Regional News

Emirates Business In the lead up to the public holidays marking Eid Al Adha in September, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism is looking to visitors from Gulf countries to offset the recent slump in the nation’s tourist numbers. Tourism is a critical source of Turkey’s GDP – the sector generated USD 35.1 billion in revenues in 2015 – ...

  Bloomberg Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of the Middle Eastern country, bought a 9.9 percent interest in Empire State Realty Trust, owner of New York’s Empire State Building. The fund purchased 29.6 million newly issued Class A common shares at $21 each, and will have a 9.9 percent economic and voting interest in the real estate investment ...

  WAM Two financing agreements, with a value of more than US$ 1 billion, were signed on Tuesday between the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED). Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, the Bahraini Minister of Finance, and Hamad Suleiman Al Omar, Deputy Director-General of the Fund, signed the agreements, which ...

  Reuters Egypt plans to end fuel subsidies within three years and is aiming to increase fuel prices to 65 percentof their actual cost during the 2016/17 fiscal year, two government sources said. Struggling to revive its economy after an uprising in 2011 shook investor confidence and drove tourists and foreign investors away, Egypt has been trying to cut spending ...

  Bloomberg Oil extended its biggest loss in three weeks before the release of US crude inventory data on Wednesday, while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cautioned that any OPEC deal to freeze output may only deepen the global oversupply. October futures fell as much as 1.7 percent in New York after declining for the first time in eight days on ...

  Emirates Business Advanced Construction and Technology Services (ACTS), a leading consulting organisation in the field of construction materials and geotechnical engineering, has announced this year’s international Future Concrete conference will focus on managing construction sites, in response to industry trends and feedback. The 8th Future Concrete Conference will be held on August 25 at the Hilton Beirut Habtoor Grand ...

  Emirates Business Doha has 41 projects and 11,722 rooms in its hotel construction pipeline, according to a new report. The Doha Hotel Construction Overview report by TOPHOTELPROJECTS prepared exclusively for The Hotel Show Dubai 2016, reveals that Doha is the 3rd busiest city in the Middle East and Africa for hotel construction, behind only Dubai (133 projects) and Riyadh ...

  WAM CEO of Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) Mohammed Ghazi Al-Mutairi announced that a collective KD1.71 billion has been spent on a bio- fuel project, which was locally and internationally financed. In an interview with Al-Rai, carried by state news agency, KUNA, on Sunday, Al-Mutairi said that the funding was possible through loans from local banks which is given ...

  Bloomberg Iran’s central bank is signaling that it will loosen its grip on the rial in an effort to end a dual-exchange rate system seen as an obstacle deterring foreign investment needed to rebuild the economy. Policy makers, in a decision reported earlier this month, allowed commercial lenders to buy foreign currencies using rial rates set by the market ...

  Bloomberg Bahrain’s GFH Financial Group is in talks to buy a majority stake in Islamic lender Bank Alkhair. GFH has signed a memorandum of understanding for the potential acquisition, which is subject to board and shareholder approval, completion of due diligence, agreement on an acquisition structure and regulatory approvals, according to a statement Monday to the Dubai stock market. ...