The UAE and Israel are set to sign a trade and economic co-operation agreement this month as the two nations continue to boost bilateral commerce and investment.
“After India and Indonesia, the #UAE and #Israel are looking forward to conclude the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) before the end of the month,” Mohamed Al Khaja, the UAE’s ambassador to Israel, said on Twitter on Wednesday. “The UAE remains confident that the CEPA with Israel will serve as a catalyst for even greater economic prosperity.” Israel and the UAE started negotiations for a trade and economic co-operation deal in November, a couple of months after the Emirates launched similar discussions with India. The pact has the potential to propel Israel on to the list of the UAE’s top 10 trading partners and will significantly boost trade and investments between the two countries, Hamad Buamim, president and chief executive of Dubai Chambers, told The National on March 1. Earlier this month, the UAE signed a similar agreement with India that is expected to boost non-oil trade between the two countries to $100 billion in five years, from $60bn currently. A deal with Israel will be “much smaller” in scale but slightly different from a pure trade deal as “it is about transfer of technology” and collaboration in different strategic areas, Mr Buamim said at the time. Relations between the UAE and Israel have strengthened since the two countries formally established diplomatic ties in September 2020. Trade between the countries reached $700 million within a year of the major agreement as they expanded co-operation in sectors such as aviation and finance. Dubai’s non-oil trade with Israel reached about Dh2bn in the first half of 2021. The UAE, the Arab world’s second-biggest economy, has made a strong recovery from the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown and has maintained strong trade momentum despite pandemic-related uncertainties. The country’s exports are projected to expand at an average annual rate of more than 6 per cent to Dh1.1 trillion ($299bn) by 2030, as it continues to diversify its economy away from oil, Standard Chartered said in a report this month. The UAE is further strengthening relations with key trading partners. It is currently in CEPA negotiations with Indonesia, the biggest South-East Asian economy. A similar deal is being negotiated with South Korea, which is expected to be finalised by the end of 2022. The agreement with South Korea aims to enhance the economic partnership between the two countries to a minimum of $20bn in the next three to five years.
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The wreck of Anglo-Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s lost ship Endurance has been found — 107 years after it sank off the coast of Antarctica.
Footage of the wooden ship, which became trapped in sea ice and went down in the Weddell Sea in 1915, has now emerged after the discovery. In February, the Endurance22 Expedition set off from Cape Town, South Africa — a month after the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s death — on a mission to locate the vessel. The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust said the ship was found at a depth of 3,008 metres, 6.4 kilometres south of the position originally recorded by the ship’s captain, Frank Worsley. The expedition’s director of exploration Mensun Bound said footage of Endurance showed it to be intact and “by far the finest wooden shipwreck” he has seen. “We are overwhelmed by our good fortune in having located and captured images of Endurance.” “It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see Endurance arced across the stern, directly below the taffrail [the handrail around the open deck area].” Expedition leader John Shears described the find as “a milestone in polar history”. He said his team, accompanied by historian and television presenter Dan Snow, had completed “the world’s most challenging shipwreck search”. “We have undertaken important scientific research in a part of the world that directly affects the global climate and environment,” Mr Shears said. “We have also conducted an unprecedented educational outreach programme, with live broadcasting from on board, allowing new generations from around the world to engage with Endurance22 and become inspired by the amazing stories of polar exploration, and what human beings can achieve and the obstacles they can overcome when they work together.” Endurance was a 44-metre three-mast sailing ship that was also fitted with a steam engine. Specially strengthened in an attempt to cope with polar conditions, it weighed 315 tonnes. Shackleton and his crew set out to achieve the first land crossing of Antarctica but Endurance became trapped in dense pack ice, forcing the 28 men on board to eventually abandon ship. All made it to safety. The explorer died of a heart attack, aged 47, in January 1921, during another expedition to the Antarctic. The UAE and Slovenia held talks to explore ways to enhance trade between the two countries.
Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and Zdravko Pocivalsek, Slovenia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development and Technology, discussed ways to develop the existing economic partnership and expand areas of co-operation, the Ministry of Economy said on Wednesday. The meeting focused on the opening of direct channels of communication between the private sectors of the UAE and Slovenian. The UAE is keen to advance co-operation with Slovenia in areas such as food security, agriculture, technology, infrastructure, tourism and family companies, while benefiting from Slovenia’s strong industrial base, Mr Al Zeyoudi said. Non-oil trade between the UAE and Slovenia grew 23 per cent in 2021 from the previous year and outperformed pre-coronavirus levels in 2019 by 13 per cent, the ministry said. The latest discussions explored ways to double the movement of imports and exports in vital sectors of common interest, apart from the diversification of qualitative and future investment over the coming period. Future investment will focus on health, logistics, information and communication technology, e-commerce, tourism, real estate activities, financial services and insurance, and agricultural technology, the ministry said. The UAE’s position as a vital trade gateway for Slovenian exports to enter the Asian and Middle Eastern markets, and Slovenia’s strategic location in the Eastern European region “must be capitalised on”, Mr Al Zeyoudi said. The talks between the ministers also focused on ways to improve air connectivity between the two countries by increasing the number of direct flights. Flydubai became the first UAE airline to fly direct to Slovenia last September, with the launch of three weekly flights to the country’s capital, Ljubljana. “The economic co-operation between the two countries continued its momentum and pace of activity despite the impact of Covid-19 in all sectors globally. In the coming period, we will strive to accelerate this momentum by deepening economic co-operation with the UAE, and by enhancing the access of our business communities to the markets of the two countries,” Mr Pocivalsek said. Mr Al Zeyoudi also called on the Slovenian business community to take advantage of the opportunity offered by Expo 2020 Dubai and build future partnerships in the economic, tourism, culture, trade, investment and talent attraction sectors. Flydubai, the sister airline of Emirates, swung to profit in 2021, as passenger numbers grew on the back of the easing of travel restrictions and improving economic conditions worldwide.
The airline posted a Dh841 million ($229m) profit in 2021, compared with a Dh712.6m loss in 2020, when the travel industry was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Annual revenue grew 86 per cent to Dh5.3 billion last year as passenger numbers rose 76 per cent to 5.6 million, flydubai said on Monday. “The tremendous results flydubai is reporting for 2021 come after a very challenging two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed. “The decisions taken by the UAE’s leadership, which saw the implementation of the precautionary safety measures throughout the customer journey, gave visitors the confidence to travel to Dubai; resulting in a 76 per cent year-on-year increase in passenger numbers. “We remain well placed to continue to welcome passengers across our network to Dubai and beyond, flydubai is intrinsic to Dubai’s travel and tourism industry.” The number of flights surpassed pre-pandemic levels in December 2021, when the airline operated 6,430 flights, compared with 5,701 flights in January 2020. Flydubai launched 22 new routes in 2021, 13 of which were unserved destinations from Dubai. The top 10 busiest routes for scheduled flights were Alexandria, Bahrain, Bucharest, Doha, Karachi, Kathmandu, Male, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv and Zanzibar. It also flew to five additional destinations in summer to meet demand on the routes. “A challenge that remained throughout 2021 was the constant changes to the travel restrictions. This meant that passengers did not have the confidence to book travel early. However, they continued to travel with a shorter booking window ahead of their date of travel,” said chief executive Ghaith Al Ghaith. “During the second half of the year, travel restrictions began to ease, which led to an increase in demand for travel across our network. We launched flights to seasonal summer destinations to offer more options for passengers, and the increase in our flight schedule in the second half of the year supported the demand for inbound travel to Dubai.” Dubai hosted 7.28 million international overnight visitors between January and December 2021, up 32 per cent a year, according to Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism. International visitors to the emirate crossed 3.