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  AFP The uncertainty caused by Brexit and Donald Trump’s election will help spur talks on a long-stalled free trade accord between the EU and South American trade block Mercosur, Brazil’s foreign minister said Wednesday. “I think the possibilities of the Mercosur negotiations have a direct relationship with international insecurity,” Jose Serra told a news conference in Madrid when asked ...

  KHOBAR / Reuters Saudi Arabia plans to more than triple the contribution of its mining industry to national wealth as measured by GDP by 2030, the energy minister said. The kingdom is finalising a mining strategy aimed at raising annual mining revenues from 64 billion riyals ($17.07 billion) to 240 billion riyals by 2030, Khalid Al Falih told reporters ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Saudi Arabian construction firm Abdullah Abdul Mohsin al-Khodari and Sons said on Tuesday that projects worth 362.2 million riyals ($97 million) had been delayed due to factors ranging from clients’ funding shortages to slow visa issuance. The pace of construction in Saudi Arabia has cooled in the past two years as lower oil prices stall project ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Aluminium Bahrain has approached banks for a $750 million loan towards the financing of its Line 6 expansion project, sources said. Alba will become the world’s largest single aluminium smelter complex, boosting its annual output by 540,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes per year by adding the sixth “potline”, used in producing the metal from raw ...

  CAIRO / Reuters Pharmacies across Egypt are running short of medicines, some of them life-savers, as a plunge in the value of the Egyptian pound coupled with strict government price caps has made scores of products unprofitable to produce or import. The shortages include some cancer treatments as well as basic items like insulin, tetanus shots and contraceptive pills. ...

  DUBAI / WAM Lower oil prices have created economic pressure in the members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) by impacting revenues while also creating opportunities, Abdulla Jassem bin Kalban, MD and CEO of Emirates Global Aluminium(EGA), said and noted that “the greatest success story is industrialisation through the GCC aluminium industry.” “Economic ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM In his capacity as Chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, issued a resolution reconstituting the board of the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), the emirate’s master developer of major tourism ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Abu Dhabi General Services Company, Musanada, said the 62-km-long Abu Dhabi- Dubai highway would be ready by next year. The project, being executed by Musanada in co-operation with the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport, is one of the most important land transport initiatives in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The road is one of ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM The Economic Development Committee (EDC) of Abu Dhabi Executive Council visited the new Midfield Terminal Project (MTP) and Abu Dhabi Ports, the master developer, operator and manager of the emirate’s ports, and to Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi, Kizad. The two projects are in line with the Abu Dhabi Plan objectives to create an effective ...

  ABU DHABI / WAM Emirati women now make up about 10 percent of the people working at the UAE’s nuclear energy plant Barakah and 20 percent of the employees at the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), Mohamed Al Hammadi, ENEC s Chief Executive Officer, said at the 24th Women in Nuclear (WiN) Annual Global Conference here. According to Al ...