August, 2021

• 24 August

  Afghan crisis: New Zealand lauds UAE’s cooperation in evacuation of its citizens

  

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Bowardi, Minister of State for Defence Affairs, has received a phone call on Monday from Peeni Henare, Minister of Defence of New Zealand. The two ministers discussed cooperation and joint action between the UAE and New Zealand in defence and military affairs, and touched upon regional issues of common interest. They also ...

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• 24 August

  UAE, Kuwait discuss ways to boost ties

  

  KUWAIT / WAM Dr Matar Hamed Al Neyadi, UAE Ambassador to Kuwait, met Kuwait’s Minister of Health, Dr Basel Hamoud Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, at his office in the Ministry. Al Neyadi highlighted the UAE’s keenness to boost joint cooperation and strengthen relations between the two brotherly countries to achieve the aspirations of the two countries’ leadership and peoples. For his part, ...

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• 24 August

  Emirates, Cemair sign interline deal

  

  Dubai / WAM Emirates has signed an interline agreement with CemAir that opens up connections to six more destinations in South Africa through the airline’s gateways of Johannesburg and Cape Town. The partnership also includes a couple of leisure points exclusively served by CemAir. This marks the first partnership between both airlines, and Emirates’ fourth airline partnership in South Africa. ...

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• 24 August

  First Covid immobilised all. Now governments are

  

  One of my great concerns about the pandemic was that it would hinder the global mobility of people and labour, perhaps permanently. Unfortunately, my worst fears are being realised: As Covid mutates, it is affecting not only tourism and business travel but migration more generally. Consider that after the end of the Vietnam War, the US took in more than ...

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• 24 August

  Is Amazon following Sears’ footsteps

  

  After years spent driving many conventional retailers into bankruptcy, Amazon just announced plans to open its own physical “department stores” that would sell both its own private-label good as well as brand-name apparel, housewares and other items. The move may seem counterintuitive, even self-defeating. But in pursuing this strategy, Amazon is merely following a playbook developed by its forerunners, particularly ...

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• 24 August

  Malaysia’s new premier carries old baggage

  So much for a changing of the guard in Malaysia. The new governing coalition looks a lot like the one that collapsed last week amid defections, record Covid-19 cases and a diminished outlook for economic recovery. The resemblance doesn’t bode well for the durability of PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration. Ismail Sabri, a former deputy premier, was sworn in by ...

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• 24 August

  Central bankers risk their independence

  Central bankers and journalists will assemble for the virtual Jackson Hole conference later this week. Their agenda will be broad. The future path of quantitative easing, the health of the labour market, and other critical monetary and regulatory matters will command center stage. But we can also expect pronouncements on issues once considered the domain of elected politicians, including climate ...

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• 24 August

  India plans $81b sales of its infrastructure assets

  

  Bloomberg India plans to raise 6 trillion rupees ($81 billion) from selling state-owned infrastructure assets over next four years to help bolster the government’s finances and plug its budget deficit, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan will include sale of road and railway assets, airports, power transmission lines and gas pipelines, said the people who asked not ...

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• 24 August

  Intel spends $6m to meet Vietnam coronavirus rules

  

  Bloomberg Intel Corp has spent 140 billion dong ($6.1 million) in just one month to meet strict Vietnamese anti-virus mandates for factories in Ho Chi Minh City to ensure it can keep operations going. The costs include providing sleeping accommodations for workers, according to Ho Thi Thu Uyen, head of external affairs for Intel in Vietnam and Malaysia. Intel Vietnam ...

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• 24 August

  SoftBank makes first Africa bet on OPay at $2b valuation

  Bloomberg SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $400 million funding round for OPay, valuing the Nigerian mobile-payments platform at $2 billion and marking the investment vehicle’s first bet in Africa. Also participating in the round were Sequoia Capital China, DragonBall Capital, the venture arm of Chinese food-delivery giant Meituan, Redpoint China, Source Code Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia and 3W Capital, ...

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