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, which was 74 per cent of the total tourist arrivals in the same period in 2019. Flydubai’s annual revenue grew 86 per cent to Dh5.3 billion last year.Flydubai expanded its fleet last year to 59 aircraft, including 34 Boeing 737–800 planes, 22 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets and three Max 9s. The Max rejoined the airline’s fleet in April after the UAE lifted a 23-month safety ban on the jet in February 2021. In July, the airline also reached an agreement with Boeing to reduce its orders placed in 2013 and 2017 by 65 aircraft. Flydubai had received 25 aircraft as of December 31, with another 161 aircraft due for delivery. From March 2022, flydubai will take delivery of 20 jets from the 737 Max 8 family, which will be used across the network to “support the airline’s future growth”, the airline said. Last year, flydubai completed the financing requirements for 13 Max aircraft and two Leap-1B engines by sale and leaseback to support aircraft deliveries. “During 2022, we will see the largest number of aircraft delivered in any year since the launch of the airline. As the momentum for travel continues to build, we will increase frequencies and introduce new destinations on our network during 2022. To support this growth trajectory, we will need to recruit the best people in the industry,” Mr Al Ghaith said. The airline plans to hire 900 more employees in 2022, including cabin crew, pilots and engineers, as it increases capacity, he told The National at the Dubai Airshow last year. Global passenger traffic is on track to rebound to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, with the outlook unchanged by the Omicron coronavirus variant, but the Russia-Ukraine conflict poses near-term risks, the International Air Transport Association said last week. The number of travellers is expected to reach four billion in 2024, more than double the number recorded in 2019, before the onset of the pandemic, the industry body said. “With the lifting of restrictions across our network and increasing demand for travel, we are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead notwithstanding the geopolitical situation and its potential effect on the pricing of commodities,” Mr Ghaith said. A British doctor who is a veteran of operating in conflict zones has trained hundreds of Ukrainian colleagues for war surgery over Zoom.
Professor David Nott, who has worked in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, crunched a five-day course into a 12-hour online war surgery training session for 573 healthcare professionals in Ukraine. During the course, one doctor said that air strike alarms were sounding around him but stayed online to learn as much life-saving information as possible. Among the skills taught were how to deal with wounds and injuries rarely seen outside war zones, and skills including how to build makeshift pelvic binders — used to stem bleeding and compress fractures. Prof Nott, a consultant surgeon specialising in vascular and trauma surgery at St Mary’s Hospital, co-founded the David Nott Foundation in 2015 to provide doctors and medical staff with the skills to treat wounds in areas of conflict and catastrophe. Read More : https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2022/03/09/british-doctors-prepare-ukrainian-surgeons-to-operate-in-warzones/ Drugs worth more than $19.6 million have been seized at a home in the Philippines capital region.
Authorities seized the haul, suspected to be methamphetamine, on Tuesday and arrested a Chinese suspect, as President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on illegal drugs pressed on in his final months in power. About 160 kilograms of the suspected stimulant — locally referred to as shabu — was discovered in the house in Valenzuela city in metropolitan Manila, said Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief Wilkins Villanueva. Some of it was packed in tea bags. The Chinese suspect and a Filipina companion were arrested by law enforcers who had pretended to be drug buyers. If the seized substance turns out to be methamphetamine, it would be the largest illegal drug haul so far this year. Tuesday’s raid was the latest in a series of anti-drug operations across the country this month. These have led to the arrest of 11 suspects and the confiscation of a large amount of methamphetamine, Mr Villanueva said. About a week ago, police and anti-drug agents seized 60kg of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of more than $7.8m in a raid in Marilao town in Bulacan province near Valenzuela city, police said. “We told you to stop but you’re just so hard-headed,” Mr Villanueva said, addressing drug dealers, at a news conference on Tuesday night. “We’ll get to all of you, just wait.” Mr Duterte launched a deadly crackdown on illegal drugs at the start of his six-year term in 2016. The campaign has led to the arrest of thousands of mostly petty suspects and the killing of more than 6,200 others in mostly police-enforced operations that have alarmed western governments and human rights groups. The killings have led to an investigation by the International Criminal Court. The president has denied that he condones extrajudicial killings, but has openly threatened drug suspects with death. He has often encouraged police officers to shoot suspects who resist arrest and threaten them. Mr Duterte, a former mayor who carved a political name with a tough approach to criminality, won the presidency on a pledge to eradicate illegal drugs in about three to six months. After failing to fulfil that promise and acknowledging he underestimated the extent of the country’s drug problem, he vowed to press on with his crackdown until the end of his term in June. Business conditions in Dubai's non-oil private sector economy improved sharply in February, shaking off Omicron jitters, as new orders rose and the travel and tourism sector continued to benefit from Expo 2020.
