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Russia and Morocco Strengthen Ties

26 March 2016 Comments (0) Featured, Middle East, Politics

morocco russia

New strategic agreements between Morocco and Russia

Russia and Morocco are known for their mutual respect concerning diplomacy and economic issues since the late 18th century. The Sultan of Morocco, Mohammed III, and Russian Empress Catherine II exchanged letters in areas of mutual interest, including establishment of commercial ties, and allowing Russian boats to have access to Moroccan shores for fishing. Mohammed III then invited a Russian representative to come to Morocco for further talks.

The relationship between Russia and Morocco underwent an evolution in the 19th century, and Russia established a Consulate in Tangiers in 1897. The Russian diplomat Vasily Romanovich Bakherakht arrived in Morocco in May of 1898. Morocco became the first Arab country that Russia established diplomatic ties with, and remained so until the October Revolution.

In November of 1955, the Kingdom of Morocco became an independent state, and the Soviet Union recognized its independence in July of 1956. Diplomatic ties were re-established in September of 1961. Since that time, the connection between Russia and Morocco has been robust, in spite of many economic and political changes that both countries have experienced in the 20th and 21st centuries.

An increasingly strategic alliance between Morocco and Russia

In the past five to ten years, there have been significant indications leading to increasingly close ties and cooperation between Russia and the Kingdom of Morocco. Their international involvement with the global community has experienced uncertainty echoed in circumstances and events affecting both countries. Economic sanctions placed on Russia and the evolution of debate over the Moroccan Sahara are other factors explaining the increasingly strategic alliance between Morocco and Russia.

Morocco’s stronger inclinations towards relations with Russia have often been pointed out by government officials, either through direct meetings or official statements. In several speeches, King Mohamed VI has officially declared the intentions of Morocco to strengthen cooperation with Russia in trade, tourism, and investment. On July 30, 2014, the 15th anniversary of Mohamed VI’s coronation, the Monarch announced his country’s commitment to advancing stronger bonds with Russia. King Mohamed VI

On Tuesday, March 15th, 2016, King Mohamed VI met with Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin and signed six binding agreements and several memorandums, framework agreements, and protocols that deepen ties between the two countries.

The agreements cover:

– Extradition between Morocco and Russia.

– Air services between the countries.

– Cooperation covering environmental protections and use of natural resources.

– Cooperation on sea fisheries.

– The promotion and reciprocal protection of investments.

– A mutual protection of classified information on military and military-technical matters.

– A Moroccan-Russian declaration on the fight against international terrorism.

The memorandums, framework agreements, and protocols cover an understanding on:

–  Cooperation in the field of energy.

–  Cooperation in geological research and exploration of the subsoil.

–  An understanding between the National Health Security Office of foodstuffs (ONSSA) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Maritime Fishing (Morocco) and the Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Federation Russia) plant health of plants and plant products.

– Joint action programs for 2016-2018 in the field of tourism.

– Cooperation between the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs of the Kingdom of Morocco and the Central Religious Organization (Shura Council of Muftis of Russia).

– A framework partnership agreement with the National Foundation of Museums and the Museums of the Moscow Kremlin.

– And a protocol for the exchange of information on moving goods and vehicles between Morocco and Russia.

The two countries also stressed the need to strengthen global cooperation combating international terrorism and violent extremism.

The two country’s Declaration on their deeper strategic partnership also called for strengthening the central role of the United Nations in its fight against global terrorism, transnational organized crime, criminal corruption, and other challenges.

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Egypt bank CEOs purged as central bank sets 9-year term limit

24 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s central bank put a time limit on the tenures of CEOs of commercial lenders on Thursday, launching a purge of several top executives that puts it on a likely collision course with the country’s banking sector.

To help modernise the sector and “inject new blood”, chief executives of public and private banks as well as the heads of foreign banks operating in Egypt would have to step down after nine years, the central bank said in a statement.

The decision is the latest surprise by Tarek Amer, a central bank governor who has moved aggressively to bring dollars into a banking system starved of foreign currency and slow the rapid fall of the Egyptian pound on the black market.

The black market rate hovered at just below 10 Egyptian pounds to the dollar on Thursday compared with the official rate of 8.78 pounds per dollar.

Amer surprised markets in recent weeks by removing dollar deposit and withdrawal caps, devaluing the currency by 13 percent in a single day, declaring a more flexible exchange rate and injecting hundreds of millions of dollars despite critically low reserves.

The decision to cap CEO terms caused consternation among bankers who described it as an unexpected overreach into the private sector’s affairs.

