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Dubai / WAM Dubai Customs has completed 452,300 insurance refund requests with a value of AED3.2 billion in H1 2020, according to the latest statistics from the Refund and Maqasa Department at Dubai Customs. The smart Insurance Refund Portal helps clients submit their claims 24/7, which saves their time and reduces cost on them. Dubai Customs has gone far in ...

Dubai / WAM Major General Mohammed Ahmed Al Marri, Director-General of Dubai’s General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) met with representatives of tourism companies in Dubai to discuss the mechanism for granting tourist visas as part of promoting and revitalising tourism in the post-Covid-19 phase. The meeting was also attended by Major General Obaid Muhair bin Suroor, Deputy ...

ISLAMABAD / WAM The UAE continues its firm commitment to international cooperation by providing essential health and humanitarian supplies to nations grappling with the impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19). The Pakistani-Emirati Military Hospital in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi stands as a shining example of UAE’s humanitarian and developmental initiatives to combat pandemics and natural calamities. In the past few ...

Bloomberg Germany took a step forward in its recovery from the coronavirus slump, with a key measure of activity showing growth for the first time in five months. IHS Markit’s composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) jumped to 55.5 in July from 47 in June. The figure was better than economists had predicted, and puts the gauge above the key 50 ...

Bloomberg Residential land values in London’s priciest areas are dropping, with developers taking a more cautious approach to new projects during the pandemic. The average price of land for development in prime central London fell by 6% in second quarter, the first decline in more than a year, according to a report by broker Knight Frank. That means plots are ...

Bloomberg US business activity stabilised in July, indicating only gradual progress for the economy as some states slow the pace of reopening to counter a pickup in coronavirus cases. The IHS Markit preliminary composite index of purchasing managers at manufacturers and service providers improved 2.1 points to a six-month high of 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction, the ...

Bloomberg A record number of Canada’s largest businesses are seeking protection from creditors, a testament to the strains companies are under because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the three months through June, 27 firms were granted protection under Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA), a federal law that gives insolvent corporations that have debt of more than $3.7 million an opportunity ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s economic activity plunged by a record in May, continuing a free-fall caused by a coronavirus outbreak that’s wreaking havoc on output. Activity, as measured by a proxy known as IGAE, dropped 22.7% compared to a year ago, the national statistics agency reported on its website. That’s more than the median forecast for a 20.3% contraction in a Bloomberg ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) praised “good progress” in tackling risky suppliers of core fifth-generation mobile network equipment and called on other member states to follow suit. With countries in the region under intensifying US pressure to ban China’s Huawei Technologies Co., the bloc published a report that assessed how well governments were reducing security risks in the shift to ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE’s successful launch of the Mars Mission, Hope Probe, will serve as a positive impetus to South Korea’s planned lunar mission and pave the way for joint Moon and Mars explorations, a senior official told Emirates News Agency (WAM). As South Korea is planning to launch a lunar orbiter in 2022, and send a lunar ...