Short answer: IMEC (India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor) is a trade corridor announced at the G20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023: ports and railways from India through the Gulf, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israel, and from the Port of Haifa to Europe. As of October 2026 it is a plan with no binding budget, no timetable and not a single built segment. An Israeli company holds an option here, not revenue.
The longer view
The missing segment is the railway through Jordan: a minimal line from Al Haditha in Saudi Arabia to Beit She'an is estimated at 2.09 billion dollars, and Jordan has yet to sign a formal commitment. The Port of Haifa, the smallest node on the route, handles about 1.5 million TEU a year, and its two terminals are operated by India's Adani and China's SIPG. The war with Iran since February 2026 and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have frozen the momentum. India keeps mentioning IMEC in statements (with Italy in May 2026, at the G7 in June), while Riyadh, according to reports, is examining routes that bypass Israel. In parallel, in August 2026 Energy Minister Eli Cohen said talks were under way with Gulf states on moving oil through Eilat and Ashkelon, but there is no signed agreement.
In The Blue Pumpkin's seven-layer reading, IMEC is a friction between the infrastructure layer (slow) and the geopolitical layer (fast). The right business decision is not to bet on the route but to be ready for the moment it opens: whoever holds land, warehouses or logistics capabilities along the Haifa to Jezreel Valley to Beit She'an axis holds an asset whose value depends on Saudi normalization and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, not on its own performance.
This is a reading through the seven layers of The Blue Pumpkin, the method of Dr. Bella Barda-Bareket.
What to do tomorrow morning
Map your exposure to the axis (land, contracts and human capital between Haifa and Beit She'an), and define one trigger, for example a signed Jordanian agreement, that changes your allocation when it occurs.
Sources: Middle East Institute, June 2026 · Asia House, 27 Aug 2026 · JTA, 13 Aug 2026 · Israel Hayom, 5 Aug 2026