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

Jordan's Prime Minister Bishr al-Khasawneh, surrounded by ministers of Egypt, UAE, Jordan, and Bahrain at the signing ceremony in Amman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Jordan's Prime Minister Bishr al-Khasawneh, surrounded by ministers of Egypt, UAE, Jordan, and Bahrain at the signing ceremony in Amman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
    Amman, Cairo - Asharq Al-Awsat
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UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain Sign $2 Bn Industrial Agreements

Jordan's Prime Minister Bishr al-Khasawneh, surrounded by ministers of Egypt, UAE, Jordan, and Bahrain at the signing ceremony in Amman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Jordan's Prime Minister Bishr al-Khasawneh, surrounded by ministers of Egypt, UAE, Jordan, and Bahrain at the signing ceremony in Amman (Asharq Al-Awsat)

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.

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Business

China's Finance Ministry: Fiscal Policies Will be More 'Proactive' in 2026

A man walks on a street in Beijing, China, 24 December 2025. EPA/WU HAO
A man walks on a street in Beijing, China, 24 December 2025. EPA/WU HAO
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China's Finance Ministry: Fiscal Policies Will be More 'Proactive' in 2026

A man walks on a street in Beijing, China, 24 December 2025. EPA/WU HAO
A man walks on a street in Beijing, China, 24 December 2025. EPA/WU HAO

China's finance ministry on Sunday said fiscal policies will be more proactive next year, reiterating its focus on domestic demand, technological innovation and a social safety net.

The statement comes as trading partners urge the world's second-biggest economy to reduce its reliance on exports, underscoring the urgency to revive confidence at home where a prolonged property crisis has rippled ⁠through the economy, weighing on sentiment.

China will boost consumption and actively expand investment in new productive forces and people's overall development, the ministry said in a statement after a two-day meeting at which it set ⁠2026 goals.

In addition, Reuters quoted the ministry as saying that it will support innovation to foster new growth engines, and improve the social security system by providing better healthcare and education services.

Other tasks for next year include promoting integration between urban and rural areas, and propelling China's transformation into a greener society.

China is likely to stick to ⁠its annual economic growth target of around 5% in 2026, government advisers and analysts told Reuters, a goal that would require authorities to keep fiscal and monetary spigots open as they seek to snap a deflationary spell.

Leaders this month promised to maintain a "proactive" fiscal policy next year that would stimulate both consumption and investment to maintain high economic growth.

Business

Bulgaria Adopts Euro Amid Fear and Uncertainty

Customers shop in a grocery store in the village of Chuprene, northwestern Bulgaria on December 7, 2025. (Photo by Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP)
Customers shop in a grocery store in the village of Chuprene, northwestern Bulgaria on December 7, 2025. (Photo by Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP)
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Bulgaria Adopts Euro Amid Fear and Uncertainty

Customers shop in a grocery store in the village of Chuprene, northwestern Bulgaria on December 7, 2025. (Photo by Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP)
Customers shop in a grocery store in the village of Chuprene, northwestern Bulgaria on December 7, 2025. (Photo by Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP)

Bulgaria will become the 21st country to adopt the euro on Thursday, but some believe the move could bring higher prices and add to instability in the European Union's poorest country.

A protest campaign emerged this year to "keep the Bulgarian lev", playing on public fears of price rises and a generally negative view of the euro among much of the population.

But successive governments have pushed to join the eurozone and supporters insist it will boost the economy, reinforce ties to the West and protect against Russia's influence.

The single currency first rolled out in 12 countries on January 1, 2002, and has since regularly extended its influence, with Croatia the last country to join in 2023.

But Bulgaria faces unique challenges, including anti-corruption protests that recently swept a conservative-led government from office, leaving the country on the verge of its eighth election in five years.

Boryana Dimitrova of the Alpha Research polling institute, which has tracked public opinion on the euro for a year, told AFP any problems with euro adoption would be seized on by anti-EU politicians.

Any issues will become "part of the political campaign, which creates a basis for rhetoric directed against the EU", she said.

While far-right and pro-Russia parties have been behind several anti-euro protests, many people, especially in poor rural areas, worry about the new currency.

"Prices will go up. That's what friends of mine who live in Western Europe told me," Bilyana Nikolova, 53, who runs a grocery store in the village of Chuprene in northwestern Bulgaria, told AFP.

The latest survey by the EU's polling agency Eurobarometer suggested 49 percent of Bulgarians were against the single currency.

