How China Took an Oil Town and Turned It Into a Green Energy Hub — www.bloomberg.com
“Yumen, “the cradle of China’s oil industry,” that has become a totem for China’s changes over the past four decades—from a time of sacrifice and ideology to one of the entrepreneurs and the pursuit of wealth, from the old economy to the new, from fossil fuels to renewable energy.”
“When a city has become ‘resource depleted,’ it’s too late, like a patient reaching the terminal stage of cancer,” said Li Ang, research director at Innovative Green Development Program.”
“The local government wants to turn the old city into a “red tourism site,” a well-trodden path for once-famous towns that now have little else left to offer.”
“The proposed fix for Yumen is still based on energy, but this time on harvesting the winds that blow across northern China.”
“The change is taking Yumen back to its roots. A new city is being built on the irrigated plain to the west next to the original Silk Road settlement, where farmers have grown crops for centuries before the oil boom shifted the town to the hills.”
“Companies including Datang Yumen Wind Power Co. and China Longyuan Power Group Co. had installed as much as 3.1 gigawatts of renewable capacity by the end of 2020, mostly wind power, and the city government plans to add another 16GW by 2025. It hopes a surfeit of cheap, clean energy will attract power-intensive industries such as data centers and hydrogen production.”
“China added more wind-power capacity last year than the rest of the world combined, according to clean-energy research group BloombergNEF.”
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Virgin Galactic’s ($SPCE) Richard Branson Is Outgunned by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
“Virgin Galactic’s ambition of becoming the first suborbital space tourism company is now in jeopardy.
Bezos’s Blue Origin plans to launch its first crewed mission in July and has generated huge publicity by auctioning a seat. SpaceX is already carrying astronauts to the International Space Station and has a $2.9 billion NASA contract to help land people on the Moon.”
“Virgin Galactic hasn’t conducted a successful space flight since early 2019.”
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UAE to permit 100% foreign business ownership from June 1
“The UAE announced in November that foreign nationals would be allowed to own 100 per cent of commercial companies within the country, eliminating the need for a UAE national to hold the majority share.”
“The legislation, which will enable investors and business in ’10 new sectors of strategic importance to come under the purview of the law, is in its final stages of formation.”
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Pixel is the first mixed-use residential community at Makers District. Pixel offers its residents & visitors a unique space to enrich, collaborate & engage.
Designed as human-scale, the 7 mixed-use residential towers surrounded by quiet pocket gardens have been strategically arranged around a vibrant pedestrianized plaza. This plaza will include artisanal dining, offering homegrown restaurants & cafes, as well as co-working spaces, offices, shops & a signature water feature.
Plan your visit to our 1-bedroom show apartment and experience it all today.
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The future of wealthtech in the GCC
“We anticipate following five waves of change impacting the future of wealthtech in the GCC countries.”
“Wave 1 – Explosion of Robo-advisory”
“Wealthtechs from the region such as Sarwa and StashAway has already gained substantial user base.”
“Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) launched ‘CBD Investr’, a mobile application that uses smart algorithms to actively manage investment portfolios”
“Wave 2 – Intensification in price competition”
“As wealthtechs reach scale and competition intensifies, the robo-advisory fee (as per cent of AUM) will move down from the current 0.5 per cent – 0.9 per cent to 0.1 per cent – 0.3 per cent”
“Wave 3 – ESG based investments”
“Wealthtechs are better poised to be early market leaders in sustainable investment offerings.”
“Wave 4 – Hyper-personalisation”
“Predictive analytics will be increasingly used to nudge customers towards trades as per risk appetite.”
“Wave 5 – Value-added services”
“These include easy access to free resources, financial management tools, and simplified service offerings.”
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Europe Can Fend Off China and Russia Via Three Seas Initiative – Bloomberg
“The most important geopolitical project you’ve never heard of is called the Three Seas Initiative. It’s a joint endeavour by 12 eastern members of the European Union to update the physical and digital links between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas.”
“The initiative’s other projects include roads, railways, river ports, bridges and more. And of course lightning-fast fibre-optic cables, as well as all the bits and bobs needed to launch fifth-generation (5G) telecom networks.”
“A huge infrastructure project by 12 eastern EU states is an obvious geopolitical opportunity.”
“The EU was initially suspicious of the Three Seas Initiative. The political rift between its western and eastern members has widened in recent years, as Hungary and Poland have whittled down the rule of law and drifted toward populism. The initiative at first smelled like an eastern attempt to rally the region against Brussels.”
“It isn’t. Rather, it’s a visionary quest to make the region both prosperous and autonomous from Russian bullying and Chinese meddling.”
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America’s Restaurant Apocalypse Has Been Greatly Exaggerated – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
“A year ago experts predicted that one-third of the restaurants in America might close in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.”
“New data from the National Restaurant Association, a Washington-based industry group, found that 90,000 restaurants across the U.S. have closed permanently or long-term. That’s less than 14% of the country’s restaurants.”
Elon Musk Is Now Blowing Up the Wall Street Case for Bitcoin – Bloomberg — www.bloomberg.com
“Crypto insiders say the Musk-driven volatility is just a temporary blip and will soon blow over.”
“Wayne Wicker, chief investment officer at Vantagepoint Investment Advisers. “The mainstream adoption will come from institutional investors over time and regardless of Elon Musk.”
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