Regional News

  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. …

  AFP Iran released images of its first domestically built long-range missile defence system on Sunday, a project started when the country was under international sanctions. Images on multiple state news agencies showed President Hassan Rouhani and Minister of Defence Hossein Dehghan standing in front of the new Bavar 373 missile defence system. The system was designed to intercept cruise …

  Bloomberg Iraq, OPEC’s second-biggest producer, will increase crude exports by about 5 percent in the next few days after an agreement to resume shipments from three oil fields in Kirkuk. Shipments will increase to about 150,000 barrels a day as exports resume from the Baba Gorgor, Jambour and Khabbaz fields, Fouad Hussein, a member of the oil and energy …

  Bloomberg Israel’s largest money managers are turning to the country’s stock market as they bet a five-month corporate bond rally is coming to an end. Equities have started to erase the steepest discount to MSCI World peers in 18 months, while the Tel-Bond 20 index is on course for its worst month since January, according to data compiled by …

  Bloomberg Tunisia’s prime minister-designate unveiled a new cabinet that keeps holdovers from the old government in key security posts while bringing in new faces to try to revive the economy. Youssef Al-Shahed’s appointments followed more than two weeks of consultations since parliament dismissed his predecessor, Habib Essid, over the country’s weak economic performance. Shahed retained seven key ministers from …

Reuters Iran’s crude oil exports were flat in June at just over 2 million barrels per day and production at 3.610 million bpd was steady from the previous month, official data showed. Tallies for both exports and production show a rise since January, when Tehran set about recouping market share lost under international sanctions that were mostly lifted at the …