Sharjah / WAM The Higher Committee of National Day Celebrations in Sharjah is organising a special ceremony to celebrate the UAE’s Flag Day on November 2. The ceremony is expected to be the biggest national gathering to celebrate the day in Sharjah, and will take place on Flag Island in the emirate with the theme, ‘The UAE of Giving and …

Dubai / Reuters All six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council remain committed to introducing value-added tax, though they will do so at different speeds, a senior International Monetary Fund official said. “My feeling, through my interaction with the authorities, is that they are still committed and they are still preparing implementation,” Jihad Azour, head of the IMF’s Middle East …

Dubai / Reuters Middle East fund managers have become more cautious about investing in regional bonds while ambitious economic development plans in Saudi Arabia have increased interest in equities there, a monthly Reuters poll shows. Twenty-three percent of regional funds expect to reduce their allocations to fixed income in the next three months while 8 percent expect to increase them, …