German economic minister visits Oman and Saudi Arabia

On 8th April 2002, Dr. Müller, in his capacity as German co-chairman, opens the 14th session of the German-Saudi Arab Mixed Commission in Jeddah. The Saudi-Arab co-chairman of the Commission is the finance and economics Minister Dr. Al-Assaf.

The German-Arab Mixed Commision is a proven bilateral instrument of co-operation, which was set up to strengthen German-Arab co-operation in the industrial field. Bilateral trade will be one of the subjects of the discussions in Jeddah. For years, Germany has recorded a large trade balance surplus with the Kingdom (2001: German imports from Saudi-Arabia EUR 1 billion; German exports to Saudi-Arabia EUR 3 billion).

Dubai invests in new German chip factory

If all goes well, the Emirate of Dubai will be one of the major investors in a new $250 million chip factory currently under construction in the East German town Frankfurt-on-Oder on the Polish border. An Agreement to that effect was signed late in March 2002 by Dubai, Intel and the Investment Bank of the Land Brandenburg (ILB) with the operator, Communicant Semiconductor Technologies.

More than three quarters of the finance of the high-tech project have been raised by the public-sector, including a $690 million loan from the European Investment Bank and indirect contributions made by the Land Brandenburg Government via the ILB.

The most difficult hurdle still to come is the European Commission in Brussels that watches over competition in the EU, which could veto the use of approximately $290 million in subsidies. The semiconductor factory is scheduled to start production in the third quarter of 2003.


Siemens moves into new Dubai Internet City Regional Office Building

In April this year, the first of 300 company staff will occupy the new 9,300 m² regional office of Germany's electronic giant Siemens at Dubai Internet City, built with an investment of EUR15.5 million. Siemens will then be the largest tenant in the thriving IT and telecommunications free trade zone. Along with Microsoft, Siemens will be one of six global players with an exclusive use of an entire building in the DIC.

Apart from the company's communications department, the regional office in Dubai will also host the Siemens energy department for the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Yemen. Siemens has revenues of EUR1.2 billion from these countries, and, by September 2001, had won new orders worth EUR350 million such as the UAE power station projects Jebel Ali G and Taweelah A2. Recently the company took part in the tender for the 1500MW Shuweihat power station project.