Business

ABU DHABI/WAM  Tabreed, a leading district cooling company, has made a major advancement in its efforts to decarbonise the cooling sector, achieving the ‘Verified Carbon Standard’ at one of its Abu Dhabi plants, certifying carbon credits to offset emissions. Independent non-profit agency, Verra, which sets the world’s leading standards for climate action and sustainable development, carried out a year-long verification …

ABU DHABI/WAM Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the world’s largest premium aluminium producer and the biggest industrial company in the UAE outside oil and gas, today reported solid financial performance for the first half of 2024 amid sustained global demand for premium aluminium. EGA’s adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (adjusted EBITDA) was AED 4.20 billion (US$1.14 billion), compared …

DUBAI/WAM DXB Live, the integrated event management and experiential agency of Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), announced its expansion of its regional presence by officially opening a new office in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). This expansion aligns with DXB Live’s strategy to strengthen its global footprint and reinforce its position as a leader in the events industry. Khalid …

HONG KONG / WAM About 1.44 million travellers visited the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday from Feb 10-17, with 1.26 million of them coming from the Chinese mainland, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said. Speaking to the media for the first time in the Year of the Dragon, the chief executive expressed his optimism …

BEIJING / WAM China’s central bank announced its first medium-term lending facility (MLF) operation in the Year of the Dragon, continuing a streak of 15 consecutive months of net fund injections through MLF loans to maintain reasonable and ample liquidity in the banking system. According to Global Times, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has announced that a sum of …

BEIJING / WAM China is moving away from traditionally energy-intensive industrial sectors towards green development across key sectors, in efforts to fulfill its goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, according to China Central Television. In June 2023, the Hunan Valin Xiangtan Iron and Steel power plant in Xiangtan County, located in Hunan …

BEIJING / WAM China’s consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, edged up 0.3 percent month on month in January 2024, official data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed. According to China Central Television, January witnessed the second consecutive month of growth, with an expansion of 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous month. Notably, urban …

BEIJING / WAM China’s vehicle sales surged 47.9 percent year on year in January 2024 to nearly 2.44 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Xinhua News Agency quoted the association as saying that the country’s vehicle output last month increased by 51.2 percent year on year to 2.41 million units. Specifically, passenger car output and sales …

HANOI / WAM Despite a challenging global economic landscape, Vietnam continues to stand resilient as one of the top 10 recipients of overseas remittances worldwide, with an estimated $14 billion last year, according to the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD). Breaking records on its own, Ho Chi Minh City …

HANOI / WAM Vietnam’s tourism industry stands at the threshold of a remarkable milestone, with experts asserting that an impressive figure of 14-15 million foreign visitors could be achieved this year, according to the state news agency (VNA). A recent survey conducted by Vietnam Report JSC has unveiled an optimistic outlook, with 66.7% of businesses in the tourism and hotel …