UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain Sign $2 Bn Industrial Agreements

Egypt, the UAE, Jordan, and Bahrain signed 12 agreements and partnerships in nine integrated industrial projects with an investment value of more than $2 billion at the third Higher Committee meeting of the Industrial Partnership for Sustainable Economic Growth in Amman, Jordan.

The projects are expected to boost the national GDP in the partnering countries by more than $1.6 billion and create approximately 13,000 job opportunities.

Jordan's Prime Minister Bishr al-Khasawneh, Egypt's Minister of Industry and Trade, Ahmed Samir, UAE Minister of Industry and special envoy for climate change Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Jordan's Minister of Industry Yousef al-Shamali, and Bahrain's Minister of Industry Abdulla Adel Fakharo attended the signing ceremony.

Diverse agreements

The Egyptian company Soda Chemical Industries announced an investment of $500 million to produce sodium carbonate, 'soda ash,' the primary raw material in many industries, such as the glass and detergent sector.

The facility will have a production capacity of 500,000 tons annually.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed for a strategic partnership with the Emirates Float Glass Company, owned by Dubai Investments, to purchase the final product.

UAE-based automotive manufacturer M Glory Holding announced the launch of a large manufacturing project with an investment of $550 million to establish three electric vehicle factories with specialized production and assembly lines in the UAE, Jordan, and Egypt.

Production capacity will reach 40,000 compact crossover SUVs during the first three years of operation.

M Glory Holding signed another MoU with the Jordan Design and Development Bureau and Egypt's Arab Organization for Industrialization as manufacturing partners and with Bahrain's GARMCO to supply aluminum sheets.

The agreement exemplifies how the partnership aligns with sustainability objectives and the UAE's presidency of COP28.

Emirati investor-owned CFC Group announced it would invest $400 million to establish an industrial complex for fertilizers and chemicals in Egypt.

It signed MoUs with Jordan-based Arab Potash and Egypt's Misr Phosphate Company to supply raw materials.

The industrial complex will have an annual production capacity of half a ton of fodder, potash fertilizers, and 1.1 tons of chemicals.

Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) announced a $200 million investment to establish a silicon metal plant in the UAE with a production capacity of 55,000 tons annually.

The company signed an MoU with Jordan's Manaseer Group to supply the required crystalline silica.

Manaseer Group announced the expansion of a $70 million magnesium oxide plant in Jordan. Once completed, the plant will have a total production capacity of 270,000 tons annually, which will be exported to the UAE.

It will sell its product to EGA., and production is set to commence in 2024.

UAE's Globalpharma partnered with Egypt's Nerhadou International to develop advanced technology for manufacturing medicines and food supplements.

An agreement was also signed to transfer technology to two Jordanian companies: Savvy Pharma and Triumph. Both projects will commence in 2023 with a total investment value of $60 million and a production capacity of five million packages annually per product.

Jordanian company Itqan announced a technology transfer partnership and contract manufacturing agreement with Globalpharma and ADCAN Pharma to manufacture syringes, aerosols, and inhalers.

It also signed an MoU with Egypt's Marcyrl to transfer technology in manufacturing biosimilars in Jordan with an investment value of $10 million to launch products by Q4 2024.

Bahrain-based Alpha Biotic signed two MoUs for knowledge and technology transfer and contracted manufacturing with Jordan's Dar Al Dawa and Egypt's EIPICO to produce generic, oncology, medical solutions, and other pharmaceutical products.

At an investment value of $174 million over two phases, the project's production capacity is expected to reach 350 million pills annually.

Gulf Biotech, another Bahraini company, announced plans to establish a plant to manufacture raw materials for vaccines and other products at an investment value of $103 million and a production capacity of 105 doses per year.

Gulf Biotech signed a technology transfer agreement with Egypt's BioGeneric Pharma earlier this month.

Developments in the industrial partnership

During the meetings, the Undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology Head of the Partnership's Executive Committee, Omar al-Suwaidi, presented an update on the partnership's progress, the findings of the partnership's workshops, investment opportunities, and plans for developing the partnership.

