By DIAA HADID June 5, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank — France is “firmly opposed” to a boycott of Israel, the French foreign minister said Friday, after the partly state-owned French telecommunications company Orange said it would seek to withdraw its brand from the Israeli market. The company’s decision was seen in Israel as the latest in a rapid succession of blows meant to isolate and punish the country over […]
U.S. Government Suffers Massive Cyberattack The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is reporting a cybersecurity incident that affects its systems and data. The breach may have compromised the personal information of 4 million current and former federal workers. “Within the last year, OPM has undertaken an aggressive effort to update its cybersecurity posture, adding numerous tools and capabilities to its networks,” according to a statement on […]
UAE. The Global Economic Conditions Survey for the first quarter of 2015, carried out by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and IMA (the Institute of Management Accountants) also shows that while lower oil prices have helped oil-importing nations such as the USA and Europe, they have undermined performance in many net oil-exporting regions such as Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Confidence has dipped in […]
QATAR. Risk, governance, globalization and technology are among the many risks currently facing companies. Internal Audit plays a critical role in addressing these issues while contending with the challenge of complying with the updated Committee of Sponsoring Organizations’ (COSO) Internal Control-Integrated Framework, which is a widely used framework around the world, in which internal control is broadly defined as a process, effected by an entity’s board of […]
By ISABEL KERSHNER June 4, 2015 JERUSALEM — A growing global pro-Palestinian movement to boycott Israel instantly created a national furor on Thursday after the top executive of Orange, a leading French telecommunications company, said he would withdraw from the Israeli market if he could. The Facebook page of an Israeli company, Partner Communications, which has a license to use the Orange brand, was filled with customer complaints demanding […]
The UAE has launched a comprehensive review of its environmental achievements in time for today’s World Environment Day. The UAE State of Environment Report 2015 was launched in the country’s pavilion at the Milan Expo yesterday by Dr Rashid bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water. Clean energy – led by Abu Dhabi company Masdar – sustainable transport, green architecture and efficient use of resources are among […]
UAE. According to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the UAE outperforms the GCC and the rest of the world in most dimensions – including income, employment, health, education, infrastructure, income equality, civil society, governance, and environment – when it comes to its current-level Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA) scores. Across these dimensions, the UAE topped the average scores of both the GCC and […]
UAE. In a report released today by A.T. Kearney the UAE is ranked as the seventh most-attractive country in the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), marking the eighth year in a row that the country has been globally ranked in the top 10. The UAE’s retail market continues to grow steadily with retail space growing by 7 percent in 2014 to reach 1.6 million square meters and […]
UAE. On managing the work/life complexity Richard Jolly, Adjunct Professor of Organisational Behaviour, London Business School comments: “The demands from work and personal life have never been greater in the GCC. I see two reasons senior managers should take a closer look at the way the complexities of work and personal life are handled in their companies. “It’s what we call the ‘Double Crunch’ a stage where […]
Men stood on a building damaged during Hamas’s last war with Israel. Gaza’s unemployment rate has risen to 44 percent, the highest in the world. By DIAA HADID and MAJD AL WAHEIDI June 1, 2015 GAZA CITY — On a street here crammed with glittery clothing and electronic shops, Mahmoud Matar flipped through the receipt book for his appliance store, much of it blank: His lone sale that day was a $7 […]
Shreyas Shipping & Logistics, part of Dubai headquartered global conglomerate Transworld Group, posted impressive results for last year. For the financial year ended 31st March, 2015, Shreyas posted a consolidated turnover of Rs.5.45.billion as against Rs.4.87 billion for the year ended 31st March, last year. Profit After Tax was recorded at Rs.617.5 million, compared to a loss of Rs.43.2 million last year. This is the company’s best ever performance till […]
|By Fiona Maharg-Bravo |Big Oil is too confident about crude prices. After a 40 percent rally from January’s six-year low, the momentum has been on the upside. But the current prices – $65 a barrel for Brent and $60 for WTI – look more like a ceiling than a floor. That is not what many insiders seem to think. Some oil service companies expect mid-$70s Brent by […]
By JODI RUDOREN May 31, 2015 JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said on Sunday that his country faces “an international campaign to blacken its name” based not on his policies toward the Palestinians but “connected to our very existence,” likening the mounting boycott movement to anti-Semitic “libels” of earlier eras. Speaking to his cabinet after Israel’s successful diplomatic blitz to block a Palestinian bid to suspend […]
INTERNATIONAL. Happy passengers are the ultimate goal of airlines and airports and new research from global IT provider SITA proves that technology can help. In a ground-breaking survey, SITA investigated the connection between a passenger’s use of technology and their emotions to discover how passengers around the world feel at every point of the journey. The results reveal that airline passengers are happiest and most excited when […]
UAE. The depressed oil prices predominant since late last year could herald a lasting trend if, as evidence suggests, we are now facing the low-price segment of an oil ‘super cycle’, according to the latest paper from global strategy and management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. This new situation would pose both challenges and opportunities to Middle East companies and countries. There is still much volatility in the […]
UAE. Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, achieved its strongest financial results to date in 2014, posting a net profit of US$ 73 million on total revenues of US$ 7.6 billion, up 52.1 per cent and 26.7 per cent respectively over the previous year. 2014 PEFORMANCE SUMMARY OF ETIHAD AIRWAYS *The above results represent the standalone airline business within the newly formed Etihad […]
Given the lukewarm response received so far to wearable technology, it makes sense that Google would want to expand the definition of the term. So the company has introduced Project Soli, an attempt by its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division to harness the power of hand and finger manipulation to make it easier to interact with ever-smaller devices and screens. The idea behind the technology, introduced […]
Mena M&A value rises 9pc to $8.9bn in Q1 DUBAI, 23 days ago Announced deal value in Mena increased to $8.9 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2015 from $8.2 billion during the same period last year, marking an increase of 9 per cent, a report said. In Q1 2015, 90 deals were announced as compared with 89 deals in Q1 2014, according to the Q1 […]
Op-Ed Contributor By NICHOLAS MCGEEHAN May 28, 2015 LONDON — On May 11, the Lebanese artist Walid Raad was turned away at the airport when he tried to enter the United Arab Emirates, where the government is making a big investment in art with the Saadiyat Island project. The project, in the capital, Abu Dhabi, will include branches of the Louvre and the Guggenheim as well as a campus […]
Travel tech firm moves to Microsoft Azure cloud technology DUBAI, 22 days ago Microsoft has signed a strategic deal with Illusions, a Dubai-based travel tech firm, to support the transfer of the company’s entire business operating platform onto Microsoft’s cloud technology, Azure, an initiative aimed at enhancing productivity and client satisfaction. The move to Azure will incorporate the existing system on which Illusions operates to provide services […]
UAE. The private equity market in the Middle East has matured in the last five years in terms of deal structures, volumes and values, according to speakers at a debate organised by ICAEW’s Corporate Finance Faculty in the UAE. ICAEW members and guests gathered at Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai last week (Wednesday, 20th May) to discuss private equity in the region. The event, sponsored by Merrill […]
UAE. Fifty-seven percent of global financial services executives believe regulation has enabled growth of their business, according to the results of Deloitte’s Staying Ahead of the Pack survey. In addition, half of executives expect much more regulation in the near future, with 69 percent feeling prepared for it. The survey of 200 executives at banking, securities, insurance and investment management firms around the world was conducted to […]
