News

ABU DHABI / WAM Al Ain City Municipality and Abu Dhabi General Services Company (Musanada) have commenced construction works of the Asharej and Al Markhaniya roundabout development project in Al Ain city at a total cost of approximately AED183 million. Both parties stated that development of the two roundabouts aims to facilitate traffic movement, reduce congestions particularly during peak hours, ...

DUBAI / WAM The UAE’s National Programme for Advanced Skills (NPAS) has launched an interactive self-assessment tool enabling individuals to discover their most prominent skills out of the 12 outlines in the advanced skills strategy. The platform includes the game, ‘FutureFit’, designed to provide all members of society to assess themselves to discover which of the skills they are most ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE will join global celebrations for World Humanitarian Day, commemorated on August 19 every year. On this day, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) advocates on behalf of the entire humanitarian community, honouring humanitarian efforts worldwide and propagating the idea of supporting people in crisis. This year’s World Humanitarian Day is ...

Bloomberg Freyr AS, a startup planning to build one of Europe’s first battery gigafactories in Norway, has a bigger vision for the region: a “Nordic Battery Belt.” The Norwegian company is still gathering approvals, technology licenses and funding for its initial, 40 billion-krone ($4.5 billion) project in northern Norway. But it already sees the scope for as many as four ...

Bloomberg Australian pension fund First State Super is on a hiring spree as it seeks to more than double in size to A$200 billion ($136 billion) within next four years. The Sydney-based firm’s investment team will grow to more than 100 people from 80 by 2022 as it builds out in-house expertise across equities, fixed income, infrastructure and direct lending, ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong demonstrators will need to look beyond mainland China for supplies of protest gear that’s defined the look of the movement. Queries on Chinese e-commerce portals such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Taobao for umbrellas, masks and helmets would return the searches as “item not found” for buyers based in Hong Kong, while those on the mainland had ...

Bloomberg The playing field in India’s rapidly expanding market for digital payments is poised to get more crowded as the country races to catch up with China in squeezing out the use of cash, according to the head of the South Asian nation’s payments network. That means Indians will continue to face a bewildering array of payments apps provided by ...

Bloomberg China banned six people linked to a $4.3 billion scandal at one of the country’s biggest listed drug makers from participating in the securities industry. The financial reporting fraud at Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co. was “premeditated, organised, long-term and systematic,” the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a statement. Kangmei Pharmaceutical said in May it overstated its cash positions ...

Bloomberg Indonesian President Joko Widodo proposed record government spending next year to drive the economy to its quickest projected growth in seven years, counting on stimulus and investment to overcome risks from a global slowdown and escalating trade war. Southeast Asia’s largest economy is forecast to grow 5.3% next year, the fastest pace since 2013, the president said in his ...

Bloomberg There are sell-offs and there are sell-offs. But what occurred in Argentina is on a scale of its own. The local stock market tanked 45% in dollar terms and bond prices tumbled 34% after a surprise in the primary election on August 11 that was widely seen as foretelling a victory for the opposition populists when the presidential vote ...