Business

Pakistan ambassador to the UAE expects more investments to flow into Pakistan following the visit of the newly elected Prime Minister Imran Khan to the UAE last week. “We are very positive and hopeful that more investments will flow into Pakistan following the visit of Pakistan Prime Minister to the …

Dubai’s developers just aren’t pushing ahead with their projects fast enough – only about 16,750 new homes will get delivered this year. That compares with forecasts of 30,000 units made at the start of the year and only a slight improvement on the 15,000 actually delivered last year, according to …

Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI), which has just begun operations is aiming to boost UAE exports and diversification of the economy by providing credit insurance to exporters and investors. The federal government owned ECI, capitalised at Dh1 billion will also have the support of the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of …

Residents of Karama are bracing for a facelift of their neighbourhood, as one of Dubai’s oldest areas goes through a series of new developments that includes wider roads, swanky buildings and new hangouts. One of the busiest and most sought after localities by expatriates, both for its central location and …

WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton has broken his silence about why he left Facebook last year in an explosive interview with Forbes— and it is a gnarly Silicon Valley fight for the ages. Acton left Facebook in 2017, three years after the company acquired WhatsApp for $16 billion. His cofounder, Jan …

Egyptian officials will tour Asia later this year to test interest in the country’s debt, part of government efforts to expand borrowing options as volatility roils emerging markets, Finance Minister Mohammad Maait said. Egypt has raised the possibility of issuing Samurai or Panda bonds in the past, but the planned …

Emirates Steel, the largest steel producer in the UAE, has hired BNP Paribas to coordinate a $400 million (Dh1.47 billion) loan financing, sources familiar with the matter said. The company, owned by Abu Dhabi’s Senaat, a state-owned investor in the emirate’s industrial sector, will use the loan proceeds to refinance …

Entertainment services supplied to employees, such as staff parties and retirement gifts, should not be exempt from Value Added Tax (VAT), the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has said. The authority noted in a statement posted on its website Monday that according to the federal law on VAT, the five per …

Dubai-based ride-hailing company Careem has acquired the talent and technology of India’s third largest mass transport app — Commut — for an undisclosed amount. The Hyderabad-based Commut is a minibus shuttle service for daily office commuters in the state since November 2015. Careem said in a statement the deal will …

Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said in an email to employees Friday that the company has never and will never bias its search results for political purposes. Pichai’s message followed a report in The Wall Street Journal this week about an internal email thread from early 2017 in which Google …

The High Court of England and Wales in London has upheld an injunction prohibiting the Port de Djibouti, a state-owned port company, from interfering with the management of a joint -venture company. The Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT) in Djibouti is a joint venture between Dubai’s DP World and the African …

New details surrounding the final major pavilion at Expo 2020 have been released by the organisers of the event, revealing a theme of “rope and light.” The Opportunity Pavilion is based on the core tenets of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and to be built out of natural …

Amid media reports of former French president Francois Hollande claiming that the Indian government suggested a particular private firm for Rafale offset contract, the Defence Ministry on Friday reiterated that neither government had any say in the “commercial decision”. “The report referring to former French president Hollande’s statement that government …

Emirates on Thursday denied media reports that it was in talks to acquire Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways, saying “there is no truth to this rumour.” In an emailed statement to Gulf News, Emirates denied the report, which ran on Bloomberg News late on Thursday, while Etihad Airways said it “does …

China will not stoop to competitive devaluation of its currency, Premier Li Keqiang stressed, hours after China hit back, with a softer punch than the one landed by the United States, in an escalating tariff war between the world’s largest economies. Addressing a World Economic Forum event in the port …

Egypt’s finance minister said on Wednesday the government will weigh up in January how to proceed with further state company sales, with five share offerings planned to take place by the end of this year. Egypt hopes the privatisation drive will spur investment and private-sector growth, which has been moribund …

Higher crude production and recovering oil prices will aid growth in an otherwise sluggish oil sector and strengthen fiscal and external balances for the GCC economies, according to ICAEW’s latest Economic Insight report for the third quarter, produced by Oxford Economics. The report forecast global crude oil price to average …

RSA National, a UAE-based logistics services provider, on Wednesday opened an air cargo terminal at Dubai World Central, the emirate’s second airport, as it seeks to capitalise on growth within the logistics sector. The inauguration was for the 13,000-square-kilometre first phase of the terminal that came at an investment of …

Capital flows into GCC countries will remain largely resilient to recent capital flight from emerging markets, triggered by their weak economic fundamentals, global monetary policy tightening and strengthening dollar, according to the Institute of International Finance (IIF). “Oil exporters [from the Middle East] are still seeing an increase in foreign …

Dubai’s non-oil foreign trade rose to Dh645 billion in the first half of 2018, an increase of Dh5 billion from 2017 figures. Dubai’s re-exports registered a Dh24 billion increase, growing by 14 per cent to Dh203 billion, reflecting the emirate’s strength as a re-export hub. Meanwhile, imports touched Dh377 billion …

US President Donald Trump on Monday defied warnings and escalated the trade confrontation with China, hitting the country with tariffs starting next week on another $200 billion (Dh734.5 billion) in imports and threatening to target even more if Beijing retaliates. Trump said China had refused to change the unfair practices …

His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, on Sunday announced the approval of a three-year Dh50 billion budget for the Abu Dhabi Government Accelerators Programme ‘Ghadan 21’. “Dh20 billion will be allocated to the 2019 development …

