Saudi, Omani and Emirati companies are executing 20 real estate and tourist projects in Hadramout, Al-Mahara and Shabwa, costing $2 billion. Abdurrahman Ba Jarash, manager of Hadramout Chamber of Trade and Industry, said the number of Saudi projects top the list, followed by the Emirates and then Oman. The projects range from resorts, villas and residential recreation cities on the Arab Sea to the beautiful Mukala Pearl of the Buqshan Group. The Mukala project is to be headed by a Saudi group. Ba Jarash said the projects will be presented before Arab and Gulf investors who will attend the first tourist and investment conference in Mukalla at the end of this month, for joint partnership. He also added that the studies and legal procedures for the projects are all ready to go. The government's projects that will be tabled at the conference are projected to amount to over $1 billion, constituting three infrastructure projects and distributed between a great number of private sector companies. Three Saudi real estate companies won the diamond prize: Mukala Real Estate Development, Yemeni Group for Investment and the Arab Company for Development and Tourism Investment. The Tadhamon Islamic Bank and Credit Agricultural and Cooperative Bank took home the platinum prize and the silver prize was won by Mukala Resort for Trade and Industry, Al-Omaki and Brothers Exchange Company, Bin Juribah International Company, National Company for Real Estate Development, Al-Mihdhar and Bin Swaidan Group and the International Company for Trade and Contracts. Dr. Abdullah Murai' Bin Mahfouz, the Yemeni-Saudi Businessmen Association's chairman, brought up the Al-Wadi'a area trade project on the Yemeni-Saudi border. The project has an area of 4 million meters, 2 million meters on each side, and will be dedicated for economic and services sectors, such as silos, refrigerators, packing and wrapping, medium and micro fisheries and agricultural enterprises. __
