JPMC gets $110m boost
THE Jordan Phosphate Mining Company (JPMC), Europe Arab Bank (EAB) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) have signed a nine-year, $110-million facility to support JPMC’s expansion plans in the Port of Aqaba, Jordan.
JPMC will build a new world-class terminal that will enable it to expand its reach in the international fertiliser market. The new phosphate terminal will be built in a new location at the Southern Industrial Zone, under a 30-year development and operation agreement signed with the Aqaba Development Corporation. Up to six million tonnes of phosphate per annum will pass through the new Aqaba terminal, to global markets, principally India and the Far East.

IBM, KACST sign research deal
IBM and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Saudi Arabia’s national research and development organisation, have signed a research collaboration aimed at creating a water desalination plant powered by solar electricity, which will significantly reduce water and energy costs.
The energy-efficient desalination plant with an expected production capacity of 30,000 cu m per day will be built in Al Khafji city to serve 100,000 people. KACST plans to power the plant with the ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic (UHCPV) technology that is being jointly developed by IBM and KACST.
This technology is capable of operating a CPV system at a concentration greater than 1,500 suns. Inside the plant, the desalination process will hinge on another technology jointly developed by IBM and KACST – a nanomembrane that filters out salts as well as potentially harmful toxins in water while using less energy than other forms of water purification.

$2.7bn town to take shape
WORK on the first homes in the BD1-billion ($2.7 billion) Northern Town is expected to begin this October, Bahrain’s Housing Minister Shaikh Ibrahim bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said. Bids for the first phase of the project involving 1,500 houses, which will be completed in 2012, will open on July 5, he said. It was also revealed that 15,000 Northern Governorate residents on the ministry’s housing waiting list would be given homes in the town within 10 years.

RMJM to play role in Oman project
THE UK-based RMJM has been awarded the main consultancy contract for the new Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre which is to be built in Muscat. Due for completion in 2013,  the 6,000-plus seat convention and exhibition centre will provide state-of-the-art facilities, including video conferencing and lighting, a 30,000 sq m exhibition/multi-user sports centre, hotels and serviced apartments and a low-rise 70,000 sq m park.