UAE

Qatar's sovereign wealth fund will turn its focus to commodities - particularly food and energy - in the second half of 2009, a senior official said yesterday.

The United Arab Emirates plans to invest up to 700 billion US dollars in East Asia as the country had huge profits from soaring oil prices in recent years, Head of the Indonesian Capital Investment Coordinating Board Muhammad Lutfi said in Jakarta Thursday. Among the sectors for possible investment are energy, agriculture, tourism and food security.

Could the Middle East become a significant new source of offshore investment in Australia’s extensive northern cattle industry?

Perhaps the UN’s hand-wringing is just sentimental. Deals will be done and the rush to buy land has begun in Europe, too.

Agribusiness in the Middle East countries hold out investment opportunities worth $3bn for Nigeria yearly.

A flock of 360 sheep imported from the UAE landed at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport Saturday, Ninh Thuan Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said.

With land prices falling, now is a good time for the UAE to acquire farmland in other countries, in order to strengthen food security, a senior official says.

With vast tracts of land being sold in Madagascar, and Sudan and other African governments actively seeking investors in agricultural land, are we witnessing a neo-colonial land grab or will the investment result in greater food productivity to the long-term benefit of recipient nations?

Wealthy countries short of fertile land are gazing hungrily at Canada's prairies

Gulf governments, entrepreneurs and sovereign wealth funds have spent vast sums buying or leasing farmland across Asia and Africa to try to secure cheaper imports and keep supermarket prices low. But the World Bank and UN want them to put more money into development aid.

For the practical realisation of the goal of food sovereignty that has been eluding our nation since the time of independence, the importance of genuine agrarian reform and peasants’ rights cannot be underestimated.

The Federal Government, yesterday, in Abuja, signed a $16 billion development cooperation agreement which covers real estate, agriculture, power, oil and gas, with the Dubai World Corporation in the United Arab Emirates.