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The credit crunch is slowing down the pace of investments, but the announcement that a Dubai government flagship is to ‘invest $16bn’ in Nigeria serves as a reminder of the extent to which Gulf investors have sought out new business in Africa. GSN has tracked the move of Gulf business players into the continent over a long period, and can record some real investments as well as the usual welter of statements of intent that mark the entry of apparently ever more Arab investors into African business.

Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) and his sons Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan and Dubai Culture and Arts Authority chairman Sheikh Majid have held talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi.

Outspoken younger generation businessman (and blogger) Sheikh Sultan Bin Saud Al-Qasimi has written an article in Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper, saying there should be no space for elitism in the Gulf

Crown Prince Al-Qasimi has held talks with Zambia’s Finance Minister.

In September, Dubai’s ETA Star Holdings was named as part of a consortium awarded the 10,957km2 Block B in Mozambique. Other members are Pakistan-focused Orient Petroleum International (run by Pakistan’s wealthy Hashwani family) and the local Osho Energia Limitada.

Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum

Al Maktoums: Family wedding attracts big guns but is then postponed, MBR and others: Victory in the new sport of kings

Five country ratification is the first hurdle. Policy and structural detail will have to follow soon if markets are to take the GCC’s monetary union plan seriously.

Reports in French newspapers suggest that Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani may not have his way over a multi-million dollar renovation of the Hotel Lambert in Paris. Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë has said the Emir’s plans for the building, built in 1639 and part of a Unesco world heritage site, include underground parking, new elevatorsand additions to the living areas. “This is a real threat to a gem of Paris heritage, the only private house from the end of Louis the XIII’s reign that remains untouched’’.

Fujairah Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Al-Sharqi has spoken about his emirate’s crippling electricity shortages, inflation woes and other policy issues (GSN 797/2).

Like many of the Gulf territories, RAK has not had the easiest of successions. Ruler Sheikh Saqr came to power in 1948, after deposing his uncle and father-in-law Sheikh Sultan

Manoeuvrings for refinancing one of the GCC region’s most important energy transfer projects, the Dolphin Energy Ltd (DEL) gas pipeline between Qatar and the UAE, are expected to accelerate in the New Year, although bankers are remaining tight-lipped on details. The Dolphin refinancing will replace some

A flurry of diplomatic missions to Algiers during November emphasised the strengthening trade and investment bonds within the Middle East and North Africa region: defence deals were on the agenda.

The Lootah Group is one of the oldest merchant families in the UAE and joins a string of investors that have recently signed agreements in Somalia and its neighbouring countries. Despite a brutal civil war between Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian military forces, some areas of the fractured state remain relatively sheltered and are seen as ‘virgin territories’ ripe for exploration and investment.

Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) has had his usual round of meetings in the first half of November