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Fatima Al-Nouri

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PUBLISHED BY ICN PRESS

  • Guidepoint’s Bilal Sabouni tells ICN Business that Gulf client questions now centre on how the geopolitical environment changes investment priorities
  • Oil, LNG, chemicals, aluminium, aviation, logistics, construction and defence are all under closer review
  • Attention is moving to logistics networks and alternative routes that cut dependence on vulnerable trade corridors
  • Sabouni argues AI has made information cheap without making it decision-ready

Gulf investment priorities are under fresh scrutiny, and the questions investors ask have changed shape. Bilal Sabouni runs the Middle East, Africa, Turkiye and Central Asia business at Guidepoint, the global expert network. He told ICN Business that client demand now circles one theme.

“A lot of the questions we are hearing come back to one issue: how investment priorities in the Gulf may change in response to the current geopolitical environment,” Sabouni said.

The sectors under review are the ones the region already built. Oil, liquefied natural gas, chemicals and aluminium. Aviation, logistics, construction and defence. Capital went into all of them. Now each one gets a second look. “These investments are being examined more closely than in the past,” Sabouni said. Clients want to know “which areas remain resilient, where risks are increasing, and where new opportunities may emerge.”

That list tracks GCC economic diversification plans almost line for line. Sovereign wealth funds and state-linked investors sit behind much of the money in question.

Gulf investment priorities reach past the region

Two markets keep coming up in client work. India buys heavily from the Middle East. China is tied in through its exports and trade flows.

“A change in investment or production here can have consequences across several markets,” Sabouni said. Speed is the part he thinks people miss. Geopolitical risk is not nudging plans slowly. It is landing inside live decisions. “We are seeing more attention given to logistics networks and alternative routes that reduce dependence on vulnerable trade corridors,” he said.

Read that as supply chain resilience being priced in real time. The route now matters as much as the asset. Sabouni puts the shift plainly. The question is no longer where capital lands. It is how those investments “could reshape trade flows, strengthen regional resilience, and create lasting value.”

Announcements tell you what a government or company plans to do. Operators tell you what is moving.

Why a phone call still costs more than software

Guidepoint sells access to experience. Its network runs to more than 2 million vetted experts across 300-plus industries and 150 countries. The Guidepoint Library holds more than 120,000 expert interviews. Its AskGP tool returns source-cited answers in seconds.

Gulf investment priorities now move faster than published research can track. So why pay a premium for a human in 2026? “Information has become cheaper and more abundant, but abundance does not automatically create understanding,” Sabouni said.

Search engines retrieve what has been published. AI tools summarise what is public. Neither one explains why a rollout failed, how buyers decide, or which local dynamic flips the outcome. “AI can produce a fast answer, but speed alone does not make an answer reliable, current, or decision-ready,” Sabouni said. Clients want to push back, test contradictions, and hear the minority view. You cannot do that with a summary.

What keeps an expert network on the right side of the line

The model rests on a boundary. Clients get experience and informed opinion. They never get confidential, proprietary, or material non-public information. Sabouni says compliance is built in rather than bolted on. Advisors go through vetting and a third-party background check. They take compliance training when they join and every 12 months after that. Before each project, they reconfirm what they will not share.

Clients layer on their own controls too. Extra screening questions, required affirmations, pre-approval of Advisors, chaperoned calls. Guidepoint360 keeps an audit trail and lets compliance teams pull consultation records in real time. “Speed is important in research, but it can never come at the expense of integrity,” Sabouni said.

Gulf investment priorities will keep moving with the routes. My read on his answers is simple. The Gulf story is no longer about how much capital exists. It is about who can tell you what is happening on the ground this week, and prove where the answer came from.

TAGS
  • AI, Artificial Intelligence, Business Intelligence, GCC, ICN BUSINESS Magazine, UAE

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Apple's iPhone Duo
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The iPhone Duo is Apple’s first foldable iPhone, and it opens like a small book into a 7.6-inch screen. Closed, you hold a 5.4-inch outer display that fits in a pocket. Both screens share the same aspect ratio, so a video or app scales cleanly as you move between them. Stand it up on a table, and it works hands-free for calls or video. Apple showed the phone on September 9 at its Surprise and Shine event in Cupertino, where new chief executive John Ternus led his first keynote. He said rival foldables often feel like two phones stuck together. The Duo tries to feel like one device that changes size when you need it.

