DUBAI / WAM As part of its efforts to promote Dubai as an attractive business destination and to familiarise overseas companies with the emirate’s business environment, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently concluded its Food Import Trade Mission to Azerbaijan and Georgia, highlighting the requirements and conditions of exporting foodstuffs to Dubai. During the trade mission, Dubai Chamber ...

    Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is considering a plan to tax millions of foreign residents as the kingdom seeks to reduce its reliance on oil revenue after the plunge in crude prices. The proposal was included in the country’s National Transformation Plan, an ambitious multi-year program released this week. But the tax element is only “an initiative that will be ...

  Bloomberg Iran will seek international investors for a $3 billion refinery project in the country’s south as the Persian Gulf nation looks to boost sales of its oil and natural gas products in Asia. The refining complex on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast will seek to raise as much as 80 percent of the capital needed from international partners or ...

  Emirates Business Morocco’s Casa Transports has awarded Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi an €83m ($94m) contract for the construction of Line 2 of the Casablanca tram line. The line will feature 20 stations, with construction expected to take a two-and-a-half years, according to a rail industry publication. Line 2 will start where the western branch of Line 1 terminates, at Boulevard ...

  BLOOMBERG Bonds rose with commodities and emerging markets on speculation that central banks will persist with policies that support financial markets. The European Central Bank began buying corporate bonds to expand its monetary stimulus, helping drive average yields on investment-grade corporate debt below 1 percent. Germany’s 10-year bund yields fell to a record. Emerging markets equities and currencies rose ...

  Bloomberg While oil markets will start re-balancing after a slump next year, an oversupply in natural gas won’t disappear until the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency said, slashing its gas demand outlook for a fourth straight year. Global consumption will expand by 1.5 percent annually from 2015 through 2021, down from last year’s forecast of 2 ...

  Bloomberg Lundin Gold Inc. is forging ahead with its gold project in Ecuador, one of the world’s largest undeveloped deposits, in a signal the industry is moving back into expansion mode as the metal continues to rally. The Vancouver-based miner is planning to raise $820 million to $940 million in two phases to finance the Fruta del Norte project, ...

  Eurajoki / AFP Deep underground on a lush green island, Finland is preparing to bury its highly-radioactive nuclear waste for 100,000 years — sealing it up and maybe even throwing away the key.Tiny Olkiluoto, off Finland’s west coast, will become home to the world’s costliest and longest-lasting burial ground, a network of tunnels called Onkalo — Finnish for “The ...

  Bloomberg Developers first placed solar panels on water years ago to address land-based space constraints. Now, they’re finding floating plants may be more efficient. In a year-long study in Hyogo prefecture north of Osaka, solar panels installed on a reservoir generated 14 percent more power than those set up on the rooftop of an office building, according to the ...

  Ritika SHARMA / Emirates Business As the scope for horizontal growth in the real estate takes backseat, there is a huge demand for vertical structures with smart designs that make optimal use of the space. Experts believe that the trend of smart vertical structures is poised to grow manifold in the coming years. “In Middle East region, some countries ...