Middle East: Osman the Efficient

The Aswan High Dam, at once Egypt's greatest new economic resource and symbol of national pride, was completed last week after ten years of the most arduous construction work since the pharaohs put up the pyramids. As the dam has risen to 350 ft. above the Nile, so has the reputation of the man who built it: Osman Ahmed Osman, the largest building contractor in the

Arab world. In a region not exactly noted for efficiency, the burly, 52-year-old Osman has achieved a reputation that would be enviable anywhere for completing complex projects on time and within cost estimates.

To land...

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