The Dubai Financial Market General Index (DFMGI) fell by 16.73 or 0.59 per cent last week to close at 2,809.87. Market breadth was close to even, with 17 advancing issues and 15 declining, while volume jumped. Usually, volume is not too reliable of an indicator in the Dubai market. It …

Other developers would be welcome to come up with their own projects at Hayat Island in Ras Al Khaimah, a 6 million square feet destination in the making. But they can’t be just any other project, according to the master-developer of Hayat Island, RAK Properties. “Their concepts will need to …

Former British prime minister Gordon Brown warned that the world is on the verge of sleepwalking into another financial crisis, because governments have failed to tackle the causes of the last major financial crash a decade ago. Britain’s leader when the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers triggered …

Tech platforms and internet activists protested the outcome of a European Parliament vote Wednesday to back copyright rules that would help video, music and other rights holders seek compensation for use of their content online. Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and other tech firms may now be forced to negotiate …

President Vladimir Putin appeared to take another thinly veiled swipe at Trump’s economic policies on Wednesday, a day after Russia and China vowed to stand together to fight protectionism. “The world and global economy are coming up against new forms of protectionism today with different kinds of barriers which are …

Crescent Petroleum has been granted permission to raise its stake in Dana Gas to more than 20 per cent and retain its position as the largest founding shareholder. The Sharjah-based energy company said in a statement Tuesday that it has permission to acquire additional shares in Dana Gas as an …

Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc Distribution is aiming to strengthen its digital signage advertising network in a bid to communicate with its customers and add a new revenue stream. The largest fuel and convenience retailer in the UAE signed an agreement with etisalat Digital on Tuesday to roll out across its 100 …

UAE-based property developer Emaar has denied reports that it is planning to grant a multi-year residence visa to its investors. An Arabic newspaper reported on Tuesday that according to a source, the company intends to provide a 10-year residence visa to those who invest in some of its real estate …

Gold fans in UAE are likely to save money on jewellery purchases if they hit the shops today, as the precious metal continues to lose its shine. Since its peak in April, gold has lost a whopping Dh17 per gram in value, historical price data showed. That’s a saving of …

China told the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday it wanted to impose $7 billion a year in sanctions on the United States in retaliation for Washington’s non-compliance with a ruling in a dispute over U.S. dumping duties. The request for authorization from the WTO to introduce the sanctions is …

The United Nations’ cultural agency wants to use the reconstruction of Iraq’s second city Mosul as a way to restore its credibility and show how a fraying multilateral order can be revived, its director general said on Monday. Officially entitled the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Paris-based Unesco …

UAE Exchange on Monday announced the rebranding of its Australia operations as ‘Unimoni’ with an eye on expanding its operations in the Asia Pacific region. “Australia is key to the group’s global strategy and we are glad to launch the new brand ‘Unimoni’ in Australia,” said Ritesh Singh, executive director …

More than 1,200 delegates from five Indian states are expected to take part in the second India-UAE Partnership Summit 2018 (IUPS) to be held in Dubai next month. The two-day event on October 30 and 31 is aimed at attracting investments into education, small- and medium-sized enterprises and skills development …

In a major push to hire tens of thousands of residents for the Expo 2020 Dubai, officials unveiled a ‘House of Volunteers’ in Jebel Ali on Monday. Reem Bint Ebrahim Al Hashemi, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General of Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, unveiled the initiative …

In case you’re wondering if the emerging markets rout can get any worse, remember this: things can always get worse. For the last few weeks, a number of emerging markets currencies, led by the Turkish lira, the Indian rupee, and the Argentinian peso, were hit hard. It looked like the …

A prominent Emirati businessman has called on UAE authorities to lift the ban on voice and video calls on WhatsApp. Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, founding chairman of Al Habtoor Group, posted a video on social media on Sunday, highlighting his plea to allow UAE residents to have access to voice …

Standard Chartered on Sunday announced the appointment of Rola Abu Manneh as chief executive officer of its business in the UAE. Abu Manneh succeeds Julian Wynter, who will be retiring following 26 years of service at the bank. Abu Manneh’s appointment is with immediate effect. Abu Manneh joins from First …

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday blamed US President Donald Trump after inflation hit a nine-year high in the Philippines, hurting the image of the populist leader. It was an unexpected claim from the fiery Duterte, a one-time fierce critic of the United States but who has since embraced Trump …

Apple Inc, the world’s most valuable company, said proposed US tariffs on $200 billion (Dh734.6 billion) worth of products imported from China will raise prices for some of its popular consumer goods such as the Apple Watch and AirPods headphones. The Mac mini desktop computer, Apple Pencil stylus accessory for …

Forty-seven real estate projects were completed in the first eight months of the year, together adding 14,000 new homes to the marketplace. This includes 10,000 apartments and 1,575 villas, as well as 2,258 townhouses and 364 residential complexes. During the reporting period, 1,000 investors received their properties from 900 transactions, …

China’s trade surplus with the U.S. hit another record monthly high in August as the world’s second-largest economy faced the threat of more tariffs from the Trump administration. China’s trade surplus with the U.S. widened to $31.05 billion last month from $28.09 billion in July, while its total trade surplus …

he region has a seen a lot of e-commerce platforms … but SupplyVan wants to be the Amazon of the Middle East for maintenance, repair and overhaul [MRO] products. Ali Asgar Raja, founder and CEO of the Dubai-based firm, said by doing so the platform can provide all MRO products …