Dr. Atie J. El Mouallem – Redesigning Lebanon’s Consociational Confessional Democracy — atiejelmouallem.com
Pluralistic institutions promote development. They create a virtual cycle of growth, development and prosperity for citizens. But if the institutional framework is not well designed, elites get control over extractive institutions.
The crisis in Lebanon is a crisis in the moral ethics of our elites. There are socio-cultural factors for the current corrupt behaviour of our elites. I believe we need to find a truly Lebanese solution to our democratic crisis by understanding the roots of our socio-cultural ethos and then re-design our democratic institutional framework.
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Covid-19 News: UAE Urges Return to Normal And Vows No Virus Lockdown – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– Before the omicron strain emerged, the UAE had managed to keep cases under control for most of 2021, but new virus cases have risen to more than 2,500 a day in recent weeks.
– “Omicron is way less impactful than the delta (variant) and even during delta we haven’t locked down the country. The balance has been there throughout the omicron for sure and with any future variants when it comes to corona, we will not go back to the full lockdown of the country,” Thani Al-Zeyoudi, the minister of state for foreign trade.
UAE Business: 2022 set to be a bumper year for UK-to-Mena trade — www.gdnonline.com
Highlights:
– UK businesses have been expanding their operations across the Middle East as a result of Brexit-fuelled global geographic expansion
– Since 2018, the Middle East’s contribution to overall revenue has increased by 1% Y-o-Y. In 2020, the Mena region generated 14% of revenue for FTSE listed companies, compared to 13% in 2019 and 12% in 2018.
– While UK companies already established in the region are growing their operations, Lumina also sees new companies eyeing up the Mena opportunity and expanding to the region for the first time. The number of FTSE listed companies with operations in the Mena increased from 22 to 25 between 2018 and 2020.
– While there are multiple examples of capital flowing from the UK into the GCC, capital is also moving back the other way, with a number of high-profile investments being announced in recent months.
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Ministry of Economy sees growth in Industry Property and Patents based on amended and new laws — www.sme10x.com
Highlights:
– The UAE was ranked first in the Arab world for the sixth consecutive year by the Global Innovation Index 2021 owing to its success in developing an integrated system for intellectual property applications and services.
– The new provisions are:
– Expedited applications, a fast track channel for patent applications
– Conversion of patent applications to utility certificate requests, and vice versa.
– The possibility of dividing patent applications, utility certificates and industrial designs into several applications.
– Retrieval of applications.
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French Election 2022: Macron Second Term Could Hinge on Economic Recovery – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– As he seeks reelection in April, the president who was nurtured in the top echelons of the French technocracy has a potential knockout punch to throw: the robust economy.
– At a time when crowing about France’s decline seems to be in fashion, we have among the best economic growth figures in the euro zone and we got back to pre-crisis levels of activity three months sooner than expected,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.
– Let’s be proud of our economic policy, the jobs we have created, investment that is recovering, the attractiveness of France.”
– Quickly after taking office in 2017, Macron used contentious decree-like tools to push further changes to labor laws through Parliament. And in his first budget, the then 39-year-old president picked apart France’s heavy taxes on wealth and capital.
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Lula Leads Election Poll as Brazil Frets About Jobs, Virus – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– The economy is the nation’s biggest problem, according to 37% of those surveyed.
– Unemployment was their top concern, followed by the rate of economic growth, and then inflation.
– Despite cash payments to the poor in December, 51% of respondents said their ability to make ends meet actually worsened over the last three months.
– 44% of Brazilians surveyed said they would back Lula, while 23% favored the incumbent Bolsonaro.
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RIL’s Mukesh Ambani: Asia’s Richest Man to Invest $76 Billion in Green Projects – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– Ambani is in the midst of transforming his fossil fuel-fed empire and pivoting it toward green energy and digital technology.
– These projects will also boost Reliance’s target to make its operations carbon-neutral by 2035 – an ambitious target for a company that derived 60% of its revenue from oil refining and petrochemicals.
– Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man, announced plans to invest $76 billion toward clean energy projects, dwarfing an earlier commitment of $10 billion by the world’s biggest fossil-fuel billionaire.
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Bitcoin (BTC USD) Trading President Bukele Likely Loses Money for El Salvadorans – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– The country’s overseas dollar bonds posted the world’s worst performance in 2021 as investors were spooked by Bukele’s unorthodox economic management and the nation’s experiment with Bitcoin.
– Bukele said it will fast-track citizenship for investors who buy $100,000 or more of a proposed blockchain bond expected to be issued this year on Blockstream Corp.’s Liquid Network.
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