August, 2019

• 24 August

  Modi launches RuPay card in UAE

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM Around 175,000 merchant acceptance locations of 21 businesses and 5,000 ATMs in the UAE will soon start accepting India’s RuPay card, it was announced on Saturday. RuPay card, an Indian indigenous equivalent of Mastercard or Visa, was launched in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who swiped his card for buying Indian sweets at ...

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• 24 August

  UAE tops Arab world in achieving transition to digital services

  

  Dubai / WAM The UAE has ranked first in the Arab region according to the 2019 Government Electronic and Mobile Services (Gems) Maturity Index. Issued by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the indicator is a measuring tool of progress at the national level in achieving transition to digital services. It was carried out across ...

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• 24 August

  DP World, Jafza showcase F&B expertise at India expo

  

  CHENNAI / DUBAI / WAM DP World UAE Region and Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) showcased their capabilities and offerings at the FoodPro Exhibition and Conference organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Chennai, India to support and facilitate India’s food and beverage exports. The DP World team engaged with F&B companies looking to expand their businesses outside ...

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• 24 August

  FTA begins procedures on updated excise goods

  ABU DHABI / WAM The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has begun carrying out procedures related to implementing the latest Cabinet decision on excise goods, excise tax rates, and the method of calculating the excise price, issued in August 2019, which expanded the scope of excise goods to include electronic smoking devices and liquids, and sweetened drinks. The new decision goes ...

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• 24 August

  China and Vietnam spar on high seas over $2.5 trillion in energy

  

  Bloomberg When a Chinese state-owned survey vessel sailed into waters off Vietnam’s coast in early July, it unleashed a high-seas standoff with trillions of dollars at stake that risks drawing in Russia and the US. For weeks now the Haiyang Dizhi 8 has zigzagged across a square block of water to study the seabed in an active drilling block operated ...

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• 24 August

  Macron calls on container lines to shun Arctic route

  

  Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron is calling on container lines to avoid using a new Arctic shipping route to protect the environment. Speaking at the start of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz in southwest France on Saturday, Macron said France’s biggest shipping line, CMA CGM, has committed not to use the so-called Northern Sea Route being promoted by ...

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• 24 August

  Oil short-sellers are making a wrong-way bet

  Bloomberg It’s getting tougher to bet on oil in the age of Trump trade tweets and Chinese retaliation, with hedge funds getting it wrong for a seventh time in nine weeks. This time around, short-sellers made their biggest retreat in a year in week ended August 20, slashing by 25% their wagers that West Texas Intermediate crude would decline, data ...

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• 24 August

  Nigeria court orders to renew Shell oil lease

  Bloomberg A Nigerian high court ordered the government to renew Shell Petroleum Development Co.’s operating license for the Oil Mineral Lease 11 field, which was withdrawn earlier this year, Lagos-based Punch newspaper reported. The Federal High Court in Abuja, ordered the license be renewed for maximum 20 years, and not 30 years the oil major was seeking, the newspaper reported. ...

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• 24 August

  North Korea launches more missiles in latest provocation

  

  Bloomberg North Korea launched more missiles on Saturday, the latest in the most prolific series of tests since US President Donald Trump took office. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said two ballistic missiles were launched from south Hamgyong, travelling about 380 kilometres and reaching a maximum altitude of 97 kilometres. They landed outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, Japan’s Coast Guard said ...

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• 24 August

  Washington sanctions on Venezuela undercut talks, says Maduro ally

  

  Bloomberg US sanctions against Venezuela are making successful talks with the opposition impossible, said a key ally of President Nicolas Maduro, demanding that President Donald Trump immediately act to drop them. “The stone in the way of any negotiation is sanctions,” Tarek William Saab, Venezuela’s public prosecutor, said in a rare interview at the Public Prosecutor headquarters office in downtown ...

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