“It’s going to have very bad consequences,” one senior finance official, who asked to be unnamed, said.

The rule will force eight top executives to resign their positions, a senior banking official told Reuters. They include Commercial International Bank’s Hisham Ezz al-Arab and Arab African International Bank’s Hassan Abdalla.

Shares in CIB were down 1.7 percent at 1126 GMT.

There was no immediate comments from the country’s leading banks on the measure, which drew criticism from Hany Tawik, head of Egypt Private Equity Association, a group that represents business community interests.

“This is interference in an essential right of the general assembly to appoint someone that is best suited for them. It’s my right as a shareholder to choose the head of the bank,” he said.

Others such as Angus Blair, the chief operating officer of Pharos Holding, said the move was positive.

“I like the new rule for bank CEOs since it should foster younger talent and help improve institutionalisation.”

The central bank’s foreign reserves have tumbled to $16.5 billion in February from around $36 billion before the 2011 uprising that ousted long-time leader Hosni Mubarak.

His fall from power and the political unrest that followed drove away tourists and foreign investors that were key sources of foreign currency.

Around 40 public and private sector banks operate in Egypt.

Both consecutive and non-consecutive CEO terms will count towards the nine-year limit, the central bank said.

 

(Reporting by Ehab Farouk; Additional reporting by Mostafa Hashem; Writing by Eric Knecht; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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Egypt’s GASC says seeks wheat for April 25-May 5 shipment

24 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Egypt’s General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC) set a tender on Wednesday to buy an unspecified amount of wheat from global suppliers for shipment from April 25-May 5.

Mamdouh Abdel Fattah, vice chairman of GASC, said the authority is seeking to buy cargoes of soft and/or milling wheat from the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Poland, Argentina, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Romania.

Tenders should reach GASC by noon local time (1000 GMT) on Thursday. The results should come out after 3:30 p.m. local time on the same day. Wheat bids should be free-on-board, with a separate freight offer.

In its most recent tender on March 16, GASC bought 240,000 tonnes of wheat from France, Romania and Ukraine for April 15-24 shipment.

GASC is seeking to buy 55,000-to-60,000-tonne cargoes of the following:

U.S. North Pacific soft white wheat;

U.S. soft red winter wheat;

Russian milling wheat;

Ukrainian milling wheat, and

Australian standard white wheat.

 

GASC is also seeking 60,000-tonne cargoes of the following:

Canadian soft wheat;

French milling wheat;

German milling wheat;

Argentine bread wheat;

Polish milling wheat;

Kazakh milling wheat, and

Romanian milling wheat.

 

(Reporting by Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi, writing by Michael Hirtzer in Chicago; Editing by Chris Reese and Marguerita Choy)

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Egypt supply minister says close to wiping out graft in wheat sector

23 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s supply minister said the world’s top wheat buyer is close to eradicating graft in its strategic sector, defending the country’s management of the system against criticisms that it is vulnerable to corruption.

He said authorities distribute 6 billion loaves of bread to citizens each month and that a smart card system rolled out in 2014 had virtually ended graft in the system.

Officials, traders and bakers who spoke to Reuters for a March 15 story on the wheat sector said reforms, including the smart card system, had failed and ended up fuelling more corruption.

Challenging the Reuters story, Supply Minister Khaled Hanafi repeated his assertions that the system has saved millions of dollars in bread subsidies, reducing imports, and ended shortages that once prompted long queues outside bakeries across the country.

“We have a system now that counts every single loaf of bread consumed,” he said in an interview.

A Reuters spokeswoman said the news agency stood by its story.

Wheat has become a key issue in recent months because the stability of Egypt’s supply chain has been threatened by an agricultural quarantine official’s zero-tolerance policy on ergot, a common fungus.

The policy caused a mass boycott of state wheat tenders. The quarantine official was removed from his position.

In 2014, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government rolled out a system of smart cards designed to stop unscrupulous bakeries selling government-subsidised flour on the black market.

Corruption had been close to eliminated, Hanafi said in the interview, because the smart card system is effective and allows the ministry to monitor flows of bread.

The stakes are high for Sisi, who has promised to end graft, including irregularities in the wheat industry. Wheat shortages have sparked riots in the past. When Egyptians revolted against autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 one of their most potent chants was “Bread, freedom and social justice.”

The bread subsidy programme, which feeds tens of millions of poor Egyptians, is central to avoiding unrest.