The emirate's seasonally adjusted IHS Markit Purchasing Managers' Index climbed to 54.1 in February after easing to a four-month low of 52.6 in January. A reading above 50 indicates economic expansion, while one below points to a contraction. Non-oil businesses attributed the significant rise in new orders to an upturn in client demand and a recovery in economic conditions after the Omicron wave slowed the pace of demand growth at the start of the year. The rate of new order growth in February was one of the strongest seen since the start of the pandemic, beaten only by levels seen in the last quarter of 2021. "New business growth in Dubai is a “promising sign that the Omicron variant has had only a minor impact on the economy compared to previous waves of the pandemic”, David Owen, an economist at IHS Markit, said. The youth of today may find it hard to believe but there was a time when we didn’t have the Apple iPhone in our lives — or any mobile phone for that matter. Just imagine having to call someone to communicate rather than using WhatsApp, taking photos with an actual camera and watching television on, well, your TV instead of squinting at your phone in the dark. You could even have a conversation with a stranger in the lift instead of burying yourself in those gorgeous pixels. Life, as many of us know it, changed on January 9, 2007, when Steve Jobs started talking on stage about, every once in a while, introducing a “revolutionary product that changes everything”. This time, it was not just one product, but three: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone … and a breakthrough internet communicator. After teasing the crowd by repeating the three creations over and over, he exclaimed: “This is one device.” And there the iPhone was born, along with a new use for fingers which have since been almost glued to the increasingly responsive screens. Yearly updates have given us bigger screens, sharper cameras and faster loading times, but what comes next? Will Apple, now under the leadership of Tim Cook, reinvent the wheel in 2022? We found out at its “California Streaming” event on September 14, when the iPhone 13 made its first appearance. Reinvent the wheel? Not quite. And then at its March 2022 event, another new phone rolled out — this time the third generation of the iPhone SE. Again, nice update, but nothing massively new. To relive the journey of the iPhone, scroll through the gallery at the top of the page. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that Russia remains engaged in efforts to salvage the Iran nuclear deal, noting what he said was Moscow’s self-interest in preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The comments come after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov created uncertainty around the deal on Saturday, when he said Moscow wanted a written US guarantee that its trade, investment, and military-technical cooperation with Iran would not be hindered by Western sanctions imposed since it invaded Ukraine. “With regard to the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, we continue to work to see if we can come back to mutual compliance with Iran on the deal,” Blinken said during a press conference in Estonia, using an acronym for the formal name of the deal: the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. “Russia continues to be engaged in those efforts, and it has its own interests in ensuring that Iran is not able to acquire a nuclear weapon,” he said. As the Biden administration engages in what many say is is a last ditch effort to revive the nuclear deal it has pushed back on concerns that the Ukraine sanctions and the Iran nuclear deal were becoming intertwined. On Sunday, Blinken described the discussions with Tehran as “totally different” and “not in any way linked together,” with Ukraine. For weeks diplomats have said progress was being made on restoring the pact to curb Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. The Trump administration pulled out of the agreement in 2018, on the grounds that it failed to rein in Tehran’s support for regional proxies and ballistic missile development. Iran maintained compliance with the accord for a few months before it began rolling back its commitments in 2019 and enriching uranium. “It is time, in the next few days, for political decisions to end the #ViennaTalks. The rest is noise,” European Union negotiator Enrique Mora tweeted Monday. On Tuesday, a group of nations known as the “E3” — the United Kingdom, France, and Germany — called on parties to “make the decisions necessary close this deal now,” and called on Russia “not to add extraneous conditions to its conclusion”. “The rate of advances in Iran’s nuclear program means (the JCPOA) cannot remain on the table indefinitely. The window of opportunity is closing,” UK Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Corinne Kitsell said on behalf of the group. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Monday that Tehran would not allow “any foreign elements to undermine its national interests” after Russia appeared to link efforts to revive a deal over its nuclear programme to sanctions over Ukraine. Russia, along with China, is one of Iran’s closest partners in the talks with world powers. The two countries are also allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and fought together on the same side of the country’s civil war. The news that Moscow could potentially stymie the talks sent oil prices rising on Monday over fears that Iranian supply wouldn’t be entering into the market, just as the US and its European allies said that they were considering banning Russian crude. On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged that “the discussion of oil is a part” of the broader negotiations around a return to the deal as the US seeks alternate oil sources to Russia, “but the most important reason is to prevent them from acquiring a nuclear weapon.” Millennials may still feel quite young (despite those pesky grey hairs and less-than-fine lines), but in so many ways, we have "adulted". So it’s time for our money management to grow up a bit, too.
