News

ABU DHABI / WAM The Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council (QCC), the entity responsible for developing quality infrastructure and raising awareness on quality standards in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, conducted an inspection drive on children toys traded in Abu Dhabi markets in a bid to ensure their compliance with the safety requirements and standards of the Gulf Standardisation ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business ENOC/EPPCO customers can now experience easier, faster and safer refuelling visits to all service stations as Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) announced the extension of its Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based fuel retailing system to all customers across its service stations network. Known as ViP (Vehicle Identification Pass), it is a completely automated and paperless system ...

Dubai / Emirates Business The most awaited Maserati Polo Tour gains momentum with excellent off-road in focus. The tournament would continue in Dubai this week, following the first challenge that took place at the Desert Palm Polo Club. Umberto Cini, Managing Director, Maserati Middle East, India & Africa, told Emirates Business, “Maserati has a natural synergy with ‘the sport of ...

Colombo / AFP Sri Lanka will bring legal reforms to encourage much needed foreign investment, as the cash-strapped island tries to turn its $8 billion Chinese debt into equity, the prime minister said on Sunday. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who returned home on Sunday after a three-day visit to China, said streamlined regulations and a free trade agreement would be in place ...

Sydney / Bloomberg Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government promised to invest A$490 million ($370 million) in infrastructure in West Australia in the coming financial year, seeking to redress the state’s shortfall in the share it receives of the federally collected goods and services tax. The allocation follows a similar investment last year, as the state continues to receive the lowest ...

Kathmandu / DPA Nepal’s domestic air passenger movement continued to shrink for four straight years, dropping 5.96 per cent in 2015, as a series of disasters struck the country denting travel demand. According to the data of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), domestic carriers received 86,510 less flyers last year. These airlines carried 1.36 million passengers in 2015 against 1.45 million ...

Islamabad / Bloomberg Pakistan’s central bank left interest rates unchanged for a third straight meeting to contain a rebound in inflation and support the rupee. The State Bank of Pakistan kept the target policy rate at 6 percent, Governor Ashraf Mahmood Wathra said in a statement in Karachi on Saturday. The move was predicted by 18 of 19 analysts in ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest wireless operator, said it will buy airwaves from Aircel Ltd. taking its spectrum acquisitions this year to $1.2 billion as it prepares to counter Reliance Industries Ltd. that’s starting fourth-generation wireless services this year. The company controlled by billionaire Chairman Sunil Mittal will spend $524 million to purchase airwaves from Aircel ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi is starting to see some success in getting infrastructure projects moving again. About a third of more than 1,000 projects valued at 14 trillion rupees ($210 billion) are delayed as of January, down from 42 percent a year earlier, according to government data released on Thursday. Cost overruns have come down from ...

Madrid / Reuters Spain plans to ask the European Commission for an extra year to meet its public deficit targets, El Pais reported on Sunday, after missing the mark with its 2015 deficit and raising the prospect of further spending cuts to narrow the budget gap. The country last month reported a 2015 deficit of 5 percent of economic output, ...