Under the smart card programme, each family is provided with a plastic card enabling it to buy five small flat loaves of bread per family member a day.

Internal statistics produced by the Ministry of Supply and reviewed by Reuters suggest the problems with the smart card system were considerable.

Hanafi says the system is almost foolproof and that his ministry has kept corruption to a minimum, in contrast to the past, when he says 50 percent of Egypt’s flour supply was stolen.

“We are serving 80 million Egyptians. And we are serving 6 billion loaves of bread per month,” Hanafi said.”Any fraction, any tiny small fraction in absolute figures, could be relatively large. But as a percent it is nothing. It is less than even the normal level of error that exists.”

 

(By Michael Georgy. Editing by Simon Robinson, Veronica Brown and Dale Hudson)

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Algeria’s Sonatrach awards $100 mil pipe deal to foreign firms

23 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria’s state energy firm Sonatrach has awarded a $100 million contract to supply oil and gas drilling tubes to five foreign firms as part of its drive to increase production, a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed.

The companies named in the Sonatrach document are Germany’s CCC Machinery, Dutch firm Van Leeuwen, Vallourec Tubes France, Kurvers Piping France, and High Sealed&Coupled from China.

OPEC member Algeria, which has been hurt by a 70 percent fall in oil prices since mid-2014, is campaigning for more foreign investment to increase oil and gas production to sustain exports and meet growing local demand.

But recent bidding rounds have failed to attract much interest from foreign oil producers.

Sonatrach also said on Tuesday it had made a new oil find with Thailand’s PTTEP and China’s CNOOC following successful drilling in the Hassi Bir Rekaiz area in Algeria.

“This represents 20,000 barrels per day,” a Sonatrach source told Reuters.

Sonatrach holds a 51 percent stake in the project, with the other two companies owning 24.5 percent each.

The state energy company is focusing on developing areas around existing fields and hiking production at its mature fields. It will also invest $3.2 billion over four years to increase pipeline capacity as natural gas output rises from new and existing fields.

 

(By Lamine Chikhi. Editing by Patrick Markey and Susan Thomas)

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Libya joins Iran in snubbing oil freeze

22 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

LONDON (Reuters) – Libya does not plan to attend an April 17 meeting of oil producers about freezing supply to support prices, a Libyan OPEC delegate said on Tuesday, joining fellow OPEC member Iran in snubbing the initiative.

The absence of the two OPEC members would limit the impact of any freeze by producers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries along with Russia, even though Libya’s output has been curtailed for many months by unrest and the chance of it increasing production swiftly is low.

“We are not going,” the Libyan delegate said, referring to the meeting in Doha next month. “Clearly, they have to allow us to go back to our production when the security situation in the country improves.”

Libya has made its wish to return to pre-conflict oil production rates clear since four countries reached a preliminary deal on freezing output in February.

Other producers understand this, the delegate said. “They appreciate the situation we are in.”

Qatar, which has been organising the meeting, has invited all 13 OPEC members and major outside producers. The talks are expected to widen February’s initial output freeze deal by Qatar, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, plus non-OPEC Russia.

The initiative has supported a rally in oil prices, which were about $41 a barrel on Tuesday, up from a 12-year low near $27 in January, despite doubts over whether the deal is enough to tackle excess supply in the market.

Iran has yet to say whether it will attend the meeting. But Iranian officials have made clear Tehran will not freeze output as it wants to raise exports following the lifting of Western sanctions in January.

The potential volume Libya and Iran could add to the market is significant. But conflict in Libya has slowed output to around 400,000 barrels per day since 2014, a fraction of the 1.6 million bpd it pumped before the 2011 civil war.

Iran produced about 2.9 million bpd in January and officials are talking about adding a further 500,000 bpd to exports. So far though, Iran has sold only modest volumes to Europe after sanctions were removed.

 

(By Alex Lawler. Editing by David Clarke)

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Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi : The Arab World’s Most Powerful Woman

22 March 2016 Comments (0) Featured, Leaders, Middle East

Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi

Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi’s more than decade-long political career began with the groundbreaking distinction of being the first woman appointed to a ministerial office in the UAE.

CEO Middle East magazine has ranked United Arab Emirates’ Minister of International Cooperation and Development (MICAD, also called the Ministry of Tolerance), Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, the most powerful Arab woman for the sixth year in a row. The first woman to hold a government ministerial position in the UAE, Sheikha Lubna’s long political career has enabled her to rise through the ranks of a male-dominated society.

