MEED
Supplement: MEED 50th anniversary
View all stories from this issue.
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Arab states join the MED club
The Arab states have much to gain from their European neighbours and vice versa, but the emergence of China and Russia offer new opportunities. -
Banking & Finance: How Islamic bonds can help local banks take on the giants
Sharia-compliant finance could be one of the great success stories of the Middle East, if local banks can compete with the global players. -
Companies: Out with the old for a new breed of company
A new breed is emerging in the Middle East: a firm with a traditional facade that hides a highly adaptable corporate structure. -
Dedication by King Abdullah of Jordan
To the editors, staff and many dedicated journalists who have contributed to MEED’s success over the years, allow me to express my warmest congratulations to you all on MEED’s 50th anniversary. -
Economy: Attracting investment to the Middle East
The key challenge for the Middle East is how to translate its hydrocarbons wealth into sustainable economic growth. Crucial to this task is the development of a range of financial services to promote investment. -
Economy: Middle East is more than just oil
Building on the lessons of the past, the Middle East is beginning to prepare for a future without its number one resource. -
Energy: Addicted to oil
The history of the modern Middle East is bound to the rise of the oil industry. Producer states want to reduce their dependence on the sector, but will find it hard to sever their ties. -
Energy: Middle East oil outlook
Cambridge Energy Research Associates has drawn up three possible scenarios for MEED, looking at how shifts within the global economy might affect Middle East oil producers. -
Imagine a new Gulf...
For the first time since the fall of the Roman and Persian Empires, Arabia is at the crossroads of the global economy. The implications are profound. -
Industry: Heading downstream
The Middle East is becoming an industrial force to be reckoned with, but it will have to evolve fast if it wants to compete globally. -
Industry: Ras Tanura's integrated outlook
As head of the Ras Tanura integrated refinery and petrochemicals project at Saudi Aramco, Fayaz al- Sharef is responsible for the biggest single industrial project in history. -
Infrastructure: Making connections for water and electricity
For all their grand ambitions, without spending serious time, money and thought on basic infrastructure, the Gulf states will have little future at all. -
Infrastructure: Socio-economic development in the Middle East
Civil and social infrastructure is as important to economic development as physical utilities, argues Ahmad Khayyat, chief executive officer of Emaar Industries & Investments. -
Looking ahead - The next 50 years
The foundations of the Middle East economies of 2057 are being laid today, but as always the historical context is crucial. -
Looking back: Elizabeth Collard and the birth of MEED
The first issue of Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) was published on International Women's Day on 8 March 1957. And this was no coincidence. MEED's founder and driving force for the next two decades was Elizabeth Collard, a feisty champion of Arab causes and a feminist, although she hated the term. -
Looking back: Three decades of oil shocks
Oil embargos, Opec, Saudi Light, US Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton, Exxon's Valdez tanker spillage, Iraq, Kuwait, Operation Desert Storm and the Gulf War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Venezuelan strikes... more than 30 years of oil history. -
Making the GCC work
The road to economic and currency union for the GCC has been bumpy at best. Ironically, conditions prevalent when the GCC was formed are now getting in the way of further integration. -
Media & Communications: Al-Jazeera TV on finding a voice
Satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera launched in Qatar in 1996, establishing a reputation for controversy. Nigel Parsons, managing director of Al-Jazeera International, explains its success and why new media is essential to regional development. -
Media & Communications: The Arab media revolution
The explosion of Arab media has been hailed as a spur to innovation and the key to the knowledge-based economies of the future - but censorship has remained a fact of life. -
MEED Survey - The Results
When MEED prepared to celebrate its 50th anniversary, it invited more than 200 professionals who have worked, lived or were born in the region to give their own views. -
Middle East history: 1950s - 2000s
From Osama bin Laden’s birth in 1957 to the execution of Saddam Hussein in 2007, MEED charts 30 years of news in the region. -
People: Turning the demographic surge into an asset
Arab states have some of the fastest-growing populations in the world. The challenge now is to turn the demographic surge of the last oil boom into an asset rather than a liability. It's about coming of age. -
Preventing future Iraqs
US foreign policy has created as many problems as it has solved in the past 50 years but decisions made now could still prevent future Iraqs and show that, where there is a will, there is a way, says Anthony H Cordesman. -
Real Estate: Building a future
Attitudes to property are changing fast in the Gulf states as rapid urbanisation and oil wealth transform the physical landscape. -
Regional trends
What are the most important influences shaping the Middle East today, and how will they affect its development in the next 50 years? -
Technology: Hi-tech learning in Cairo, Amman and the Palestinian territories
It is not only Gulf states that are surging forward with the development of IT. Population growth and a renewed emphasis on education and training have led to a reassessment of the role computer technology can play. -
Technology: Micro managing IT
Regional governments were slow to realise the benefits of information technology, and are now making up for lost time. But private finance will be essential for the sector to flourish. -
The 50:50 report: MEED's 50th anniversary special edition
Predicting the future is a dangerous business in the Middle East. Many of the biggest problems of the region have been created by visionaries, from the foreign statesmen of the colonial era to the present US administration. -
The making of the modern Middle East
From the Suez Crisis to the US invasion of Iraq, the region has had its share of political traumas, but the past 50 years have also seen record economic growth and independence. -
The Middle East in 1957, 2007 and 2057
A few simple decisions made in the next few years will determine whether the region lives up to its potential. -
The top 10 myths about the Middle East
Many misleading ideas are held about the Middle East, but the most pervasive myths are universal. Fred Halliday examines the top 10 myths. -
Urban Development: Buildings in the Gulf reach for the sky
If any building deserves to be called iconic, it is the Burj al-Arab. During the past eight years the tower has become more than a landmark. It has come to represent the modern Gulf. -
Urban Development: Building's tall stories
Over the past five decades the Gulf has become home to some of the biggest and most impressive modern buildings on earth. The focus now is on expanding outwards. -
Weaning the Middle East off oil
Human development is vital if the region is to move beyond its dependence on hydrocarbons.
