The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

  Dubai / Emirates Business A recent business confidence survey conducted by the British Institute of Facilities Management on the Middle East’s FM market forecasted a very positive growth, noting that 36 percent of participants intend to completely outsource their FM services, while 60 percent expect more outsourcing of FM operations in the future. Isnaad, a leader in soft FM ...

  Emirates Business “Product of the Year,” the world’s largest consumer-voted award for product innovation, organized a seminar for FMCG brands on overcoming the emerging challenges in the unfavorable market. The third edition of “POY talks” brought together a distinguished group of international speakers, consisted of four sessions that unfolded the methods to overcome the current economic challenges by optimizing ...

  Beja / AFP Activists are warning of a potential “thirst uprising” in Tunisia following protests over severe water shortages after one of the North African nation’s driest summers on record. Residents in the interior are suffering long water supply cuts, reservoirs are running dry and farmers are seeing significant losses, adding to social tensions in a country still struggling ...

  Bloomberg Major oil producers will rely on acquisitions for about half their reserve replacement in the future after cutting exploration budgets to weather the crude-price collapse, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. Big oil companies are no longer trying to replace all their production through conventional exploration, the energy consulting company said in a report published on Tuesday. “Now their ...

  Bloomberg Oil declined on speculation a global glut will be sustained amid rising supply from Nigeria to the U.S. Futures fell 0.6 percent in New York after advancing 0.6 percent on Monday. Nigeria’s output expanded to 1.75 million barrels a day and will keep rising after government outreach and a cease-fire with militants allowed some production to restart, Minister ...

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s oil exports climbed in July to a record level for that month, as the kingdom curbed the amount of crude it burns to generate energy domestically, according to the Joint Oil Data Initiative. The world’s biggest oil producer raised shipments by 166,000 barrels a day to 7.622 million a day in July compared with the previous ...

  Reuters Egypt’s central bank is expected to raise interest rates on Thursday, a Reuters poll showed, in an attempt to fight inflation and attract foreign investment as the country pushes through with economic reforms. Egypt has been struggling with a shortage of foreign currency since the 2011 uprising drove away tourists and foreign investors — two major sources of ...

  AFP Twitter has announced it is easing its 140-character limit on tweets, in the latest effort to broaden the appeal and boost the user base of the social network. The new policy announced in May and now in effect no longer factors in certain add-ons, including pictures, into a message’s length. “Say more about what’s happening! Rolling out now,” ...

  AFP Google has sent out invitations to an October 4 event, hinting that the Internet titan will show off a new smartphone powered by its Android mobile software. Emailed invitations revealed only the time and place for the gathering in San Francisco, the message topped by blue, red, yellow, and green dots of color. Google fired off a Twitter ...

  Bloomberg Oracle Corp. unveiled new services that help customers take advantage of cloud computing, putting it more directly in competition with Amazon.com Inc. The company has announced Cloud@Customer, which puts the same hardware and software Oracle uses in its data centers in the customers’ own facilities, Executive Chairman Larry Ellison said Sunday during a presentation at Oracle OpenWorld in ...