A member of the ruling party, Lubna is the niece of his Highness Dr. Sheiki Sultan bin Mohammand Al Qasimi, the current ruler of the Sharajah Emirate and a member of the Supreme Council of the UAE. Before her political career took off, Sheikha Lubna studied in the United States, where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science before undertaking her MBA with the American University of Sharajah.

Becoming the Most Powerful Arab Woman: Education, Family and Positions of Power

CEO Middle East magazine creates its ranking of 100 powerful Arab women based upon the number of lives each woman has touched. With more than a decade in political office, Sheikha Lubna’s position of power has enabled her to create and inform UAE policies, impacting the lives of millions.

Her professional career includes a litany of impressive feats across business and financial sectors: in 2000, she became the CEO of Tejari, the first business-to-business e-market place in the Middle East; acted as the head of the Dubai e-Government executive team and was responsible for instituting initiatives throughout Dubai’s public sector in 2004; and Sheikha served as the Chairperson of the board of Directors of the UAE’s Securities and Commodities Authority from 2004-2008. In addition to her MBA, Sheikha Lubna has three Honorary Doctorates: Law and Economics from in science, from California State University (Chico), in Law, from the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and in Economics, from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Korea). Honorary Doctorates are given in recognition of contribution to the field, and are usually awarded after an individual and provided a commencement speech or rendered another service to a university.

In 2004, Sheikha Lubna was appointed Minister of Economy, earning the distinction of the UAE’s first female minister. After a successful tenure at Minister of Economy, Sheikha Lubna became Minister of Foreign Trade in 2008. In 2013, she was appointed Minister of the Ministry for Cooperation and Development, and in March 2014 appointed as President for Zayed University (one of the UAE’s highest ranking tertiary educational institutions), as well as the Head of the UAE Committee of Humanitarian Aid just two months later.

Moving Up, As a Woman

Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi with Bill Gates

Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi with Bill Gates

Sheikha Lubna’s impressive educational, professional and political career would have likely been impossible without her family connections and high standing in Emirati society. That being said, it was due to Sheikha Lubna’s perseverance and persistence that her family allowed her to pursue her academic interests.

“I wanted to be a computer engineer and my dream was to go to the US…It took a lot of [effort] from my brothers to convince my parents to let me go, but I [went to] the UK, and I stayed with a British family. As long as I was within a family environment, it was OK by my parents and eventually I went to the US,” Sheikha Lubna said at the Global Women’s Forum Dubai earlier this year.

Lifting Women along her Journey

Not only does Sheikha Lubna use her position to create positive change for Emiratis, but she is an influential figure for women throughout the Arab world. Her story of academic and professional success is no doubt inspirational for the millions of women who have not had strong female role models.

This highlights the difficulties Emirati, and Arab, women continue to face: Sheikha Lubna is from a very well-respected family, and yet it was her brothers who had to petition her parents on her behalf. When asked why she chose to return to the UAE, where her path would be presumably more challenging than if she stayed lived in a more equitable society, she said “I came back to the UAE because I owed to it to my country and to the leaders, and not many people get such opportunities.”

Sheikha Lubna has been recognized by Forbes and the Wall Street Journal as one of the most influential women in the world, regardless of region. Her sense of duty to her nation and countrywomen is truly remarkable. It has been a challenging road to be the first female minister in the UAE, and her dedication has not gone unnoticed.

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Morocco Jan-Feb trade deficit rises 10.1%

16 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Latest Updates from Reuters, Middle East

RABAT (Reuters) – Morocco’s trade deficit rose 10.1 percent to 21.16 billion dirhams ($2.17 billion) in the first two months of 2016 compared with a year earlier, due to higher imports, the foreign exchange regulator said on Wednesday.

The trade gap was up from 19.23 billion dirhams at the end of February 2015, as equipment imports rose 14.4 percent to 15 billion dirhams, data showed. Wheat imports jumped 44.2 percent from a year earlier to 2.35 billion dirhams as harsh weather hit the local harvest this year.

It is the first time the deficit has risen in more than 18 months as the North African kingdom has been taking advantage of lower energy prices. Morocco is a net energy importer.

Energy imports fell 21.1 percent to 7.1 billion dirhams, it said.

Total exports rose 1.2 percent from a year earlier to 36.3 billion dirhams, led by an 10 percent rise in auto exports. Phosphate sales fell 8.3 percent to 5 billion dirhams.

Tourism receipts rise slightly by 1.1 percent, while remittances from the 4.5 million Moroccans living abroad were flat at 9.4 billion dirhams. Foreign direct investment rose 6.2 percent to 5.36 billion dirhams.

