The decision by Kuwait Municipality to scrap the $77bn Silk City scheme, and to redraw the development plan for Kuwait’s northern region, led to a sharp fall in MEED’s Gulf Projects index in the first week of the new year.

The total value of major projects planned or under way in the Gulf on the 5 January was $2.72 trillion, a fall of 3.6 per cent on the previous week, according to the index.

The decline was largely the result of a 4.8 per cent fall in the total value of projects planned or under way in the GCC, which accounts for 76 per cent of the Gulf market.

The fall is the result of the Madinat al-Hareer (City of Silk) scheme being put on hold pending a review. Canada’s Malone Given Parsons, with local firm Gulf Consult, has been commissioned to review and redesign the masterplan for the City of Silk over the next 12 months. The development is estimated to be worth more than $77bn by MEED Projects.

Saudi Arabia had a 1 per cent decline in the total value of projects planned or under way, with a $7bn multipurpose scheme in Riyadh being put on hold. However, the Kingdom also saw the launch of a new $340m water transmission pipeline project.

In Bahrain, a marginal increase resulted from the revival of Crown Dilum Development’s $50m Marina Reef project.

Overall, the region saw the launch of nine new projects worth a combined total of $3.4bn, as well as the revival of three projects, in total worth an estimated $335m. This was offset to a large extent by the completion of 13 projects worth an estimated $2.7bn.

The overall projects market is down by 1.9 per cent on the previous year, with the GCC’s project market recording a year-on-year fall of 9.1 per cent.