What the screens and camera can do

Open the Duo and the inner display runs 50 percent larger than the iPhone 18 Pro Max. A custom nano-texture finish cuts glare and hides the crease, the seam that has annoyed foldable owners for years. Peak brightness reaches 3000 nits, so the screen stays readable outdoors. Inside, an under-display FaceTime camera keeps the view whole, with no notch breaking the screen. The rear camera leans on a 48MP Dual Fusion system with a main and an ultra-wide lens. There is no telephoto, a trade Apple made to save room in the thin body. Smart Take reads the scene and snaps the photo when everyone poses, so you can stand in the shot instead of behind it. You can also shoot 48MP photos and 4K video at up to 120 frames per second.

iPhone Duo specs that matter for daily use

The iPhone Duo specs point to a phone built for long, heavy days. Inside sits the A20 Pro chip with a vapor chamber that spreads heat during games and video edits. Apple pairs it with a dual-battery design that fits more cells into the frame. You get up to 31 hours of video on the inner screen and up to 44 hours on the outer one. Plug it in, and it reaches 50 percent in about 20 minutes. A Grade 5 titanium frame and a precision hinge give the body its strength, and Touch ID moves to the side button in place of Face ID.

iPhone Duo prices are ridiculously high

Here is the part your wallet cares about. The iPhone Duo price starts at $1,999 for 256GB in the United States, which makes it the most expensive iPhone in the lineup. In the UAE, iPhone Duo starts at AED 8,499 for the 256 GB, AED 9,349 for the 512 GB, AED 11,049 for the 1 TB, and the laptop-price level of AED 13,599 for the 2 TB. Preorders open October 16, and the iPhone Duo release date lands on October 23. Apple plans a first wave across more than 70 countries, then adds 28 more on October 30. For comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts near $1,899.

Why the foldable iPhone arrives only now

Apple waited years while Samsung and others sold foldables. Now the foldable iPhone brings iOS 27 features built for two screens, like Split View and apps that respond to how you hold the phone. eSIM handles the connection, since there is no SIM tray anywhere. Apple Pencil support arrives later in 2026. That gap of a few weeks after the iPhone 18 Pro points to a slower, careful rollout for a harder build. If you have wanted a phone that turns into a small tablet without feeling clumsy, this is Apple’s answer, and you can hold one this month.

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Work from Park initiative
  • Business

The Work from Park initiative puts bookable workspaces inside Dubai’s public parks, starting with Al Barsha Pond Park. Dubai Municipality announced the programme on 19 April 2026 and said it had signed two memoranda of cooperation to deliver it. One went to Group AMANA, which builds the units, and the other to Letswork LLC, which operates them.

Entrepreneurs, freelancers, small and medium-sized enterprises

The structure is a public-private partnership. Dubai Municipality provides the park and the mandate. Private firms handle design, construction, and daily operation. The municipality said the model gives the private sector a route into public facilities while each site keeps its role as a park.

Target users are entrepreneurs, freelancers, small and medium-sized enterprises, and anyone doing remote work in Dubai. Content creators get dedicated production rooms, which the municipality said are meant to strengthen their place in the emirate’s creative economy.

Letswork runs the booking side. Users reserve space through the Letswork app, check in on arrival and use one membership across the company’s network of venues. The offer covers desks by the hour, event space, podcast recording and production rooms for creators. Letswork will also run training programmes and group sessions for creative talent and new businesses.

How the Work from Park initiative is built

Group AMANA delivers the first site through its DuBox unit. DuBox builds the workspace modules in a factory, then transports them to the park and assembles them on site. The municipality said this shortens the build schedule, reduces waste and lowers the environmental footprint compared with conventional construction. Units can be reconfigured later as demand shifts.

The Al Barsha Pond Park site was scheduled to open in May 2026. Letswork now lists it as a bookable venue on its platform. The listing describes modular pods with high-speed Wi-Fi, power and climate-controlled seating, plus podcast studios and creative production rooms. Members can book day passes, meeting rooms and private offices under one Letswork membership.

Dubai Municipality said the Work from Park initiative would add more sites across the emirate later in 2026. Locations and opening dates for those have yet to be confirmed.

Bader Anwahi, CEO of the Public Facilities Agency at Dubai Municipality, said the partnerships combine advanced construction methods with private sector expertise to produce public infrastructure “that is flexible, sustainable, and aligned with modern lifestyles and work patterns.”

Richard Abboud, CEO of Group AMANA, said modular construction lets the company build efficient, adaptable units at speed.

Why the Work from Park initiative fits Dubai’s planning goals

The programme sits under three policy frameworks. Dubai’s 2040 Parks and Greenery Strategy targets 95 million park visits a year by 2040. Land use falls under the Dubai Urban Plan 2040. Economic targets through 2033 come from the Dubai Economic Agenda D33.

Omar AlMheiri, co-founder of Letswork, said the partnership would add dedicated creative spaces and podcast studios. He described it as a step toward changing where and how people in the UAE do flexible work.

Dubai Municipality describes the Work from Park initiative as the first of its kind. Existing Dubai coworking spaces operate from office towers, hotels and retail sites. This programme moves the format onto municipal parkland, with the municipality as host and a private platform as operator.

Outdoor workspaces in Dubai face one obvious constraint: summer heat. The Letswork listing addresses this with climate-controlled seating inside the pods. Demand across a full year of operation will show whether the format holds. The second site, once announced, will be the next signal of how fast the municipality intends to scale.

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