The firm will host an executive congress titled 'Kingdom Expansion Congress 2009' from 11th-13th May 2009 in Riyadh. The three-day congress aims to bring together key government bodies, ministries, urban planning and development authorities, leading infrastructure developers, construction companies, architectural firms, building material manufacturers and suppliers and technology providers from all over the world. The conference is considered of high importance to the development and investment in Saudi Arabia's real estate sector which is expected to remain strong despite project delays and cancellation, according to recent reports from Ventures Middle East. - 2009-04-14 16:01:21

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/552345-riyadh-to-host-kingdom-expansion-congress-2009-from-may-11-13

The UAE's real economic growth will slow to a five-year low of 3.3 per cent in 2009, from an estimated 7.4 per cent last year, the Fund forecast in a report released on Monday on the second-largest Gulf economy. The economy is expected to rebound in 2010, expanding an estimated 4.2 per cent, but the IMF warned that this forecast was "subject to a number of downside risks arising from the difficult global environment as well as domestic financial vulnerabilities in the wake of the recent real estate and credit boom". The IMF's forecasts are already be out of date, and are overly optimistic, said Giyas Gokkent, chief economist at National Bank of Abu Dhabi. The IMF officials' meetings in the UAE were concluded in November last year, and "the report probably did not take into account the severity of what happened in the fourth quarter," said Mr Gokkent. "All the numbers are off." In its report IMF forecast that crude oil production - the main source of revenue and driver of growth in the UAE - will rise to 2.96m barrels a day this year, from 2.91m barrels a day in 2008. But the UAE, a member of the Opec cartel of oil exporters, has cut production down to about 2.25m barrels. The country lacks timely and accurate timely statistics and economists say that evidence suggests the economy continued to deteriorate in the first quarter of 2009, particularly in Dubai, the second-largest city-state of the UAE. A real estate crash in the previously booming emirate has sent shockwaves through the economy, causing thousands of expatriates to lose their jobs and raising concern about the quality of banking loans. The federal government has intervened by injecting billions of dollars into banks and extending a $10bn lifeline to debt-laden Dubai, but most economists expect the economy to contract this year. National Bank of Abu Dhabi is forecasting flat real growth in 2009 and a contraction in nominal terms, said Mr Gokkent. Bank of America -Merrill Lynch analysts predict the economy will shrink 0.6 per cent in real terms. EFG-Hermes, a regional investment bank, forecasts that the UAE's population will drop 5.5 per cent this year, causing the economy to contract 1.7 per cent. "We believe the impact of the global financial crisis will be particularly harsh in Dubai, compared to the other emirates and the rest of the region. This is because of both the highly leveraged and externally facing nature of the Dubai economy," the bank's analysts wrote in a report. - 2009-04-14 15:39:09

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sid20090414_5771_194/IMF%20Sees%20UAE%20Growth%20Slowing