The Gateway to African Investment

TRANSPORTATION • INFRASTRUCTURE • NATURAL RESOURCES • SUPPORT SERVICES • HOTELS AND LEISURE

www.lonrho.com

London AIM Stock Exchange. LONR uNiTED kiNGDoM IC Publications, 7 Coldbath Square, London ec1r 4lq tel: +44 20 7841 3210 fax: Admin: +44 20 7713 7898 editorial: +44 20 841 3211 email: icpubs@africasia.com www.africasia.com

FrANcE IC Publications 609 Bât. A 77 rue Bayen 75017 Paris tel: +33 1 44 30 81 00 fax: +33 1 44 30 81 11 www.icpublications.com

GrouP PublishEr Afif Ben Yedder EDiTor-iN-chiEF Pat Lancaster AssisTANT EDiTor Rhona Wells PicTurE EDiTor Barbara Banister EDiToriAl AssisTANT Carole Lambert ArT DirEcTor Carlo Nicolaou coNTribuTors rEGioNAl Adel Darwish, Tom Land, Moin A Siddiqi Pamela Ann Smith, Stephen Williams, Hichem Ben Yaiche, Fériel Berraies Guigny bEiruT Ed Blanche usA Milan Vesely occuPiED TErriToriEs Mel Frykberg isTANbul Jon Gorvett cAiro Maria Golia PAris Chris Kutschera

MANAGEMENT PublishEr Omar Ben Yedder DEvEloPMENT DirEcTor Patricia Bonin MArkETiNG DirEcTor Malek Bey coMMErciAl DirEcTor Vivienne McKenzie

rEGioNAl DirEcTors Alya Assad Saliba Manneh Arthur Jones Nick Rosefield Medrine Chitty Myriam Karbal

EvENTs DirEcTor Isabelle Dana

ProDucTioN MANAGEr Michael Messam

rEPrEsENTATivE oFFicE FKH-Media Parwan II Square Near Kardan University Kabul, Afghanistan tel: (+93) 798 888 333

subscriPTioNs DEPArTMENT IC Publications po box 2068, Bushey,Herts,wd23 3zf Tel:(+44) 20 8950 9117 Fax: (+44) 20 8421 8155 icpublications@ alliance-media.co.uk issn 0305-0734 Printers: Headley Brothers Ltd Unless indicated all images AFP

Member of The Audit Bureau of Circulations © 2009 IC Publications Ltd. N0 DE COMMISSION PARITAIRE 0310 T 89344 Dépôt légal Février 2009

Contents

CurrenT affairs

Comment 5 Regional: Give us this day our daily bread 6

USA: Seeking a new way forward 12

Iraq: Turning a page of history? 14

Afghanistan: Chaos in the Khyber 18

Europe accepts 10000 more Iraqi refugees 20

The nuclear Arab world 22

Regional: Jailhouse jihadis 26

Middle East leads the world in stamping out killer virus 30

Business and finanCe

Special Report: the UAE 32 Who's winning the global currency race? 36

Gulf investors look to Europe to balance their portfolios 40

GCC: the banks' urge to merge 44

Gulf cash energises Maghreb tourism 48

Tying new technology to modern working practices 52

MosaiC

UAE: in pursuit of a dream 54

Babylon, the exhibition 56

Cinema: Salt of this Sea 58

Palestine: The forgotten problems of a forgotten people 60

Good health and good living 62

Book reviews 64

The last word 66

shrinking water resources, growing populations and a shortage of arable land is forcing the Gulf states and other Arab countries to spend millions of dollars to acquire hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland abroad to ensure long-term food security

The Middle easT FEBRUARY 2009 3