 

Figures are in billions of dirhams:

 

Jan-Fev Jan-Fev Jan

2016 2015 2016

 

EXPORTS 36.29 35.85 18.32

IMPORTS 57.45 55.08 25.68

BALANCE -21.16 -19.23 -7.36

MIGRANT

REMITTANCES 9.39 9.39 4.86

TOURISM

RECEIPTS 7.47 7.39 3.79

FOREIGN DIRECT

INVESTMENT 5.36 5.05 2.13

 

($1 = 9.7652 Moroccan dirham)

 

(Reporting By Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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The Middle East connects on social media

15 March 2016 Comments (1) Business, Featured, Middle East

Facebook and WhatsApp are the most popular social platforms. But more people in the region are using new tools for sharing photos and videos.

On the 27th day of Ramadan last year, millions of people around the world were able to see photos and videos taken by pilgrims in Mecca during a social media campaign that gave non-Muslims a rare glimpse of worshippers in the holy city.

The #Mecca_live campaign, in which 300,000 people used Snapchat and Twitter to capture or distribute images, was emblematic of the growing use of social media in the Middle East and North Africa.

Facebook and WhatsApp dominate social media in the Arab world. But there is growing use of new tools for capturing sharing photos and videos, content that can cross boundaries of cultures and language in the diverse region.

#mecca_live

Social platforms enable consumer outreach

Several studies have documented to rise in social media in the Middle East and North Africa. Information about usage is important for businesses and institutions that want to reach users at a time when digital and social media are changing practices and attitudes in the region, especially among young people.

Businesses, news organizations, and other institutions that want to understand and connect with the region’s growing market and figure out how to direct their efforts need to understand social media usage, said Damian Radcliffe, a University of Oregon journalism professor who compiled the most recent report.

While Facebook is the dominant social platform in a number of countries, WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat have pockets of popularity, Radcliffe writes in his fourth annual report, “Social Media in the Middle East: The Story of 2015,” Radcliffe looks at data from a variety of sources to outline social media usage in the region.

Facebook has 80 million users in region

Facebook has about 80 million users in the region, which has a total population of more than 350 million, and is adding more than one million new users a month. By comparison, the United States has 195 million Facebook users.

Egypt has the most Facebook users – 27 million – or about a third of the nation’s population.

At the same time, the United Arab Emirates has the most active Facebook user base. On average users spend an hour a day on Facebook, compared to 40 minutes globally, according to Facebook. With a population of nearly 10 million, the UAE has nearly four million Facebook users, or about 40 percent of the total population.

Other nations with large Facebook user bases are Saudi Arabia, with 12 million users, about 40 percent of the population, and Iraq, with 11 million users or about a third of the country’s residents.

Facebook widely popular

A 2015 study found that Facebook is also the most popular social platform in the Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan and Tunisia in addition to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

WhatsApp, a messaging service acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion, is the leading platform in Lebanon, Sudan and Algeria, the study said.

The two platforms are equally popular in Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Libya.

Radcliffe noted that WhatsApp is being used for more than text messaging. He said it is increasingly used to discuss different interests from religion to cooking to news and is becoming a platform for e-commerce.

#mecca_live

#mecca_live

Photo-sharing popular

Instagram, a photo-sharing platform that Facebook bought in 2012 for $1 billion, has 25 million users in the Middle East and North Africa.

One marketing expert attributed Instagram’s growing popularity to the fact that visuals cross language and cultural boundaries.

“No one country behaves and speaks with the same language or dialect and they certainly don’t have the same dynamics in terms of economy, language, lifestyle, religion, and ethnicity,” Ema Linaker said.

Saudi Arabia has 10.7 million Instagram users, while there are 3.2 million in Egypt and 2.2 million in the United Arab Emirates.

Video viewing on the increase

Videos are also becoming a staple of social media.

The region is the fastest growing consumer of videos on Facebook with consumption is twice the global average.

Periscope, a live-streaming application launched last year by Twitter, is popular in Turkey. Turkey has the highest use of Periscope of any country in the world after the United States. Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir are among the top 10 cities for Periscope use.

Periscope has a strong connection to Turkey. Its inventor created the application after a he visited then country when civil unrest erupted in 2013. Unable to get a street-eye view of Istanbul protests on traditional media, he came up with the idea of creating an easy-to-use live-streaming application.

