurred green foreground greenwashing environment Video length: 04:43
  • Video

Masdar City exec: Let’s talk about greenwashing

Greenwashing – a deceitful marketing gimmick where companies exaggerate their environmental actions – is “egregious” as it takes advantage of a movement that affects everyone on earth, according to Bill Weir, CNN’s chief climate correspondent.  A recent global survey conducted by US-based The Harris Poll and sponsored by Google Cloud found that six out of […]

The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra during a concert held in the General Assembly Hall at United Nations headquarters

The Gulf has a rich musical heritage – it needs an audience

When the Saudi National Orchestra made its New York debut in September, a centrepiece of the 80-member ensemble was a large green oil barrel.  While serving as a wry reference to the US-Saudi special relationship, it also made a serviceable drum. For an evening, the pounding rhythms of majrour, samri and liwa brought the traditional […]

A salmon farm in the Isle of Skye

Scotland to forge GCC trade links independently of UK

Scotland will continue to build relations throughout the region even after a long-awaited trade deal between the UK and the GCC is signed, according to a government minister. Neil Gray, Scotland’s cabinet secretary for wellbeing economy, fair work and energy, signed a memorandum of understanding in the UAE last week with Dr Thani bin Ahmed […]

Hydrogen power: Abu Dhabi hopes that a carbon certification scheme for hydrogen it plans to lead will be adopted globally

Abu Dhabi plans hydrogen carbon certification framework

Abu Dhabi plans to roll out a carbon certification framework for the hydrogen industry next year in a bid to become a leader in developing the clean fuel.  The emirate plans to apply the framework to both its production and use of hydrogen, Carlos Gasco Travesedo, energy policy adviser and executive director at Abu Dhabi […]

SLB has secured contracts with Saudi Aramco

SLB predicts record Middle East oilfield services revenue

SLB, the world’s largest oilfield services company, is predicting record revenue growth in the Middle East this year, as the region’s oil and gas companies ramp up capacity levels. The US company reported that international revenue rose 12 percent to $6.6 billion in the third quarter, its highest level since 2015. Opportunities in the GCC, […]

Oil rigs in the harbour in Sharjah.

Give private sector green incentives, says Sharjah oil CEO

While the state-owned Sharjah National Oil Corporation plans to use its depleted fossil fuel resources to store carbon, its CEO believes that private companies are unlikely to follow Snoc’s green ambitions voluntarily, unless they are given incentives to act. The innovation could help to halve the UAE’s carbon emissions, but the company is owned by […]

Baseball United CEO Kash Shaikh (left) launches Dubai Wolves and Abu Dhabi Falcons, the first professional baseball franchises in the Gulf

Baseball ready to strike home run in the Middle East

When the opening pitch is thrown at Dubai International Stadium in November it will signal the official start of the first ever professional baseball league in the Middle East and South Asia. And the power broker behind the ambitious project hopes the 25,000-seater venue will be at least a quarter full to mark the inaugural […]

Acwa Power CEO Marco Arcelli says it is the 'only company in the world that is a leader' in renewables, desalination and green hydrogen

Acwa Power bids to turbocharge Saudi’s green targets

When it comes to the green transition, Saudi Arabia has got some catching up to do. The country is targeting a 50-50 split in electricity generation between renewables and gas by 2030, but in 2021 just 0.2 percent of electricity came from renewable sources. To achieve this Vision 2030 goal, the country has tasked its […]

Women GCC leadership Video length: 03:22

Only 7% of GCC board seats are held by women

Only 7 percent of board seats in the GCC are held by women compared to 20 percent globally, a report by Bain & Company says. “There is an issue in retaining, mentoring and supporting women to make it all the way to CEO positions and the board,” said Karen Khalaf, partner at Bain & Company […]

Hamish Harding founded the UAE business jets brokerage Action Aviation

Hamish Harding: British billionaire in the UAE

Hamish Harding was one of the five people who died on the Titan submersible in the Atlantic on June 18. He founded Action Aviation, a UAE-based international aircraft brokerage company, and was chair of the Middle East chapter of The Explorers Club. Read below AGBI’s interview with him last September, when he had just been […]

David von Rosen

Lottoland founder bets on softened gambling rules in UAE

The entrepreneur behind the global lottery betting platform Lottoland is confident that he will one day be able to offer the service in the UAE. David von Rosen-von Hoewel, an international investor and founder of businesses in fashion, finance and gaming, said plans for the UAE’s first casino in Ras Al Khaimah put forward by […]

Thomas Pramotedham, CEO at Presight, is confident the company can use its data analytics in the climate change sector

Presight to use IPO as springboard to global expansion

Big data and analytics company Presight is targetting international expansion once they have listed later this month. The firm, part of Abu Dhabi’s G42, plans to raise $495 million from its floating on the ADX. The subscription period for the initial public offering (IPO), which was 136 times oversubscribed, closed on Friday with a total […]

Gulf countries are still playing catch-up on the fintech boom following the financial crisis of 2008-09

Gulf edges closer to its first homegrown tech unicorn

The Gulf region is two years away from realising its first tech unicorn, according to Mohammad Alblooshi, head of Dubai International Financial Centre’s Fintech Hive. Becoming a unicorn – a company with a valuation over $1 billion before being listed on the stock exchange – is the dream of many tech startups. In the fintech […]

Jason Atherton

Chef Jason Atherton sees Dubai as hotspot for restaurant openings

When British restaurateur and celebrity chef Jason Atherton was searching for the location of his latest business venture, Dubai was a no-brainer. He met and married his wife Irha in the emirate and is quick to describe Dubai as “like a second home to me”. The launch of City Social, which opened its doors earlier […]

UAE’s centre stage in Bollywood blockbusters

The UAE is set to become a major post-production and financing hub for the Bollywood film industry. Acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur told AGBI: “Infrastructure for filmmaking is coming up in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and more Indian filmmakers will come to the UAE to make their films. There are very good studio facilities in Dubai […]

Stuart Deeson is the new VP of operations for the Middle East and Africa at Hyatt Hotels

‘Constantly evolving’ Mena key to Hyatt growth plan, says new VP

Hyatt Hotels, the US-based hospitality giant, is placing emphasis on the Middle East and Africa for its global growth strategy. Stuart Deeson, newly appointed vice president of operations for the region at Hyatt, told AGBI that Saudi Arabia in particular was witnessing a “significant point in history”. He also believes Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco offer […]

Horacio Pagani, Argentine-Italian founder, CEO and chief design officer at his supercar company

Cars, property and superjets: Pagani plots future with PIF

Horacio Pagani, founder of the supercar that bears his name, is open to further partnerships with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund as his company expands into luxury real estate and private jet design. PIF acquired a 30 percent stake in the Italian business in 2021. Pagani, who acts as its CEO and chief design officer, […]