Regional News

  TNS Bracing up to ensure a peaceful and smooth Haj this year, the Ministry of Health has designed several methods such as e-applications and awareness booklets to benefit pilgrims during Haj. This is besides the regular arrangements like wearing bracelets etc. for their location and safe return. Haj preparatory committees held their 22nd meeting in the ministry’s bureau in ...

  REUTERS Gulf Bank, Kuwait’s fourth-largest lender by assets, reported a 34.4 percent rise in second-quarter net profit on Sunday, as income from fees and investments edged higher. Net profit for the three months to June 30 was 11.93 million dinars, compared to 8.88 million dinars in the year-earlier period, a bourse filing said.Arqaam Capital had forecast Gulf Bank would ...

  Bloomberg Iran is in talks with Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Total SA as part of its push to attract $60 billion in foreign investment to more than double the country’s capacity to produce petrochemicals over the next decade. State-run National Petrochemical Co. plans to increase output capacity to 150 million metric tons a year by 2026, Managing Director ...

  London / Reuters Iraq’s oil exports are set to rise in July, according to loading data and an industry source, putting supply growth from OPEC’s second-largest producer back on track after two months of declines. Iraq in 2015 provided OPEC’s biggest rise in supply. The growth has slowed this year due to maintenance and technical problems, and Iraqi officials ...

  Jeddah / TNS A Saudi-British agreement on free trade will see the light if both countries’ governments agree on its terms. This was stated by Chris Innes-Hopkins, executive director of the Saudi British Joint Business Council, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. Hopkins said the council was encouraging British investments in Saudi Arabia in particular, with the adoption of ...

  Reuters Libya’s Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) will start lifting a blockade on eastern oil terminals over the next three days, though a resumption of exports will depend on the state of the ports, a spokesman said. The PFG, which protects Libya’s oil terminals and fields, has blockaded the major eastern terminals of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina for ...

  Reuters The Saudi Industrial Property Authority (MODON) has inked more than 6,000 industrial, logistic and services contracts for investments that exceed SR600 billion ($160 billion) and provide job opportunities for more than 520,000 employees. Sami Al-Hussaini, official spokesperson of MODON, told Asharq Al-Awsat that factories in the industrial zones have registered a remarkable rise during 2015, in addition to ...

  Jeddah / TNS The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture is planning to establish five agricultural companies in Sudan that specialize in fish farming, grain and fodder trade, animal farming and agricultural production. Sudan has allocated around one million acres for Saudi investment next to the Atbara Agricultural River, according to an executive agreement between the Saudi Ministry of Environment, ...

  Amman / TNS Amid a turbulent regional political and security environment, Jordan is wrestling with sluggish growth and high unemployment, according to a new World Bank report. Launched by the World Bank and the government in Amman, the report found that the economy slowed down for the first time since 2010, further widening Jordan’s output gap, with growth declining from ...

  REUTERS Algeria’s Tiguentourine gas plant is ready to come fully back online for the first time since a deadly militant attack in 2013, General Manager Kamel Aoues said on Saturday. “Full production is for the coming days, all tests have been passed successfully,” Aoues told Reuters during a press visit to the site. The plant, 1,600 km (995 miles) ...