January, 2018

• 30 January

  FANR to ensure safe, secure, peaceful N-programme

  

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The UAE Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), on Tuesday unveiled details of its 2018 corporate outlook focusing on ensuring safe, secure and peaceful nuclear and radiation programmes in the country. Addressing a media briefing, Christer Viktorsson, Director-General of FANR, said that “the UAE is moving rapidly forward with developing its nuclear sector (and) FANR made ...

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• 30 January

  India’s budget squeeze may put corporate tax cuts on hold

  

  Bloomberg Businesses waiting for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to follow through on a pledge to cut corporate taxes may need to wait a bit longer. In his last full budget before 2019 elections, Modi is facing a revenue squeeze that may make it difficult to deliver on a promise to lower the basic corporate tax rate over time to ...

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• 30 January

  Indonesia’s palm output set to climb to record

  Bloomberg Palm oil production in Indonesia will probably climb to a record this year as wet weather boosts yields in the world’s top grower. Output will increase 10 percent in 2018, Togar Sitanggang, secretary-general of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, said, without providing a more specific forecast. Production climbed about 18 percent in 2017 to a record 38.2 million metric ...

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• 30 January

  Ola aims abroad with push into Australia ride-hailing market

  

  Bloomberg Ola, India’s biggest ride-hailing startup, is heading down under. It’s the overseas debut for Ola, which will start inviting drivers in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth to sign up, it said. Ola will be competing with Uber Technologies in Australia. The two companies have been going head-to-head in India’s $10-billion ride-hailing market where the ramshackle public transportation systems in cities ...

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• 30 January

  ‘Foreign firms feeling less welcome in China’

  Bloomberg Three quarters of companies surveyed by the American Chamber of Commerce in China say they feel unwelcome, reflecting perceptions foreign firms aren’t treated equally to domestic competitors. The disparity in some cases comes from uneven enforcement of the law, which some firms say has become a version of protectionism, according to a survey. Protectionism is one of the top ...

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• 30 January

  Trump’s solar tariff is bad, but not a huge deal

  

  President Donald Trump has imposed 30 percent tariffs on solar panels made outside the US. It’s hard to tell why he’s doing this. It could be a protectionist move, or it could be designed to hurt renewable energy and protect the dying coal industry. But whatever the reason, the consequences probably won’t be severe. The solar revolution is happening so ...

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• 30 January

  Singapore’s dual-class idea is bad!

  

  Singapore is racing Hong Kong to the bottom in weakening shareholder rights. The city-state’s exchange said recently it will allow companies with dual-class share structures to list, a month after Hong Kong announced a similar proposal. The idea is to entice new-economy companies, but joining the dual-class-share club won’t improve the one thing Singapore needs more of: liquidity. In 1999, ...

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• 30 January

  What’s bad for GE will be even worse for US

  General Electric’s multi-billion-dollar loss in a unit that sold long-term-care insurance is a blow from which the iconic company is still reeling. But it’s also a harbinger of a much greater challenge for society at large: paying to care for the growing number of Americans who can’t look after themselves. GE’s travails stem from the early 1990s, when insurance companies ...

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• 30 January

  Europe’s youth have good reason to be mad

  Few topics are as discussed at Davos as ‘inequality.’ Business leaders and bankers take a great interest in debating how to ensure that globalization works for the many and not just for the few. This isn’t pure altruism, of course: They understand that a populist backlash could be devastating for their businesses too. These conversations too often fail to specify ...

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• 30 January

  China’s tourism industry is only just getting going

  

  If you want to gauge how Chinese consumers are reshaping the world, look at how many of them are leaving China. For vacation, that is. Outbound Chinese tourism has enjoyed explosive growth over the past decade and there’s plenty more where that came from: only 5 percent of the Middle Kingdom’s citizens hold a passport, compared with 40 percent in ...

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