After hyperinflation in the 1990s, Bulgaria pegged its currency to the German mark and then to the euro, making the country dependent on the European Central Bank (ECB).

"It will now finally be able to take part in decision making within this monetary union," Georgi Angelov, senior economist at the Open Society Institute in Sofia, told AFP.

An EU member since 2007, Bulgaria joined the so-called "waiting room" to the single currency in 2020, at the same time as Croatia.

The gains of joining the euro are "substantial", ECB president Christine Lagarde said last month in Sofia, citing "smoother trade, lower financing costs and more stable prices".

Small and medium-sized enterprises stand to save an equivalent of some 500 million euros ($580 million) in exchange fees, she added.

One sector expected to benefit in the Black Sea nation is tourism, which this year generated around eight percent of the country's GDP.

Lagarde predicted the impact on consumer prices would be "modest and short-lived", saying in earlier euro changeovers, the impact was between 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points.

But consumers -- already struggling with inflation -- fear they will not be able to make ends meet, according to Dimitrova.

Food prices in November were up five percent year-on-year, according to the National Statistical Institute, more than double the eurozone average.

Parliament this year adopted empowered oversight bodies to investigate sharp price hikes and curb "unjustified" surges linked to the euro changeover.

But analysts fear wider political uncertainty risks delaying much needed anti-corruption reforms, which could have a knock-on effect on the wider economy.

"The challenge will be to have a stable government for at least one to two years, so we can fully reap the benefits of joining the euro area," Angelov said.

Business

Syria Prepares to Launch New Currency Amid Major Challenges

Syrian Central Bank Governor Abdulkader Husrieh (X)
Syrian Central Bank Governor Abdulkader Husrieh (X)
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Syria Prepares to Launch New Currency Amid Major Challenges

Syrian Central Bank Governor Abdulkader Husrieh (X)
Syrian Central Bank Governor Abdulkader Husrieh (X)

Syria’s central bank governor, Abdulkader Husrieh, said the new Syrian pound is not merely a means of exchange but a symbol of the success of the Syrian revolution, national belonging, and confidence in the country’s ability to recover.

In a Facebook post, Husrieh said that with the launch of the new currency, Syrians were not just celebrating a banknote, but also celebrating their sovereignty and national identity, noting that many international experiences show that national currencies become strong when people rally around them, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.

He pointed to Germany’s experience, where the introduction of the mark after the war marked the starting point of economic recovery, and to France, where the new French franc became the financial symbol of the new republic, known as the Fifth Republic.

Husrieh said the central bank would carry out its role with a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities, while committing to responsibility, transparency, and the protection of the national currency. He added that the cornerstone remains public solidarity and trust, because a strong currency begins with the people's belief in it.

He called for turning the launch into a dignified national occasion through which Syrians express awareness, confidence, and adherence to the pound as a symbol of sovereignty and a national choice.

Husrieh added that supporting the pound is supporting the nation, and taking pride in it is a matter of pride in the future for Syrians and their children. He described the move as an opportunity for a new success following the success of the revolution in liberation and the lifting of economic sanctions that had shackled Syria’s economy for nearly fifty years.

Husrieh had recently announced that Jan. 1, 2026, would mark the launch of the new Syrian currency and the start of the exchange process for the old notes, with the exchange to be carried out through 66 companies and 1,000 designated outlets.

Restoring confidence

Political and economic researcher Bassel Kouwefi said the exchange plans, if well implemented, could serve as an entry point for rebuilding confidence in the national economy, encouraging domestic investment, and paving the way for broader reforms in the financial sector. However, he warned against failing to address the root causes of inflation and economic collapse during the previous regime's rule.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Kouwefi described currency exchange and the removal of zeros as complex economic measures.

He said their main benefits include simplifying daily transactions, reducing the volume of banknotes in circulation, boosting confidence in stability, lowering printing and transportation costs, simplifying accounting records and financial software, and reducing currency speculation driven by corruption networks seeking to undermine stability in Syria.

Kouwefi said the exchange plans, if well-executed, could help restore confidence in the macroeconomy, but stressed the challenges posed by failing to tackle the fundamental causes of past inflation and collapse, including fiscal deficits, instability, and weak production. He said a comprehensive economic and financial program was therefore essential.

He added that the process also requires strong banking infrastructure, an organized transition period, and sufficient liquidity in the new denominations.

He said these remain major challenges under current Syrian conditions, alongside the need to mitigate social impacts that could lead to public confusion, market exploitation, and difficulties for less informed segments of society.