DUBAI / WAM Emirates NBD and digital payments facilitator Visa on Sunday announced the renewal of their partnership with a five-year agreement. As part of the agreement, Visa has secured exclusivity over Emirates NBD’s debit card offering to personal, priority, private and business banking customers, and the debit card programme for Liv. Emirates NBD’s lifestyle digital-only bank. In addition, the ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The latest regional developments and issues of mutual interest have been deliberated by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry. This came during a phone call on Saturday, where top diplomat valued the efforts made by Egypt that led to ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai Future Academy (DFAc)’s Dubai Future Experts Program, an initiative by Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), has concluded the third module of its Future Analyst’s phase. Spanning a year and a half, the program, developed in partnership between The Executive Council of Dubai and DFF, and supervised by DFAc, is divided into three phases of six months ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The Cuban government held an official ceremony in the country’s capital, Havana, to coincide with the arrival of UAE medical aid. The UAE recently dispatched an aid plane carrying eight metric tonnes of medical supplies to support Cuba in curbing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Commenting on the occasion, UAE Ambassador to Cuba Bader Abdulla ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM In line with its efforts to enhance societal awareness of best food safety practices, the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (Adafsa) has launched a guide in three languages on the necessary procedures and measures to prepare, handle and deliver food safely during Covid-19 crisis. The guide provides a detailed clarification of food safety guidelines, ...

Dubai / WAM Dubai Municipality announced that it has begun distributing 600 residential plots in the Nad Hessa area to eligible citizens using smart technologies as part of its remote work framework and procedures. In a statement, the municipality noted that the distribution of lands reflects the keenness of the UAE leadership to provide a decent life for citizens, and ...

Dubai / WAM The Customs Development Division of Dubai Customs, which is in charge of developing innovative systems and platforms, showed that 96 percent of customs transactions were approved and endorsed automatically thanks to smart workspace system which reduced clearance time to 4 minutes only. Employees have used TEAMS Microsoft 615,000 times, completed 3.1 minutes of calling, and sent 440,000 ...

Bloomberg Southern Co’s long troubled project to expand its Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia is “highly unlikely” to meet its state deadlines and is apt to face additional budget overruns, according to a local monitor. The company isn’t on pace to complete the two reactors by November 2021 and November 2022 deadlines approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission, Don ...

Bloomberg Indonesia, the world’s largest palm-oil producer, has cut the cost assumption of converting crude palm oil into biodiesel by 20% to $80 per metric ton, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry. The revision, effective this month, is needed to ensure the mandatory program to blend 30% of palm-biofuel with 70% gasoil, known as B30, continues even as ...

Bloomberg Crude oil led a recovery in China’s energy imports, rising to a record and feeding a rebound in industrial and consumer activity as restrictions to stop coronavirus infections ease. Imports rose to 47.97 million tons in May, or 11.3 million barrels a day, according to customs data. Ship-tracking data show tanker arrivals last month rose to pre-virus levels, as ...