August, 2021

• 22 August

  Dubai Customs receives 43,000 innovative ideas for development

  

  DUBAI / WAM Dubai Customs’ efforts towards stimulating innovation culminated in a new summit of generating quality ideas conducive to innovations that improve and take customs work to the next level. The total number of innovative ideas generated and submitted by employees since the launch of the e-suggest system in 2000 reached more than 43,000 until end of first half ...

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• 22 August

  What will Taliban do with a $22b economy?

  

  No sooner had the Taliban taken Kabul than questions began to be asked about how they would manage Afghanistan’s economy. Do the insurgents-turned-rulers have the skills to run, say, a modern finance ministry and central bank? Will foreign donors trust them with aid? Can they do business with investors interested in the country’s mineral wealth? Throughout their two decades in ...

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• 22 August

  Are Amazon’s investors panicky?

  

  It has been a rough few weeks for Amazon.com Inc shareholders. Since the company’s disappointing July earnings report, its share price has fallen by a double-digit percentage and its market value has dropped by a couple hundred billion dollars. Investors are worried about slowing e-commerce sales growth and profitability pressures at its key Amazon Web Services cloud-computing unit. And the ...

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• 22 August

  Can China step off its property treadmill?

  Danny, the political theorist, aspiring lawyer and purveyor of rare herbs in the British cult film Withnail and I, understood the problem of Chinese real estate. “If you’re hanging on to a rising balloon, you’re presented with a difficult decision,” he observes. “Let go before it’s too late or hang on and keep getting higher, posing the question: How long ...

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• 22 August

  Climate change makes US poorer than it feels

  The trillion-dollar spending package that the Senate has passed along to the House is being described as a once-in-a-generation fix for America’s deteriorating infrastructure. It should be viewed as only the first in a long series of such big investments, because Earth’s climate is changing faster than America’s existing roads, bridges and other infrastructure can withstand. In the past 12 ...

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• 22 August

  US, Russia envoys to meet in Seoul on North Korea

  

  Bloomberg US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim, who is currently visiting South Korea, is planning to meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov in Seoul on Monday to discuss North Korea issues, Yonhap News reported. Kim arrived at the Incheon International Airport on Saturday, just hours before Morgulov was due to land, Yonhap said. Kim is scheduled to ...

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• 22 August

  Biden’s vow to protect Afghans runs up against Taliban barriers

  

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s promise to help vulnerable Afghans flee their country in the face of a Taliban onslaught is running up against his reluctance to budge from an August 31 deadline to withdraw all US forces. Refugee groups and former officials says he can’t sustain both. Biden said he was essentially putting Afghan allies of US and Nato forces ...

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• 22 August

  New Malaysian PM brings old guard back as pandemic rages on

  

  Bloomberg Ismail Sabri Yaakob was sworn in as Malaysia’s third prime minister in 18 months, heralding the return of a pro-Malay party that has dominated politics for decades and as the focus on reviving a pandemic-ridden economy becomes more urgent. The monarch presided over the swearing-in ceremony for Ismail, 61, the deputy leader of the previous government and a longtime ...

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• 22 August

  Canada’s big banks to mandate Covid-19 vaccines for workers

  

  Bloomberg Four of the top five Canadian banks are taking a stricter stance with their return-to-office policies, requiring that workers be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before coming back to company buildings, while the fifth is moving in the same direction. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Bank of Montreal joined other major financial firms in requiring ...

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• 22 August

  Africa’s biggest bank looks to add 40% more clients on continent

  

  Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd is aiming to grow its customer base by at least 10 million across the 20 African countries it operates in over the next four years. Africa’s biggest lender is looking to add more digitally engaged customers, forge alliances with distribution partners and expand its product offering as it plots a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. ...

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