According to Google data, video viewing on YouTube is also increasing. The amount of time spent watching videos on YouTube increased by 80 percent and the region is second only to the United States in online video viewership

Twitter less popular

Twitter, meanwhile, has very mixed adoption. On the high end, more than half of all social media users in Saudi Arabia and UAE have Twitter accounts although actual daily usage is quite low in Saudi Arabia.

Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Libya have low Twitter penetration but their users are very active.

Twitter users are mostly young, with people aged 18-24 accounting to 45 percent of users in the region.

Among young, digital access change attitudes

Digital and social media are having a profound impact on young people around the globe and no less in the Arab world.

Born between 1977 and 1997, they are tech savvy and account for 40 percent of the population of the region.

Access to information and debate on digital and social platforms is propelling them away from the traditional perspectives of their elders, according to Booz & Company, a strategy consulting firm that has surveyed thousands of young people in the region.

“These young people are far more active as consumers and as critics. They are involved more directly than their parents in the media they consume and purchase, and they are more outspoken about society, economics, and politics.”

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Gulf airlines stage price war

12 March 2016 Comments (0) Business, Featured, Middle East

emirates

Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways cut regional airfares as they seek to increase their market share.

The Arab Gulf’s three major air carriers are slashing their fares as they compete for market share in the region.

With the help of low oil prices, Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways have cut fares on some Middle Eastern routes by as much as 20 percent compared to a year ago.

Qatar Airways has also sharply cut fares to Europe and India, while Etihad fares to Europe rose more than 20 percent, according to data from the travel portal Cleartrip.

Qatar cuts across the board

Qatar made cuts on fares to Europe and Indian and within the Middle East. For example, the average price of a ticket to Europe on Qatar airlines was $540 in 2016, compared to $660 a year ago, a decrease of 18 percent. The average roundtrip fare to India decreased by $50 to $300, a decline of about 15 percent. The average price of a Qatar ticket in the Middle East declined 20 percent to $290.

On Emirates, the average roundtrip ticket to destinations in the Middle East dropped by more than 17 percent to $390. Emirates’ average fare to Europe edged up slightly from $850 to $875 while fares to India dropped by $30 or nearly 9 percent to $310 in 2016.

Etihad also cut fares within the Middle East by 12 percent, from an average of $375 for a roundtrip ticket in 2015 to the current average of $330. However, Etihad’s average fares to India declined only slightly, from $385 in 2015 to $380 in 2016. Etihad fares to Europe jumped from $660 to $805, an increase of more than 21 percent.

Low oil prices fuel fare drop

The airlines are taking advantage of the slump in oil prices to improve their market share on many routes where they compete head-to-head in the region, according to Amit Taneja, Cleartrip’s chief revenue officer.

Oil fell to a record low of less than $30 a barrel in January, a fall of more than 70 percent, before rallying to its current $40 per barrel. OPEC producers hope to stabilize the price at $50 a barrel this year.

At the same time, Taneja said, higher demand for travel from the United Arab Emirates to Europe has tempered airlines’ willingness to drop prices as significantly as on Middle East routes.

India demand grows

Demand for travel from the United Arab Emirates to India, a major market for Gulf carriers, has also increased. However, competition from non-Gulf carriers has put downward pressure on fares, according to Taneja.

Emirates is the largest and oldest of the three Gulf airlines. It is based in Dubai with a fleet of 250 aircraft and in business since 1985. Qatar Airways, based in Doha with a fleet of 153 aircraft, began operations in 1994. Etihad, based in Abu Dhabi, is the newcomer, launched in 2003 with a current fleet of 121 aircraft.

The three are competing to become the dominant international hub in the Gulf region.

Qatar opened Hamad International Airport in 2014, with a capacity to handle 30 million passengers annually. Abu Dhabi International said it would open a new Midfield Terminal, which also will have the capacity to serve 30 million passengers a year, in 2017.

Competition from Turkey

But they also face a rival in Turkey, which will open a new international air hub next year. Turkish Airlines plans to spend $3.7 billion this year to grow its fleet to 261 aircraft.

The new airport in Istanbul, with investment of about $35 billion, will be able to accommodate 150 million passengers a year and has parking spots for 500 aircraft. That would give Turkey the potential to more than double the number of passengers it saw at Istanbul Ataturk Airport last year.

Ataturk Airport served more than 60 million passengers last year, while Dubai handled 78 million. Dubai expects to handle 85 million passengers this year.

Bertrand-Marc Allen, the president of Boeing International, called Turkey “a significant opportunity” with its capacity, location, population and likelihood of growth in the coming decades.

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