Saudi Arabia's new spending strategy

As the region?contemplates what has long been feared in the neighbourhood, Saudi Arabia’s?Public Investment Fund is giving?Mecca a(nother) radical makeover. It is set to include a cinema complex, library, a pedestrian boulevard offering “balanced spirituality” and an entire new residential district, Andrew Hammond wrote.

The kingdom is also cutting its outsize?military spending,?a budget document reviewed by Andrew and Neil Halligan showed.

?

The GCC states may be among the world’s most advanced economies, but the region is vulnerable in terms of food imports. Now is the time?to buy and stockpile grain, according to our columnist Martin Keulertz .

?

Here’s something you don’t read about often: Omani farming. It is – or could be – more significant than you may think. Our columnist Dr Saleh Al-Shaibany was on the case of an ambitious?agricultural city in the north of the sultanate?which was recently returned to investment grade. You heard it here first.

?

Frank Kane was stuck in traffic. Last seen in argument with the driver of a white Nissan Patrol somewhere on SZR.

?

Who would have thought that scraping sand from a shallow sea would be so successful? Less than?3 percent of the total size of Palm Jumeirah is left to buy?from Nakheel , the master developer, wrote Valentina Pasquali . Mind you, look at Manama and Hong Kong.

?

We received a?rare insight into that most opaque?of Arab countries – Algeria. That country’s ambassador to the UK was courting foreign investors in London and Alicia Buller was there. There is more going on than one may think,?including railways.

?

The mechanics of the sukuk market are about to be tested.?The Maldives looks set to default?on a sovereign issue – a first for that market, Matt Smith reported.

?

Coming up: speaking of defaults, conventional this time, will Tunisia join that unhappy band, asks Matt Smith? More happily, Frank Kane has Lunch With... Habib Al Mulla, Dubai’s outspoken lawyer.

?

Question:?In Qatar, North Field gas expansion has analysts predicting that GDP will surge in coming years to make it one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. But by how much? Read on to find out.

?

James M L Drummond [email protected]