BY Aaditya Tangri We’ve all heard the dire warnings of our impending dystopian future. According to research by Deloitte, an estimated 35% of UK jobs are at high risk of automation in the next 10 to 20 years, whilst in the past 15 years technology has already contributed to the loss of over 800,000 jobs. Market research company Forrester predicts that 6% of US jobs will be […]
By James M. Dorsey A public apology by a prominent Salafi scholar sheds a light on Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s version of ‘moderate Islam,’ his effort to shape the Middle East and North Africa in his mould, and the replacement of religion with hyper-nationalism as the source of his legitimacy. Claiming to speak in the name of the Sahwa or Awakening movement, Aidh al-Qarni, one of the […]
By Saifur Rahman The oil-rich Gulf countries have started to introduce permanent residency to wealthy foreigners in order to retain the existing businesses and attract more foreign investors to support the economic growth. Within days after Saudi Arabia announcing a ‘Green Card’ scheme for wealthy foreigners, the UAE on Tuesday announced a similar package – Golden Card – to retain the super-rich expatriates and attract more. Vice […]
Starzplay, the Dubai-based subscription video on demand (SVOD) start-up, has now higher subscribers than Netflix – the global SVOD leader – in the Middle East and North Africa, a top official claimed. “In January 2019, we have reached 1 million subscribers in the Middle East – higher than Netflix,” Maaz Sheikh, CEO of Starzplay, told The Arabian Post, on the sidelines of a press briefing on Monday […]
By Arabian Post Staff Supply disruptions in the Middle East on top of an already tight crude market could send oil prices violently upward, according to Rystad Energy. Two Saudi Arabian oil tankers were reportedly attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this weekend, sending crude futures sharply up Monday morning. Commenting on the incident, Bjørnar Tonhaugen, Head of Oil Market Research at Rystad […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|The Islamic gold market is set to expand, develop and flourish – benefiting investors, product providers and the entire Islamic finance world, the World Gold Council has said in a report citing research commissioned by the council. The research was conducted as part of the council’s efforts to help develop a market for Shari’ah-compliant gold-backed products following the launch of the AAOIFI Shari’ah Standard […]
The Middle East e-commerce market forever be changed with the region’s largest-ever acquisitions and new expansions. In particular, 2019 year has seen such big investments that will let the fastest growing eCommerce market of MEA to take a great turn. The business formation in MEA taking up diverse strategies by companies to establish business in unique places to compete strongly with the upcoming. MEA leave a great […]
|By James M. Dorsey| Saudi plans to become a major gas exporter within a decade raise questions about what the real goal of the kingdom’s policy, and by extension that of the United States, is towards Iran. Officially both Saudi Arabia and the US, which last year withdrew from the 2015 international accord that curbs the Islamic republic’s nuclear program and imposed harsh economic sanctions, are demanding […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|ENOC Group has announced a strategic alliance with Indian Oil Company (IOC), the largest commercial oil and gas company in India worth US$63 billion, in a joint effort to expand its global footprint while building on IOC’s R&D infrastructure to mitigate future manufacturing challenges. The ENOC-IOC partnership includes R&D efforts, to jointly develop cylinder oil compliant to the Sulphur cap of 0.5 percent from […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| UAE real estate market conditions are likely to remain challenging in 2019, although it could to some extent depend upon how quickly the regulatory changes enacted last year begin to generate additional demand, JLL said in its review of 2018 and outlook for 2019. “While market conditions are likely to remain challenging, investors and occupiers have the opportunity to introduce new strategies to enhance […]
Merger mania in Wall Street media shares was a profitable theme for me in 2018, particularly since I owned 21st Century Fox shares well before Walt Disney made its epic bid for the Murdoch clan’s flagship brand, the parent of President Trump’s beloved news channel. The Fox deal meant 65% paydirt for my trading book as the House of Mouse made a takeover bid for the House […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Kizad, part of Abu Dhabi Ports, has launched Kizad Polymers Park, which will form an integral part of the polymers conversion ecosystem in the Emirate. The Park aims to be a major economic driver for the UAE, producing 300-400 kilo tonnes of plastic products a year, creating up to 7,000 new jobs, and contributing $2.5 billion to GDP by 2025. The potential export market […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The value of UAE online travel sales in 2018 is forecast to reach AED 17.3 billion ($4.7 billion), driven by a growing population, an increasing number of tourists, and UAE residents’ shift towards digital services, new analysis from Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has revealed. The analysis, based on recent data from Euromonitor International, found that direct online sales in 2018 are expected […]
