Dubai emerges popular destination for entrepreneurs, millionaires and startups – News | Khaleej Times — www.khaleejtimes.com
Highlights:
– Referring to the new rules for the 10-year Golden Visa, five-year Green Visa and other reforms, experts said Dubai will attract global talent, skilled professionals, freelancers, investors, and entrepreneurs that will ultimately benefit the economy.
– Saad Maniar, senior partner at Crowe, said Dubai has always been and will continue to be a popular destination for HNIs from a tourism perspective, as Dubai has very high standards of safety and security coupled with the amazing infrastructure and plenty of to-do things in Dubai.
– From the business perspective the overall infrastructure is business-friendly, with airlines offering connectivity to all major cities in the world, making it very attractive for business owners to establish their presence in Dubai,” Maniar told Khaleej Times on Sunday.
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“Oil Leaders” Review: Saudi Arabia’s Chief Oil Whisperer Spills His Secrets – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– A new book provides a lexicon of four decades of verbal intervention in the price of crude by the world’s biggest oil-producing nation.
– Ibrahim AlMuhanna was the power behind the power, the trusted communications advisor to four Saudi oil ministers from the late 1980s until recently.
– Now retired, he has just published a book that reveals some of the secrets of Saudi-speak. “Oil Leaders” divulges a few bombshells, including the time when British officials in 2008 proposed to Riyadh a “mechanism” to keep oil prices between $60 and $90 a barrel.
– The author also describes how former Saudi oil minister Ibrahim Al Naimi kept his plan to fight the growth of US shale by flooding the market in 2014 secret even from others in Riyadh.
– His book, a mix of memoirs and historical analysis, gives away just enough to allow readers a peek behind a curtain that has remained drawn for years.
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Saudi Arabia Is Planning the Largest Buildings Ever Constructed – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– Neom, the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, aims to build twin skyscrapers about 500 meters (1,640 feet) tall that stretch horizontally for dozens of miles.
– The buildings would be “different heights as you go,” adapting to the landscape, with their final size determined by engineering considerations and the terrain, Al-Nasr said.
– The Middle East is already home to the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
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Putin’s War Machine Is Thriving Off Russian Energy Sales – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– The US has already banned Russian oil, but Europe is only slowly weaning itself off this dependency. That’s giving Moscow time to find other markets — such as commodity guzzling behemoths China and India.
– Once mocked by Biden as “rubble” when it initially collapsed in response to the sanctions, it’s since been propped up by Russia to become the world’s best-performing currency against the dollar this year.
– One of the big holes in the sanctions against Russia is the willingness of other nations to continue oil purchases.
– Indian refiners purchased more than 40 million barrels of Russian oil between the start of the Ukraine invasion in late February and early May. That’s 20% more than Russia-India flows for the whole of 2021.
– China is also strengthening its energy links with the country, securing cheaper prices by buying oil that’s being shunned elsewhere.
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Sri Lanka Crisis: A Fire Sale Looms as Lenders Won’t Make a Bailout Easy – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– The newly-appointed prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe — his sixth time in the job — wasted no time in announcing the government would privatize Sri Lankan Airlines, which prior to the pandemic had flown to 126 destinations in more than 60 countries.
– In September last year, one of India’s largest companies, the Adani Group, entered into a $700 million deal to develop a deep-water container terminal in Sri Lanka in what the Sydney-based Lowy Institute described as a “strategic game-changer” in the battle for influence between Beijing and New Delhi.
– In January, the Indian Oil Corp. subsidiary Lanka IOC took a 49% stake in the joint development of the Trincomalee oil tank farm, with Ceylon Petroleum Corp. maintaining a 51% stake.
– Kadirgamar, a senior lecturer at the University of Jaffna, said officials were most likely to consider the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Ceylon Petroleum Corp.
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Venture Capital Investments Surge in King’s Cross, Redefining City of London – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– In the City, the pubs may still be busy — when workers are in their offices — but public listings have dried up, dampening the appeal of traditional finance. Staff have noticed, with 57% of new hires into venture capital jobs in 2021 moving from investment banking.
– The likes of Sequoia Capital, Silicon Valley’s top venture shop, and its US rival General Catalyst have set up London offices in the past year.
– This abundance on the private side is attracting talent to venture capital from traditional banking jobs, despite the attractive pay and bonus packages in long-established firms.
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China Unemployment Rate for Young People Hits Record Highs – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
Highlights:
– In April, China’s jobless rate among 16- to 24-year-olds, a group that includes new college graduates, climbed to a record 18.2%. That’s three times as high as the national urban unemployment rate in China, and more than the 7.9% for the same cohort in the US.
– The angst of young people is being vented on social media and spilling over into rare protests about Covid control at some universities.
– The government has provided incentives to companies such as tax breaks, given refunds on previously paid unemployment insurance premiums, suspended employers’ contributions to social security plans, and provided cash subsidies to companies to train employees.
– For many young job seekers, the lure of dropping out of the labour market altogether and joining others in a movement to “lie flat” is becoming stronger.
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