News

Bloomberg Bitcoin’s seemingly unstoppable surge to record highs isn’t deterring competitors. Former Silicon Valley developers are working on at least two new versions of the digital currency. Basecoin is seeking to solve bitcoin’s volatility with a team of former Google Inc. coders that are building what they hope will be a more stable version of the cryptocurrency. Cypherium has former ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Standard & Poor’s has forecast Abu Dhabi GDP to rise to AED850 billion and AED890 billion at current prices in 2017 and 2018 respectively, attributing the growth to the momentum witnessed by the oil and non-oil sectors since the beginning of this year. The credit ratings agency expected the emirate’s per capital GDP to amount to ...

DUBAI / WAM Paul Drum, Head of Policy at CPA Australia and an expert in tax law, said that it is anticipated that around 5,000 finance and accounting jobs will be created within the GCC region with the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT). In a workshop at the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), on the new tax law, ...

Dubai / Reuters Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the United Arab Emirates’ largest sharia-compliant lender, posted a 26 percent increase in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday as higher income from Islamic financing and investing offset a rise in impairment charges. The bank made AED1.11 billion ($302.2 million) in the three months to September 30, it said in a statement. This compares ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, and YES BANK have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to further foster cross-border exchange between the FinTech (Financial technology) ecosystems of the UAE and India. The collaboration will enable fintech innovators from the Middle East region and India to apply into YES FinTech ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Revenues for properties listed on the online marketplace and hospitality platform, Airbnb, in Dubai during August 2015 and August 2017 increased by 421 percent to top $3.3million in August 2017, with listings nearly tripling to 3,249. The relaxation of rules, effectively making it possible for home owners and tenants to cut out the middleman and list ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Up to 6,303 factories have been running investments worth more than AED103.1 billion in the UAE until the end of 2016, a top Ministry of Economy official told Emirates News Agency (WAM). “The food and beverage industry accounts for 30 percent of the total volume of the country’s industrial sector followed by the primary mineral industries ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Etihad Airways will launch scheduled flights between Abu Dhabi and Baku, Azerbaijan, effective March 2, 2018. The new route is being introduced to capitalise on the strong and growing demand for flights between the UAE and Azerbaijan. The service will operate three times a week using a 136-seat Airbus A320, configured with 16 seats in Business ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Qantas and Emirates on Wednesday announced additional network changes under the joint partnership which provide customers with greater year round frequency and more services between Australia and New Zealand.* These changes reflect customer demand and the airlines’ respective network strengths and provide more options for customers to travel between Australia and New Zealand to Asia, the ...

Sharjah / WAM Sharjah International Airport received maiden flight of Rossiya Airlines from Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg in Russia. The Boeing 737-800 aircrafts will touch down every Sunday and Thursday at the airport. A reception was held for the aircraft crew and airline officials, hosted by Ali Salim Al Midfa, Chairman of Sharjah Airport Authority, and Sheikh Faisal bin Saoud Al ...