Mohammed Bin Salman’s Oman visit could secure investment projects worth $10bn
Gulf: The visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Oman could bring a financial windfall to the sultanate with projects worth $10 billion– ranging from oil and gas to the maritime sector – an Omani government official said on Tuesday.
Prince Mohammed arrived in Muscat on Monday to start his tour of GCC countries and is expected to leave Oman on Tuesday for the United Arab Emirates.
According to state-owned Oman Television, hours before Prince Mohammed’s arrival in Muscat, Saudi and Omani officials signed 13 agreements.
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UAE announces 4.5-day workweek, Saturday-Sunday weekend
The United Arab Emirates announced all government entities will adopt a new work-week schedule consisting of four-and-a-half days with Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday forming the new weekend.
The move, announced by state news agency WAM on Tuesday, will come into effect on January 1, 2022, making the working week more in line with Western schedules. The UAE currently has a Friday-Saturday weekend, which corresponds with other countries in the region.
The transition is “in line with the UAE’s vision to enhance its global competitiveness across economic and business sectors, and to keep pace with global developments”, the Abu Dhabi government media office said in a statement.
“The UAE is the first nation in the world to introduce a national working week shorter than the global five-day week,” WAM said.
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Bahrain to double value-added tax from 5 to 10pc
Bahrain’s parliament has approved the doubling of value-added tax to 10 percent, a member of parliament said on Wednesday.
The Parliament recognised the measure was “a critical pillar of the kingdom’s fiscal balance programme”, Ahmed Al Salloom, member of parliament and chairman of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, said in a statement.
The VAT increase, expected to start next year, could contribute receipts of about 3 percent of gross domestic product in the next few years, up from about 1.7 percent this year, ratings agency S&P Global Ratings has estimated.
“The successful approval of the VAT increase by parliament is a critical milestone within our economic recovery plans and our aim of achieving a balanced budget by 2024,” the ministry of finance said.
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Maximizing in-country value: the key to Qatar’s economic future
Qatar has made enormous strides in recent years towards building a diversified and resilient economy capable of delivering long-term sustainable growth and prosperity for all. Since 2008, when Qatar unveiled its 2030 Vision, the country has seen a flourishing of commercial activity across a growing range of domestic industries and sectors, from infrastructure development and financial services, to healthcare, technology, consumer goods, and more.
It is essential that Qatar continues this diversification process to move the country away from its historical dependence on domestic oil and gas revenues and on international imports of goods and services. The global economy is evolving, as consumer appetites and stakeholder expectations continue to shift. Amidst this uncertainty, geopolitical tensions persist. Only by building a vibrant, high-tech, high-skilled domestic economy will Qatar be able to fully ensure its economic security for decades to come. While progress has undoubtedly been made, there is still work to be done.
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Emirates issues guidelines for ticket cancellation, route suspensions
Just as many countries worldwide were beginning to loosen their border restrictions and opening up air travel, reports of the Omicron Cvoid-19 variant in South Africa sent many of those doors slamming shut again.
Different countries and territories have taken different approaches toward preventing the spread of this new variant. This has also left travellers during the holiday season in a quandary.
Dubai’s Emirates airline has issued guidelines to follow in case a flight gets cancelled or impacted by route suspensions due to Covid‑19 restrictions.
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Dubai property deals jump 80pc in November
Property sales transactions in Dubai rose 80.4 percent annually in November, buoyed by demand in the secondary real estate market as the UAE economy charted a strong recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The emirate registered 7,000 sales deals worth Dh17.96 billion ($4.89bn) last month, making it the best November in terms of total sales in eight years, according to listings portal Property Finder.
The sales transactions in November were also 45 percent higher when compared with November 2019, before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the report said.
“The data clearly shows that investors and consumers are confident in Dubai’s future, which is reinforced by proactive government initiatives, attractive real estate projects and the vision of the city,” said Lynnette Sacchetto, director of research and data at Property Finder.
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Sharjah ruler inaugurates ‘chapters of Islamic art at house of wisdom
His Highness Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council Ruler of Sharjah, inaugurated the ‘Chapters of Islamic Art: Ettinghausen’s Private Collection of Rare Books’ at the House of Wisdom, Sharjah.
The exhibition features a fascinating collection of 98 of the rarest and oldest books from the private library of Dr. Richard Ettinghausen and his wife Dr. Elizabeth Ettinghausen— two of the world’s leading historians and scholars from Germany who specialised in Islamic history and art.
The exhibition’s 98 publications are a part of Ettinghausen’s entire private collection of 12,000 books, which was gifted by the Sharjah Ruler to House of Wisdom earlier in August. This includes valuable publications on the region’s art and architecture, many of which are more than 200 years old, and other titles spanning archaeology, travel, history, geography, religion, literature, poetry, palaeography, and more. These books are written in 10 languages including Arabic, English, German, Persian, Japanese, Urdu, French, Spanish, Turkish, Russian, and Italian.