Suwaidi noted that more than 100 companies have participated in the metals, textiles, and petrochemical workshops held over the past six months.

The partnership has also received 35 proposals for new projects, discussed during workshops held by the Executive Committee in Amman.

The workshops also helped to prepare an implementation plan for enablers in the agriculture, food, fertilizers, and pharmaceutical sectors.

The official announced that the UAE and Jordan made a pharmaceutical mutual recognition agreement.

The committee studies the feasibility and economic impact of projects in various sectors and partnership opportunities with the private sector.

The committee will continue to search for new projects and evaluate and enable projects, including a fertilizer factory in Jordan at an estimated cost of $800 million.

The Executive Committee of the Integrated Industrial Partnership for Sustainable Economic Growth submitted recommendations and a report to the Higher Committee for approval.

It also discussed several potential projects and listened to representatives of industrial companies who presented project proposals.

Egypt's President of the Industrial Development Authority, Mohamed Abdel Kareem, briefed the committee on agricultural, fertilizer, and food developments.

Jordan's Secretary General of the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Supply, Dana al-Zoubi, gave a presentation on developments in the pharmaceutical sector in her country.

Bahrain's Undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry, Iman al-Dosari, also briefly discussed the developments in minerals, petrochemicals, and textiles.

The World Bank on Thursday warned that US across-the-board tariffs of 10% could reduce already lackluster global economic growth of 2.7% in 2025 by 0.3 percentage point if America's trading partners retaliate with tariffs of their own.
Such tariffs, promised by US President-elect Donald Trump, could cut US growth - forecast to reach 2.3% in 2025 - by 0.9% if retaliatory measures are imposed, the bank said, citing economic simulations. But it noted that US growth could also increase by 0.4 percentage point in 2026 if US tax cuts were extended, it said, with only small global spillovers.
Trump, who takes office Monday, has proposed a 10% tariff on global imports, a 25% punitive duty on imports from Canada and Mexico until they clamp down on drugs and migrants crossing borders into the US, and a 60% tariff on Chinese goods.
The World Bank's latest Global Economic Prospect report, issued twice yearly, forecast flat global economic growth of 2.7% in 2025 and 2026, the same as in 2024, and warned that developing economies now faced their weakest long-term growth outlook since 2000, Reuters said.
The multilateral development bank said foreign direct investment into developing economies was now about half the level seen in the early 2000s and global trade restrictions were five times higher than the 2010-2019 average.
It said growth in developing countries is expected to reach 4% in 2025 and 2026, well below pre-pandemic estimates due to high debt burdens, weak investment and sluggish productivity growth, along with rising costs of climate change.
Overall output in emerging markets and development economies was expected to remain more than 5% below its pre-pandemic trend by 2026, due to the pandemic and subsequent shocks, it said.
"The next 25 years will be a tougher slog for developing economies than the last 25," World Bank chief economist Indermit Gil said in a statement, urging countries to adopt domestic reforms to encourage investment and deepen trade relations.
Economic growth in developing countries dropped from nearly 6% in the 2000s to 5.1% in the 2010s and was averaging about 3.5% in the 2020s, the bank said.
It said the gap between rich and poor countries was also widening, with average per capita growth rates in developing countries, excluding China and India, averaging half a percentage point below those in wealth economies since 2014.
The somber outlook echoed comments made last week by the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, ahead of the global lender's own new forecast, to be released on Friday.
"Over the next two years, developing economies could face serious headwinds," the World Bank report said.
"High global policy uncertainty could undercut investor confidence and constrain financing flows. Rising trade tensions could reduce global growth. Persistent inflation could delay expected cuts in interest rates."
The World Bank said it saw more downside risks for the global economy, citing a surge in trade-distorting measures implemented mainly by advanced economies and uncertainty about future policies that was dampening investment and growth.
Global trade in goods and services, which expanded by 2.7% in 2024, is expected to reach an average of about 3.1% in 2025-2026, but to remain below pre-pandemic averages.

UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain Sign $2 Bn Industrial Agreements