News

  Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) in collaboration with Celebrity Cruises, commemorated the inaugural visit to Dubai of Celebrity Constellation during her maiden voyage in the region. Marking the occasion at a welcome reception, held at Dubai Cruise Terminal in Mina Rashid were Jamal Humaid Al Falasi, Director of Dubai Cruise Tourism, ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Aviation Group awarded the winners of a special ‘Hackathon’, which it hosted in partnership with Cognit, a joint venture between Mubadala and IBM Watson, as part of the UAE’s nation-wide Innovation Week celebrations last week. The Hackathon, which took place at Etihad Airways’ state-of-the-art Innovation Centre, saw more than 20 computer science and ...

  Sharjah / Emirates Business ‘Identity’, the Sharjah Ladies Club (SLC) art exhibition concluded this week. Organised by the Collage Talent Centre, SLC’s hive of creativity and learning, the showcase featured a collection of crafts and artwork imbued with the spontaneity and creative personalities of the Talent Centre’s young female artists aged 6 years and above. The exhibited artworks featured ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business In a survey conducted amongst 15,000 expatriate Indians in UAE by Sumansa Exhibitions, the organizers of the upcoming Indian Property Show, it was revealed that the appetite for premium and luxury homes amongst the UAE NRIs has risen considerably. Whereas last year only 11 percent people were interested in buying a home in the range ...

Reuters Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power is expected to offer a hefty spread on its planned $1 billion bond offer, partly because of market volatility since the US elections and a narrowing issuance window, bankers and investors said. ACWA, in which Saudi sovereign entities hold a combined 16.3 percent stake, is set to be the first international bond from the kingdom ...

  Reuters Morocco’s Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP), one of the world’s biggest phosphate producers, plans to issue 5 billion dirhams ($495 million) of domestic perpetual bonds, the stock exchange regulator said. State run OCP, a major earner of foreign currency for Morocco, has been increasing output to help offset a slide in prices and aims to produce 47 million tonnes ...

  Bloomberg Tunisia’s prime minister said it’s time the government delivered on the long-ignored demands of protesters whose 2010 revolt swept an autocratic ruler from office and sparked the Arab Spring. Unemployment, pay and inequality were the main drivers of the Jasmine Revolution, and six years later unrest is again festering after previous administrations focused on cementing the nation’s transition ...

  Chiba / AFP The sun is setting on Japan’s clean-energy boom, despite projects like a massive floating solar farm near Tokyo, as the government cuts subsidies and bets on nuclear and coal-fired power, critics say. Workers at the floating power station, one of the world’s biggest, have just finished laying about 50,000 interconnected panels on a vast dam reservoir. ...

  Tokyo / AFP Japan’s factory output ticked up in October, expanding for the third month in a row, government data showed on Wednesday. Industrial production grew 0.1 percent on-month, following a 0.6 percent increase in September. “Activity is now well above the lows reached earlier this year, but there is still a long way to go to reach the ...

  Jakarta / AFP Multinational companies are selling consumer products containing palm oil from Indonesian plantations where workers suffer rights abuses, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday, listing problems including child labour and exposure to toxic chemicals. The edible vegetable oil is a key ingredient in many everyday goods, from biscuits to shampoo and make-up, and growing demand has led to ...