Regional News

  Tribune news service Bahrain’s decade-long national award for women empowerment has received global recognition. The new award is named after Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad and Supreme Council for Women (SCW) president, and will now come under UN Women. The council has been tasked by UN Women to come ...

  Emirates Business CFA Society Emirates, the association for financial and investment professionals in the UAE, has unveiled the results of a survey which assessed the impact of introducing Value Added Tax (VAT) across the GCC. The survey provided market insights from CFA members and charterholders in the United Arab Emirates. With the UAE set to become the first country ...

  Reuters Saudi Arabia is seeking international investors to build two solar power plants, using a deal structure that could become a model for the kingdom’s infrastructure projects as low oil prices pressure the government’s finances. State-owned utility Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) said at the weekend that it was inviting expressions of interest from companies or consortiums around the world ...

  Manama / Tribune News Service A deal has been agreed that will hopefully tackle traffic congestion that has plagued neighbours of a popular mall in Muharraq. The agreement will see costs of a new BD300,000 access road shared by government and investors at Seef Mall Muharraq. It follows a year of negotiations between mall management and the Works, Municipalities ...

  Manama / Tribune News Service Bahrain-based Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) remained profitable last year despite the sharp decline in global prices and other market challenges, it has emerged. The company, which is an equal stakes joint venture of Bahrain’s nogaholding, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and the Petrochemical Industries Company (PIC) of Kuwait, uses locally available natural gas ...

  Tribune News Service Bahrain is going to be the hub of a new $200 million textile business spread across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. MRS Fashions, which has been putting Bahrain on the global fashion map for the past 16 years through its manufacturing unit in the kingdom, is now setting up its new regional head ...

  Manama / Tribune News Service A foreign embassy has appealed to Bahraini authorities to relax recruitment procedures for its citizens, which it claimed led to exploitation and were so time-consuming that diplomats had no time for anything else. It has emerged that unscrupulous agents are conning Bangladeshi labourers out of almost a month’s salary to complete the procedures, which ...

  CAIRO / Reuters Egypt will end local wheat buying on Wednesday, earlier than usual, due to exceeding its target of 4 million tonnes, the supplies ministry said on Saturday. “Supplies Minister Khaled Hanafi pointed out that the door for receiving local wheat from farmers will close at the end of Wednesday due to lowering local procurement rates,” the ministry ...

  Manama / Tribune news service Residents of 1,300 rundown homes in the Muharraq Governorate are refusing to renovate their homes according to heritage specifications and threatening to knock them down themselves. Homes in the historic Muharraq, Hidd and Arad neighbourhoods are under a banned list, which means that the Muharraq Municipality can’t grant their owners permission to bulldoze and ...

  Reuters Bankers are expecting to be notified soon about the line up to lead Saudi Arabia’s debut international bond transaction after pitches took place in Riyadh. The Kingdom is likely to hire from the list of banks that underwrote a US$10bn loan in May, which was coordinated by JP Morgan, HSBC and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, though a number of ...