Entrepreneurs and investors alike are now looking to take advantage of a rapidly expanding market by setting up new companies that can generate new opportunities for all Middle Eastern countries at home and abroad. When one thinks of Middle Eastern economics, they may immediately be inclined to think of oil and agriculture. While those two sectors have and continue to hold prominent roles in the economies of the Middle East, more is going on there than meets the eye. Political and economic modernizations have taken shape in emerging markets like Turkey and Egypt and continue to spread throughout the region. One of the countries that are making some of the most notable strides is Jordan, whose economy has been growing at an annual rate of 7 percent for a decade, even during the recession-plagued years of 2008 and 2009. Reforms in Jordan's education and economic structures have paved the way to a knowledge-based economy that features one of the most developed and competitive IT sectors in the Middle East. The West has taken note of this as Google recently became a member of the Information Technology Association of Jordan and is seriously considering making the kingdom the heart of its Middle Eastern regional centre. Additionally, with its vast sunny deserts and favorable winds providing 2.5 percent of its energy, Jordan has become a global leader in creating innovative solar energy technologies. Not to be overlooked in the technology race are the traditional powers of the Middle Eastern economies: Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE has jumped into the technology age forcefully as their telecommunications market has shown tremendous growth as of late, mainly propelled by government initiatives aimed at the deregulation of the market and encouraging open competition. The Egyptian information and communications technology sector has been growing significantly since it was separated from the transportation sector and Saudi Arabia continues to be a lucrative market for technology products and services while also being one of the most attractive destinations for healthcare professionals in the world. Separately, Credit Suisse downgraded the Middle East telecommunications sector to “underweight” as it expects Saudi operators' roaming revenue to be hurt by a slower Hajj season in the fourth quarter, and recommended investors become more selective on banks in the region. The brokerage, however, said it remained an advocate of Middle East chemical players, noting that these companies were able to gain market share from high-margin producers during the downturn. “They have attractive normalized-level valuations and they have strong balance sheets,” the brokerage said in a Middle East and North Africa equity strategy note. On Middle Eastern banks, Credit Suisse said easy balance-sheet growth funded by government-injected liquidity and asset re-pricing had mostly passed, but the credit cycle had not. Credit Suisse said it liked Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but named Kuwait as its least favored market in the region.
