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Bloomberg The UK government is set to award 5 billion pounds ($6.2 billion) of coronavirus testing contracts to private companies as it overhauls the way it tracks Covid-19. The tender from Public Health England, announced in a public notice, comes after Britain’s coronavirus-testing effort has been dogged by reports of missing tests and long waits for results. The UK currently ...

Bloomberg Budget restrictions for European Union (EU) member states will apply again after the coronavirus-driven recession is over, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in an interview with Corriere della Sera. The EU’s stability pact — rules to ensure members pursue sound public finances and coordinate fiscal policy — remains active, Dombrovskis said in the interview, specifying that ...

Bloomberg The German economy will recover from coronavirus crisis and resume growth by October “at the latest,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told Bild am Sonntag. Altmaier expects the German economy to grow by more than 5% in 2021 after shrinking 6% this year, the newspaper cites him as saying in an interview. The minister sees the number of jobless in ...

Bloomberg Bikes are increasingly muscling aside cars on Europe’s city streets, as coronavirus accelerates a shift towards pedal power. Even before the pandemic, bicycles were enjoying an uptick in demand from environmentally conscious consumers, but the risk of contagion on buses and subways increased the appeal. The emergence of e-bikes, which boost power with an electric motor, has removed some ...

Dubai / WAM His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced the launch of the ‘Arab Space Talents’ programme that aims to build Arab expertise in space science and technologies. Overseen by the UAE Space Agency, the programme will equip young Arab researchers, scientists, inventors and creative ...

Bloomberg Oil slipped, paring a weekly gain, as concern of demand erosion from a coronavirus resurgence countered strong US economic data. Futures fell to about $40 a barrel in New York as the virus continues to spread unabated across large parts of the US, clouding the outlook for energy demand. Crude prices gained 4.2% for the week as data showed ...

Dubai / WAM The Department of Economic Development (DED) Trader licence launched by the Business Registration and Licensing, (BRL) sector, enabling start-ups in Dubai to conduct business activities online and across social networking accounts, has seen an 83 percent increase in licences issued from January to end of June. Compared to the same period last year when the total number ...

Bloomberg India’s latest e-commerce policy draft includes steps that could help local startups and impose government oversight on how companies handle data. The government has been working on the policy for at least two years amid calls to reduce dominance of global tech giants like Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. Under rules laid out in a 15-page ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) announced that it has conducted more than 71,000 additional Covid-19 tests. In a statement, the ministry outlined its plans to continue expanding the scope of testing nationwide to aid in the early detection of Covid-19 cases and to help medical professionals carry out necessary treatment. As part of the ...

Dubai / WAM The Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) in collaboration with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and in strategic partnership with Refinitiv, on Saturday announced the second session of the GIES Virtual Series webinar that will provide an outlook on the future of the halal industry, amid the supply chain disruptions caused by the measures taken ...