Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
Gordon Brown, prime minister, yesterday signed a clean energy co--operation agreement with a leading renewable energy company in the United Arab Emirates. Mr Brown is on the last leg of a tour of the region to raise money from oil-rich Gulf states for the International Monetary Fund, an effort which, …
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has an active pet trade market which, owing to the extreme weather conditions experienced in the country, is mainly limited to species that can be kept indoors, such as birds, reptiles and freshwater and marine aquarium species. In order to assess the status of the …
Dubai is backing a Kremlin-linked energy company in an offer to buy the last and biggest of Russia's wholesale power-generating companies in a potential $5bn-plus deal that could mark the first strategic foray into Russia by a Middle Eastern fund. Anatoly Chubais, Russia's former privatisation chief and chief executive of …
Abu Dhabi is preparing to launch a large-scale agricultural project in Sudan to develop more than 70,000 acres of land as part of the oil-rich Gulf emirate's efforts to secure food supplies. The project comes amid growing interest from Middle Eastern states to use land overseas to ensure food security. …
Rising oil prices is forcing Gulf states to invest in gas production. Some analysts estimate that the cumulative supply shortfall for the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council up to 2015 will reach at least 7,000bn cubic feet. To put the number into perspective, according to BP the UK's …
Bihani Cement Ltd, the flagship company of the Braj Binani Group, which has interests in cement, zinc and fibre glass, is growing globally. "We are trying to replicate what Anil Agarwal did to Vedanta," says Vinod Junej a, deputy managing director, Binani Cements. In the process, the company has pursued …
For years, food policy in the Middle East and North Africa was very simple: hydrocarbon exports paid for carbohydrate imports. Rising agricultural commodities prices and a large population increase mean that the traditional policy is now untenable even if crude oil trades at about $120 a barrel, forcing countries in …
All UAE nationals are eligible for free health insurance that will cover their expenses at both public and private healthcare centres across the country and emergency treatment abroad, the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD) announced yesterday. The new health insurance scheme would include mandatory periodic medical examination - Weqaya - and …
The worldwide shortage of food grains, coupled with high food prices, is driving leading food companies and investors from the UAE to Pakistan in search of lucrative deals in the agriculture sector in of one of the world's major food exporters. With the entire world passing through an era of …
London: Is frog the answer to diabetes? "Yes', if researchers are to be believed. A joint team of experts from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and United Arab Emirates University has discovered that a substance on the skin of South American "paradoxical frog' boosts the production of insulin
London: The construction work on the world's first "green city' has started in the Gulf. Masdar City, on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi city in the United Arab Emirates, will be zero-carbon, zero-waste and car-free. The city will be built at a cost of
Two summits on global warming lay bare a yawning gap over who needs to do what, as well as the ghost of a deal AS WORLD leaders met to discuss cli-Liriate change at the United Nations this week, protesters outside seemed unconvinced that drowning islands and expanding deserts were the …
Faced with a foot-and-mouth outbreak, Kyrgyzstan has imposed a 21-day quarantine on cattle movement in the south of the country. The disease has struck the main cattle-breeding Kara-Suu, Uzgen and Kara-Kulja districts in Osh province and Aksy district of Jalalabad province, say media reports. At least 500 cases of the …
Azerbaijan's fisherfolk are defying a government ban on fishing for sturgeon, the country's national fish, whose caviar is in high demand across the world with an annual retail value of us $383-574 million. The Azerbaijan government introduced the ban after the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered …
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has voiced concern over the environmental impact of Iran's nuclear programme. UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan raised the issue in Abu Dhabi at a joint news conference with German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who echoed Western fears regarding Iran's nuclear programme. Unlike …
The Uzbekistan government has again come under criticism for continuing the practice of using child labour and government employees to harvest cotton. Uzbekistan is the world's fifth-largest cotton producer and the second largest cotton exporter. But instead of using machines to harvest its cotton, it uses manual labour. All government …
