March, 2021

• 25 March

  UAE University signs deal with Burjeel, VPS Healthcare

  

  Al AIN / WAM The College of Medicine and Health Sciences in United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), and Burjeel Hospital & VPS Healthcare, will cooperate to develop updated evidence-based medical education programmes, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Zaki Nusseibeh, Cultural Advisor to HH the President of UAE, Chancellor of the UAEU, witnessed the signing ceremony between ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  Suez Canal blockage to ripple through global energy market

  

  Bloomberg The blockage of the Suez Canal by a giant container vessel is likely to send ripples of disruption through the global energy supply chain. European and US refiners that rely on the vital waterway for cargoes of Middle Eastern oil may be forced to look for replacement supplies should the blockage persist, potentially boosting prices of alternative grades. At ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  Japan eyeing new coal units in Bangladesh

  

  Bloomberg One of the last countries in the world to support coal-fired generation overseas is considering financing new capacity in Bangladesh. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said in an email it’s conducting an environmental and social impact assessment for an expansion to the Matarbari power plant. JICA already agreed to finance the first 1.2 gigawatt phase of the project that ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  UK to help North Sea oil industry with low-carbon shift

  

  Bloomberg The UK government said it reached an agreement with country’s oil and gas industry that will help safeguard jobs as the nation strives to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. The North Sea transition deal sets out a path to attract investment into renewable energy, carbon-capture and storage, and hydrogen. Spending of as much as $22 billion by 2030 ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  We must start planning for a permanent pandemic

  

  For the past year, an assumption — sometimes explicit, often tacit — has informed almost all our thinking about the pandemic: At some point, it will be over, and then we’ll go “back to normal.” This premise is almost certainly wrong. SARS-CoV-2, protean and elusive as it is, may become our permanent enemy, like the flu but worse. And even ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  A new monetary order is being built

  

  The Covid-19 pandemic and the extraordinary stimulus unleashed has re-written the role of central banks. Now that economic recovery is picking up, there’s a global tussle over the spoils and just how much power monetary authorities have to surrender. Battle lines draw little distinction among regions and whether an economy is emerging or developed, rich or poor. In New Zealand, ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  WeWork is a $9 billion test of SPAC appetite

  If at first you don’t succeed with an IPO, try again with a special purpose acquisition company. Having failed abysmally when trying to go public the traditional way in 2019, office-space provider WeWork Cos is reportedly in talks to merge with BowX Acquisition Corp and thereby join the stock market. A SPAC transaction has obvious appeal. Merging with a $480 ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  Businesses are losing their Covid-19 lawsuits

  Remember last year’s kerfuffle over whether providers of business interruption insurance would have to pay when local Covid-19 rules forced proprietors to close? The verdict is now in … and it hasn’t gone well for business owners. In fact, according to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, which has developed a tool to track Covid-related litigation, the insurers have overwhelmingly ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  World Bank sees $6b wasted on plastics in Southeast Asia

  

  Bloomberg Southeast Asian countries lose out on as much as $6 billion a year as most of their single-use plastics are thrown out rather than recovered and recycled, the World Bank said in a new study. More than 75% of recyclable plastics in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines are left to waste, representing a “significant untapped business opportunity” in the ...

  Read More »
• 25 March

  China’s $2.3 trillion hidden debt could climb even further

  

  Bloomberg China’s local governments had 14.8 trillion yuan ($2.3 trillion) of hidden debt last year, and the figure could climb even further this year, according to a government-linked think tank. Local governments were under pressure to increase infrastructure investment and shore up growth through pandemic, leading to a 6% rise in off-budget borrowing from a recent low of 13.9 billion ...

  Read More »