Saudi Arabia plans 26k sqm economic zone with Egypt and Jordan, models it on Westworld as MbS plans to Out-Dubai Dubai: Saudi Arabia is constructing a 26,000 sq km new economic zone, called Neom, in which it sees that robots might one day outnumber humans. The USD 500 bn creation will run along 486 km of the Red Sea coast and border Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. “A map published on the project’s website shows that the new economic zone would include the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir,” The Financial Times reports (paywall). The official statement from the Saudi Press Agency says Neom would be developed to be “independent of the kingdom’s existing governmental framework, excluding sovereignty.” The WSJ also has coverage.

“Neom will be constructed from the ground-up, on greenfield sites, allowing it a unique opportunity to be distinguished from all other places that have been developed and constructed over hundreds of years and we will use this opportunity to build a new way of life with excellent economic prospects,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said. “The Neom project will focus on nine different investment sectors including energy, water, biotech and robotics … robots might outnumber people in the city.” Klaus-Christian Kleinfeld, former Chairman and CEO Arconic and Alcoa, is the CEO of the Neom Project. The Washington Times calls Neom “a mecca for robots” in its coverage.

“The plan will likely be met with the same mixture of optimism and doubt that has greeted [bin Salman’s] previous headline-grabbing announcements. His supporters can be expected to cheer what they see as a bold drive to transform the kingdom, while others will point to past failed attempts to overhaul the Saudi economy that also included industrial cities in the desert,” Bloomberg’s Glen Carey and Alaa Shahine commented. Reuters says “Saudi Arabia will need huge financial and technical resources to build NEOM on the scale it envisages. Past experience suggests this may be difficult.”

Neom is billing itself as “the world’s most ambitious project: an entirely new land, purpose-built for a new way of living.” You can check out the official Neom website here.

Saudi Arabia has “poor form when it comes to implementing mega-projects,” Capital Economics warns in a note published yesterday (pdf). The report cites other projects that came to naught, such as the King Abdullah Economic City, as it asks whether Saudi is repeating past mistakes.

Big infrastructure wins for Chinese companies in Egypt. Two Chinese contractors claim to have won contracts to build megaprojects in Egypt. BYD will build a monorail transit system in Alexandria, Global Times reports. The project, for which BYD says it has inked an agreement with the “government of Alexandria,” will include the construction of a 128 km track, BYD said without revealing the cost and other details of the project. The company notes that its SkyRail monorail costs only one-fifth as much and takes only one-third as much time to construct compared to subways.

China’s Sinohydro Corp to build USD 1.99 bn refinery in Ain Sokhna: Sinohydro Corp, a subsidiary of state-owned Power Construction Corp of China (PowerChina), is also getting in on the infrastructure game. The company has reportedly signed a USD 1.99 bn contract for a refinery project with Sokhna Refinery and Petrochemicals Co (SRPC), Global Times reports. The project is set to have a planned processing capacity of 155k bpd at the initial stage. PowerChina is responsible for the design, procurement and construction of relevant facilities. Under the agreement with SRPC, the project is expected to be completed within 44 months.

The announcements coincide with the Belt and Road Initiative Forum kicking off in Cairo yesterday. The three-day trade fair brings together representatives from 27 major Chinese firms working in Egypt’s auto, construction, and garment-making industries, Al Masry Al Youm reports. Xinhua also has the story.

Private sector to get in on railways in 2018 under proposed legislation: Amendments to the Railway Act that would open up the sector to private companies are expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives next month, said Transport Minister Hisham Arafat. He expects the legislation, which the Council of State will complete reviewing this month, to be passed in time to allow the private sector to get into the rail game in 2018, Al Borsa reports. The amendments will allow businesses to build and operate railway lines and to bid for upgrade projects. Thanks to the perpetual fear of the dreaded “P” word guaranteed by our not-so-recessive Socialist genes, the law at this time will not allow private companies to own railway assets.

Among the first projects to be opened to the private sector is the USD 7 bn Ain Sokhna-Alamein railway line, said Arafat. The line’s development will include five stations, connecting Ain Sokhna, the new administrative capital, 6 October City, Alexandria and Alamein. The 482 km line will carry both cargo and passengers, the minister added.

Egypt’s largest snackfood maker launches packaged donuts as it commissions second line at new factory: Edita Food Industries announced the commissioning (pdf) of the second line at its new E08 factory in Sixth of October’s Polaris Al-Zamil district. The first product off the line will be a TODO-branded donut. Edita says the E08 facility is set to house around 11 new lines. The new TODO Donut is the first mass-produced packaged donut in Egypt. Edita is billing the product as the latest in a string of “new and differentiated product launches … that aim to provide consumers with unique value propositions and create new demand in Egypt’s fast-growing snack food market. TODO is Edita’s in-house developed brand.” Edita first introduced packaged croissants with Molto in 1997. The company also pioneered the rusks category with Bake Rolls and, more recently, introduced the country’s first packaged brownies under its TODO line.

