Posts Tagged ‘CNN;’
DUBAI – The United Arab Emirates will hold off for now on a common Gulf currency, Vice President Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed Al-Maktoum said in comments aired Friday, while defending the dirhams peg to the dollar.
“We will not change anything for the time being until we see something solid and profitable,” Sheikh Mohammad, who is also the ruler of Dubai, said in an interview broadcast on CNN.
DUBAI – Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum has said that the economy of the United Arab Emirates is doing fine and that the worst for Dubai is over.
In an interview with CNN due to air on Friday, Sheikh Mohammed also said that Emirates airline, the largest carrier in the region, will place another order in July following a record purchase earlier this month.
“The worst is over and Dubai is looking for new opportunities for growth, according to Dubais ruler, Sheikh Mohammed,” CNN reported on its website, quoting parts of the interview.
I woke up after an overnight flight from London with the winter sun of the Arabian desert and the sound of steel rods being loaded up, cranes moving beams, workers toiling away.
The Kingdom is spending a half trillion dollars over the next five years – recycling oil wealth closer to home – and you can see it everywhere. All that spending barely got Saudi Arabia into positive growth last year, but that is far better than the global recession of 2.2 percent.
Saudi Arabia is expected to grow by four percent this year. We are at the crossroads with the CNN covering the Global Competitiveness Forum with thought leaders mainly from the West looking to establish a foothold in the regions largest market.
ATHENS – Greeces fledgling government has scrambled to quell market fears of a default on its massive debt after Dubais recent solvency scare put the spotlight on the struggling Greek economy.
With the Athens stock exchange reeling and investors speculating whether the broader euro zone was about to take a hit as well, Greek officials last week took to the international airwaves on a damage control offensive.
“There is zero risk of defaulting,” Prime Minister George Papandreou told CNN in an interview on Thursday. “We are taking all measures and are determined to shore up whatever deficit problems we have. We also have the backing and the recognition of the European Union,” said Papandreou, whose socialist Pasok party came to power in October.
JEDDAH: International TV channels and news agencies such as CNN, BBC, ABC, NBC, Associated Press, Agence France Presse and Reuters have sent their reporters and crews to cover the annual pilgrimage this year.
Other major media organizations taking part in the Haj coverage include Al Jazeera of Qatar, SCTV of Malaysia, Al Arabiya, MBC, Islam Channel of Britain, KBC of South Korea, Japans NHK television, Russia Today TV and Indonesian Television.
FRANKFURT – The Middle Easts first regional currency union is still “on track” despite the decision of the United Arab Emirates to opt out of the program, Muhammad Al-Jasser, governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, said Thursday.
At a briefing on the sidelines of a conference aimed at promoting Islamic finance in Germany, Al-Jasser said that the UAEs opt-out is “definitely not a fatal blow” and that he still expects the UAE and Oman, which has also opted out of the Gulf Cooperation Councils monetary union plans, to rejoin the project at a later date.
DUBAI – The worlds tallest tower Burj Dubai will open this year on Dec.2, coinciding with the UAE National Day.
Mohammed Al-Abbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, the developer of the project, said he was “shooting for UAE National Day.”
Al-Abbar also said on CNN that “12,000 staff were working inside trying to get the building ready”.
DUBAI – Dubais government could issue the second tranche of a $20 billion government bond program as soon as this month, a ruling council member said in remarks aired on Friday, but did not give the size of the issue.
Dubai raised $10 billion in emergency cash from the United Arab Emirates central bank early this year through a bond issue as part of a plan to raise a total of $20 billion to finance obligations still pending.
WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is “incredibly confident” the US economy will rebound within a year, a top adviser said yesterday, before a critical week in efforts to flesh out and sell the president’s recovery agenda. “We will be seeing signs the economy is turning around,” Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told the “Fox News Sunday” program.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” show, Romer said she had “every expectation, as do private forecasters, that we will bottom out this year and actually be growing again by the end of the year.” President Barack Obama’s steps to reverse a deep recession and restructure the ailing US financial system have global implications as he prepares to meet leaders of major developed and developing nations at a Group of 20 summit in early April.
MANILA: The Wisdom International School for Higher Education Studies (WISHES) in Mindanao awarded an honorary doctorate, the Doctor of Humanities (Honoris Causa), to Khaled Almaeena, editor in chief of Arab News, on Monday.
The award was in recognition of Almaeenas outstanding accomplishments in the media and his exemplary humanitarian activities, particularly for the Filipino community in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region. WISHES President Omar M. Mababaya awarded Almaeena the doctoral degree.