Your financial to-do list is small but mighty in your twenties. Setting up automatic transfers to a high-yield savings account, creating an emergency fund and paying down high-interest debt can take you quite far. Now, you can do more to propel yourself to financial success in your forties and beyond. Make use of a higher credit score You don’t have to treat a high credit score like a precious work of art. Good credit can qualify you for better borrowing terms, so put that to work. Try to cut back on the cost of borrowing. “In terms of bang for your buck, refinancing is an important thing you should be doing,” says Priya Malani, founder and chief executive of Stash Wealth, a financial advisory in Charlotte, North Carolina. “If you can move even a quarter of a per cent on a really large mortgage, that’s going to save you tens of thousands of dollars.” Get a better deal on high-interest credit card debt. If your financial situation has improved, you may qualify for a balance transfer credit card offering a year or more at zero per cent interest. If you don’t have credit card debt, but you’re still using that bare-bones card you got at 21, switch to a card that earns cash back or travel rewards.However, leave that old credit card open and use it once in a while to keep it active. (The average age of your accounts is a factor in your credit score, and the older, the better.) Match investments to a variety of goals Here are two ways you can up the ante on your investing. First, if your employer offers a retirement plan with a match and you’ve been contributing just enough to get that match, consider contributing more. A rule of thumb is to save 10 per cent to 15 per cent of your income towards retirement. Next, plot out your intermediate-term goals for the next five to 15 years. You can invest for these goals using other kinds of accounts to help fund early retirement, save for your child’s education or plan for another large expense. Money for short-term goals (within five years or less) shouldn’t be invested. Instead, a high-yield savings account is a more appropriate place to hold that money until you need it. Think about how to improve your career — and your life If you spent the start of your career rising and grinding, you probably had little energy to think about what kind of work – and life – would actually bring you the most joy. When you’re financially stable and advancing in your career, you can begin to think about what comes next for you.You don’t need to wait for retirement to do the things you truly enjoy, says Shehara Wooten, certified financial planner and founder of Your Story Financial, a financial advisory firm in Dallas. “You may even want to, if you’ve planned properly, take some time off,” she says. “If that’s not something you’re able to do, take some time to find out how you can get paid more, how you can really be appreciated for the work that you do.” Ms Wooten also recommends seeking the help of a financial adviser to discuss what kind of lifestyle you want to have in retirement and the savings you need to accumulate to get there. You may have a skill set that can translate to a higher-paying career, which will help you accomplish your goals more quickly. Protect yourself and your loved ones What worked when you were 25 and single isn’t going to cut it when you’re 35 with two kids and a mortgage. Here are some ways to protect your family: Insurance: Ms Malani recommends a term life insurance plan if you own a home with someone else, someone is dependent on you for support or you have a co-signer on one of your loans. Estate planning: Talk to an estate lawyer about crafting a will, identifying guardians for your children, appointing a medical power of attorney and other details. Update beneficiaries: Revisit who you listed as your beneficiaries on your bank and investment accounts. If that information is outdated and you were to die, your money won’t go to the right person. Donate to othersAs your salary grows, it becomes easier to meet your needs and still have money left over each month. Some of that money can be budgeted toward meaningful causes. Estate planning can also help you map out how you’d like to donate money or valuable possessions to charity. “I like to have people write out their story and go to the end of their life,” Ms Wooten says. “What do you want that to look like? What do you want people to say about you? What do you want your legacy to entail?” |
MichaelMichael is Professor of Political Science and Head of Department. His research is on public administration and administrative reform, core executives, the role of civil servants in a transformed state, Archives
May 2024
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