USD 27.3 bn to be invested in gas fields next year: Some 230 new wells will be drilled at a cost of USD 2 bn in 2018, while approximately USD 27.3 bn will be invested in the Zohr, North Alexandria, and Nooros fields, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla said yesterday, Al Shorouk reports. El Molla also forecasts signing 83 new exploration agreements worth a total of USD 15.5 bn, in addition to USD 3.8 bn worth of new petroleum refining projects. Natural gas projects are expected to increase 50% in 2018, with that rate accelerating to 100% by 2020, El Molla said. The minister also announced that the second edition of the Egypt Petroleum Show will kick off on 12 February 2018 to showcase short- and long-term plans in the oil and gas sector.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s first meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron apparently went very well, with both leaders alluding to stronger security and economic ties in the offing. Key highlights of their meeting in Paris included:

Macron comes to El Sisi’s defense on human rights: Despite pressure from rights groups to address Egypt’s human rights violations, Macron came to El Sisi’s defense on the issue, telling reporters that Egypt’s current security context must be taken into account when considering the human rights question. He went one step further to label the issue a “sovereign affair” in which France and other Western countries shouldn’t meddle.

More defense cooperation: Terrorism and security cooperation were at the head of the talks. Macron pledged to increase support for Egypt defense, but shied away from specifics. This came as Reuters reported that French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire confirmed to Europe 1 radio channel that the two leaders would be discussing the sale of 12 additional Rafale aircraft to Egypt, as Le Tribune had hinted on Monday.

Expect announcements on economic agreements worth some EUR 400 mn, primarily on land and maritime transport as well as the Cairo Metro, El Sisi said. Tourism was also discussed, with El Sisi announcing that 2019 will a year of “joint tourism cooperation.” The Suez Canal was also a part of the talks, as both countries plan to hold celebrations marking its 150th anniversary, according to Macron.

A French business delegation will be in Egypt soon, Macron said, adding that the French Development Agency will continue to the support the economic reform program. Earlier in the day, El Sisi had sat down with top executives from 40 major French companies who are all reportedly eager to invest in Egypt, Egypt’s French Chambers of Commerce head Hossam Benham said, according to Ahram Gate.

Other items on the agenda included Macron declaring support for an “inclusive political solution in Syria,” which could signal a shift away from demanding Bashar Al Assad’s removal. He also said he supports the UN’s roadmap for Libya.

You can catch the full press conference here (runtime: 25:52).

Regional politics were also the order of the day during the president’s meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. The officials agreed to step up cooperation on counterterrorism and stemming illegal immigration to Europe.

El Sisi also met with French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe yesterday, telling him that Egypt is primarily interested in France’s expertise in energy, transport, education, and training. French investments in Egypt currently stand at around EUR 4 bn, according to an Ittihadiya statement.

The meeting between both leaders follows a sit down between El Sisi and Naval Group Chairman and CEO Hervé Guillou, where discussions focused on enhancing Egypt’s naval arsenal. Guillou said his group was keen on discussing future cooperation with Egypt, according to a statement from Ittihadiya (pdf).

El Sisi also talked modernizing Egypt’s railways with Guillaume Pepy, chairman of French state-owned railway company SNCF. Egyptian National Railways expects to sign an agreement soon with SNCF on training, technical support, railway security and safety, as well as maintaining and constructing new lines. The meeting comes as Transport Minister Hisham Arafat, who accompanied El Sisi, sat down with a number of French companies to entice them to take part in revamping the railway network, Al Mal reports.

Reuters and BBC respond to SIS criticism: “We take seriously our obligation to report the news fairly and accurately, and were careful here to report both the Interior Ministry’s account of the situation as well as information we received independently from other sources,” a Reuters spokesperson said, commenting on the State Information Service’s protest of the newswire’s coverage of the Wahat terrorist attack. SIS accused Reuters and the BBC of “inaccurate coverage” and said they had made “grave professional mistakes” by relying on unidentified security sources. The argument centers around Reuters relying on “three security sources” telling it as many as 52 members of the police service were killed in the attack, when the official narrative is that the death toll is 16. The BBC “was told that 53 officers and conscripts had been killed.” SIS further challenged the two news agencies by submitting requests to both Reuters and BBC offices in Cairo to produce the names of those killed as proof that the casualty figures they reported are correct, according to Al Shorouk.

French oil and gas major Total is in talks to buy Engie’s LNG assets, predicting that gas markets will grow in the future, CEO Patrick Pouyanne tells Bloomberg TV on Tuesday (runtime: 8:55). “I can confirm we’ve discussed with Engie, like other companies, and we’ll see if we can find an agreement. If not, we have other ideas, other opportunities, to develop the LNG business,” he added. Engie had stated on Monday that it is considering a sale of parts of its LNG business as a glut of the fuel on global markets wipes out profitability. Engie imports LNG to Egypt.

China’s Xi Jinping granted powers parallel to Chairman Mao’s: China’s Communist Party granted President Xi Jinping new sweeping powers “unmatched in recent decades” and equal in measure to those held by Chairman Mao Zedong, the FT reports (paywall). The party enshrined Xi’s socialist ideology in their constitution, a “historic decision [bolstering] President Xi’s political position as China’s most powerful leader in decades, [making] it harder for rivals to challenge him and his policies,” Chris Buckley writes for the New York Times. Clearly no one’s told Xi that Chairman Mao could never “make it with anyone anyhow” (watch, runtime 3:27).