Morocco plans USD 8 bn investments in new port developments

More than one gateway

Morocco plans to invest around USD 8 bn under its Ports 2030 strategy to develop new ports — expand existing infrastructure, and build shipyards for construction and repair, Sanaa El Omrani, Director of Ports and Maritime Public Domain at the Ministry of Equipment and Water, told the Arabic press. The plan looks to increase national port capacity by 15% to around 450 mn tons by 2030.

Tanger Med anchors the scale of Morocco’s port system. The port handled 11.1 mn TEUs in 2025, up 8.4% year-on-year, after surpassing the 10 mn TEU mark in 2024, according to a press release (pdf). Total cargo traffic reached 161 mn tons, while TIR truck flows rose 3.6% to 535,200 units, reflecting strong industrial and agri-food export momentum.

Still going green

Oman’s sustainability week yields two mega green projects: Oman is getting a 150 MW data center powered by renewables, and a massive 2.7 GW around-the-clock renewable power project that includes solar, wind, and battery storage infrastructure.

What we know: The green data center project will be executed by a consortium composed of Omani firm Ahlam Group (a traditional oil & gas player) and Italian firms Rina, Vitali, Forte Secur Group, and Corpolgia, whereas the non-stop renewables project will be developed by the state-owned firm O-Green, which signed a power purchase agreement with Nama Power, the sole procurer of electricity and water in the Sultanate. The project will span Mahout and Duqm Governorates, with at least 770 MW of earmarked capacity for the initial phase.

Oman is on a push to wean the country off its dependency on gas for electricity generation. The country has more than doubled its total renewables capacity in 2025 to reach 1.8 GW, up from 0.7 GW in 2024. Renewables accounted for 9% of the country’s energy mix in 2025, up from just 2% in 2021 — and the 2040 target is even more ambitious: bring renewables to produce some 60-70% of the country’s energy mix.

Emaar goes solo in Syria

Emaar Properties is exiting its joint venture structure on The Eighth Gate project in Syria’s Yafour near Damascus, and will continue operating in Syria on its own, state news agency Wam reports. The JV was launched in 2005 to work on Syria’s first master-planned community, which spans roughly 300k sqm, with an estimated USD 500 mn plan. Emirates founder Mohamed Alabbar said the exit from the JV structure reflects a reset in how Emaar is handling its presence in the country.

REMEMBER- Emaar founder Mohamed Alabbar said last week he plans to invest up to USD 18 bn in large-scale real estate, tourism, and infrastructure projects across Syria. That includes projects in Damascus and along the coastline.

Investcorp keeps piling into US industrial real estate

Abu Dhabi-listed Investcorp Capital spent more than USD 200 mn on a new US industrial real estate portfolio across Texas, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. The leased assets span the logistics, manufacturing, distribution, industrial services, and consumer-related sectors. Investcorp is tapping US industrial real estate as it remains “one of the most resilient real asset sectors globally,” supported by evolving supply chains, domestic manufacturing activity, and continued demand for logistics infrastructure.

Background: Investcorp has been building its US real estate footprint, including with a USD400 mn US industrial portfolio acquisition last year and a separate USD 200 mn deployment into US senior living and multifamily assets last month.

AD Ports locks in Congo terminal buildout

Abu Dhabi-based ports operator AD Ports Group awarded three contracts worth AED 735 mn for the Noatum Ports Pointe-Noire Terminal in the Republic of the Congo, moving the project ahead toward construction, which is expected to wrap up in around two years. The marine and topside works contracts went to MAR Contracting Sarlu and MBTP SA JV, while a crane contract went to Chinese port equipment manufacturer ZPMC.

Plugging into the quantum era

Aramco and France’s Pasqal launched the Middle East's first commercial quantum computing-as-a-service platform. The 200-qubit system at Aramco’s Dhahran data center lets global users access quantum hardware via secure cloud to tackle complex problems in energy, materials, and logistics. Aramco will deploy it for port logistics, CO2 storage, well placement, and rig scheduling. The partnership — first inked in 2023 after Aramco's Wa’ed Ventures backed Pasqal’s USD 108 mn series B — also includes a joint research center for quantum algorithm development.