|By Raj Samani |As 2018 draws to a close, we should perhaps be grateful that the year has not been entirely dominated by ransomware, although the rise of the GandCrab and SamSam variants show that the threat remains active. Our predictions for 2019 move away from simply providing an assessment on the rise or fall of a particular threat, and instead focus on current rumblings we see […]
By K Raveendran Shashi Tharoor has just been beaten in his own game by another smart alec, who has outsmarted the sesquipedalian, probably without his even knowing about it. Yes, some people are capable of devouring their victims without them being aware until they are about to be digested. A new word has been added to Urban Dictionary to denote how lovers of jabberwocky like Tharoor dig […]
James M. Dorsey The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and potential Western sanctions against Saudi Arabia has sparked renewed debate about the value of the longstanding alliance between the United States and the kingdom. The debate is not limited to the US or the kingdom, both of which are assessing the reliability of the other even if that is a debate that is waged in Saudi Arabia behind […]
|By Allan Leinwand| According to a recent research report from PwC, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to account for approximately 13.6% of the United Arab Emirates’ GDP in 2030. However, AI is seen by many as being either a hero or a villain. On one hand, AI is currently driving nearly every CIO’s agenda because it intelligently automates work processes, making it possible to do things that have never been […]
By James M. Dorsey Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could well dash expectations that he is gunning for a break with Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism rather than a shaving off of the rough edges of Wahhabi ideology that has been woven into the kingdom’s fabric since its founding more than eighty years ago. Prince Mohammed has fuelled expectations by fostering Islamic scholars who advocate a revision of […]
The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen research in forage production in the UAE. The MoU was signed by Sultan Alwan, Assistant Undersecretary of the Regions Sector at MOCCAE, and Dr Aziz Awlad Bilqasim, Regional Coordinator for ICARDA. Speaking on the partnership, Sultan Alwan said that the […]
|By Arabian Pot Staff| The current tailwind in the oil market is likely to propel 100 new offshore projects to be sanctioned in 2018, according to Rystad Energy. This compares to only 60 projects in 2017 and below 40 in 2016, as shown in the latest Oilfield Service Report by Rystad Energy. These projects represent a collective $100 billion worth of capital investment, giving an average of […]
By Matein Khalid A dismal legacy of civil war, sanctions, insurgency, foreign invasion and terrorism has had a catastrophic impact on the Iraqi economy. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the assembled global elite at Davos 2018 that Iraq needed $100 billion in postwar construction. Yet money alone will not solve Iraq’s problems of systemic corruption, a society divided by sectarian cleavages, poverty, the displacement of 2 million […]
By James M. Dorsey Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s investment of $1 billion and option to pump a further $480 million into Richard Branson’s ventures in space, confirmed during the prince’s recent visit to the United States, was more than just another headline-grabbing move. By focusing on space sciences, long a field rejected by ultra-conservative Islamic scholars, some of whom insist that the earth is flat, Prince […]
Dubai property prices are falling at increased speed. The Dubai Residential Property Sales Price Index for all residential estates decreased by 2.6 points, from 248.7 to 246.1, which represents a decline of 1.05 per cent in March 2018, according to the latest REID report. Prices also went down by 4.76 per cent year on year. Apartment sales prices registered a decrease in March 2018 with a drop […]
By James M. Dorsey Bangladesh, in a twist of irony, is looking to Saudi Arabia to fund a $ 1 billion plan to build hundreds of mosques and religious centres to counter militant Islam that for much of the past decade traced its roots to ultra-conservative strands of the faith promoted by a multi-billion dollar Saudi campaign. The Bangladeshi plan constitutes the first effort by a Muslim country to enlist […]
