Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai-based World Free Zones Organization (FZO) will kick-off its 2nd Annual International Conference and Exhibition tomorrow (May 9) under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Titled ‘Global Value Chain: Opportunities for the Free Zone of the Future’, the ...

  ALKESH SHARMA / Emirates Business Huge investments in aviation sector in the region, especially in the UAE, will steer the Middle East smart airports market to surpass $850 million within the next three years. Revolutionary concept of smart airport, driven by latest marvels of technology and applications, is all set to enhance traveller’s experience in a big way. The ...

  Emirates Business Sobha Group — the leading luxury real estate developer — has unveiled its luxury show villas at its eight million sq.ft Sobha Hartland project to the public. Sobha Group revealed the ultra-contemporary villas which will be on offer to prospective buyers at the mixed-used waterfront development in Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum City and beautifully set within ...

  RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business Imagine you are on a pleasure drive to Al Ain sitting on the pilot seat but facing your friends and chatting with them. How about sipping your cold coffee and admiring Burj Khalifa as your car vrooms on the Sheikh Zayed Road? All these will become a reality sooner than you visualize. UAE will ...

  Reuters Bahrain Telecommunications Co (Batelco) posted a 33 percent fall in first-quarter profit as its subscriber base and revenue both declined. Batelco made a net profit of 9.6 million Bahraini dinars ($25.46 million) in the three months to March 31, it said in a statement. This compares with a profit of 14.2 million dinars a year earlier. SICO Bahrain ...

  Yangon / AFP Hundreds of Myanmar villagers rallied on Saturday against a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine, activists said, reigniting a contentious issue that could pose an early challenge to Aung San Suu Kyi’s new government. The Letpadaung mine in the central town of Monywa has for years been dogged by complaints of land-grabbing, environmental damage and brutal police crackdowns on ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg China’s foreign-exchange reserves increased for the second month in a row as market sentiment toward the yuan improved and a stronger yen and euro boosted the headline number. The world’s largest currency hoard rose by $7.089 billion to $3.22 trillion in April, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on Saturday. That compares with ...

  Tokyo / Bloomberg Sharp Corp. fell the most in almost two months on concerns that the Japanese company’s loss for the last fiscal year will be far wider than forecast. The company may report a net loss of 300 billion yen ($2.8 billion), according to a person familiar with the matter, almost double the 161 billion yen that analysts ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg New Delhi’s electricity regulator directed state-run utility NTPC Ltd. to refrain from cutting supplies to two city power retailers over unpaid dues after the generator threatened to halt sales to India’s capital. In a meeting, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission asked NTPC and the two distributors — BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd. and BSES Yamuna Power ...

  New Delhi / Bloomberg Indian gold imports slumped for the third straight month in April as a rally in prices sapped demand, according to a person familiar with provisional Finance Ministry data. Overseas purchases fell 74 percent to about 22.3 metric tons valued at 60 billion rupees ($901 million), compared with 84.3 tons or 193 billion rupees a year ...