Global Electric Vehicle Road Trip (Global EVRT) makes its way to the UAE for the first time, launching the Emirates Electric Vehicle Road Trip (Emirates EVRT). The aim behind this is to drive electric vehicle adoption and accelerate the transition towards a sustainable low-carbon future. The Emirates EVRT shares elements of the UAE Vision 2021…
Siemens has been awarded a landmark contract to upgrade the Kingdom of Bahrain’s energy infrastructure with a new high-voltage power transmission network, strengthening the country’s electricity supply. The contract, awarded to Siemens by the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) in Bahrain, was announced at an inauguration ceremony in Al Hidd in Bahrain. Siemens will introduce…
The social media campaign ‘I am Lake Urmia’, launched at the end of August, is one sign of growing public concern over the environment in Iran. Prompted by findings that the salt lake in north-west Iran had lost 90 percent of its surface since the 1970s, campaigners are seeking a million signatures to present to…
Low oil prices, a stagnant labor market, the nationalization of the workforce, de-risking behaviors by banks, the planned introduction of value-added tax (VAT) in 2018 and the ongoing conflict in the region are all expected to impact the flow of wage earners’ remittances to and from the Gulf and the Middle East, a report by…
In order to reduce the tenacious high youth unemployment among nationals in the Kingdom, the Saudi Arabian government has made it clear that Saudization, the integration of Saudi nationals in private companies across all sectors, will continue, in order to achieve the objective of the reform plan Saudi Vision 2030. But the question experts are…
Samir El-Daher, former World Bank senior official and now economics advisor to Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Najib Mikati, is exasperated. “This is a recipe for economic collapse, social struggle and civil war in Lebanon,” he pointed out. “It’s a threat to our existence. We simply cannot continue to bear the brunt as Lebanon is already a…
For Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, the Digital Density Index provides an assessment of their digital capabilities and enables their progress to be benchmarked against other economies around the world. Each ranks relatively on the lower range of the index in a global context. Countries at the digital frontier in the index include the…
Like many consumer-facing industries, financial services have entered a new era. Changing customer attitudes and continued volatility are compounded by increased mobility and the relentless rise of fintech ventures. Technologies are now disruptive – no longer being applied to fix specific business demands, but they must be integral to business strategy and exploited for maximum…
The Algerian Business Coalition (Forum des Chefs d’Entreprises) was established by the end of 2000 to promote Algerian companies and you have chaired it since 2014. What are your key objectives and what measures have you taken thus far? Our two key objectives are clear: ensuring that entrepreneurship is at the heart of all the…
Busy with the Battle of Aleppo and ISIL’s retreat in Iraq, Middle East-focused media may have lost interest in Egypt, but the picture emerging from Cairo is anything but rosy. In fact, it is gloomy. The country’s fiscal strength remains a token force. Tourism plummets. And remittances from Egyptian expats in the Gulf are fast…
