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Dubai

UAE ambassador to France Hend Al Otaiba (second from right) takes part in the opening ceremony for the Dubai Chamber office in Paris

Dubai Chamber opens offices in France and Italy

Dubai has opened new representative offices in Paris and Milan as part of the UAE’s ambitions to build trade and investment opportunities with the European Union. Dubai International Chamber made the move on the back of more than $53 billion of trade between the UAE and Europe last year, up $11 billion on 2021. The […]

Palm Jebel Ali will add 91km to Dubai's coastline and provide homes for about 35,000 families

Dubai developer releases first Palm Jebel Ali villas

The first villas available to buy on Dubai’s billion-dollar Palm Jebel Ali man-made island project have been released by developer Nakheel. The 13.4 sq km mega-project – twice the size of Palm Jumeirah – will add 91km of coastline to the emirate and provide homes for about 35,000 families. The inaugural properties for purchase are […]

Former MLB star Hanley Ramirez is one of the investors in Baseball United

Baseball stars line up to invest in Dubai league

Baseball United, the first professional baseball league focused on the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, has amassed a roster of investors before the Dubai league’s launch in November. Between them the investors boast a combined 222 Major League Baseball (MLB) seasons, 70 All-Star games and 14 World Series Championships. The line-up of former MLB stars […]

Dubai VC funding SMEs

Dubai SMEs turn to banks as VC funding declines

Small businesses in Dubai are turning to traditional banks for financing as the global slowdown in venture capital funding continues. Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank by assets, reported that it funded 34 percent more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) over the opening seven months of 2023 compared to the same period last year. Lucy Chow, […]

Georgetown University students

Georgetown launch a sign of growing US presence in Dubai

Georgetown University has launched its business programme in Dubai as more US companies set up shop in the UAE. The Washington DC-based university’s McDonagh School of Business this week welcomed its first cohort of 53 students to its new Executive MBA. Located in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Academy, the 19-month programme covers business […]

Hala manages 21,000 drivers on its platform with a fleet of 12,000 cars provided by franchise partners

Dubai’s Hala reports 36% rise in trips as user numbers up

Hala, Dubai’s e-hailing taxi service on the Careem app, has reported a 36 percent annual growth in trips in the first six months of 2023 and a 21 percent rise in new users year on year. Khaled Nuseibeh, CEO at Hala, said that the performance has been “tremendous” this year so far, with March 2023 […]

Open banking allows for the sharing of data between banks and other institutions

Tarabut poised as Saudi plans open banking regulations

Open banking platform Tarabut Gateway is gearing up for the launch of new regulations in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom expands its financial technology offerings. The system of open banking allows for financial data to be shared between banks and third-party service providers through the use of applications. Ayman al Sayari, governor of the Saudi […]

Brands For Less has 60 stores in the UAE and is planning 75 for Saudi Arabia alone by the end of 2026

UAE’s Brands For Less sets sights on Asia and Africa

UAE retail group Brands for Less (BFL Group) has revealed plans for international expansion including a $20 million distribution centre in Saudi Arabia. The 38,000 square metre facility in Sudan City for Industry and Businesses close to Riyadh will employ 350 people and be able to store three million products. BFL Group plans to increase […]

The Blinx headquarters in Dubai Media City

Blinx launches to cater to ‘tech-savvy youth’

A new digital media centre has launched in the Middle East focusing on Gen Z and millennial content creation, storytelling and reporting. Dubai-headquartered Blinx (spelt as “blinx”) wants to capitalise on the region’s burgeoning media and entertainment industry, expected to be worth over $61 billion by 2028, according to research from Mordor Intelligence. Blinx will […]

Expo City Dubai will host Cop28. Sponsors will be able to showcase their brand and stage a corporate presence in the Cop28 UAE Green Zone

Cop28 unveils first round of sponsors

Mashreq, Emirates NBD, Investcorp and DP World have been announced as among the first round of official sponsors for the Cop28 climate change summit, to be held in Dubai later this year.  Sponsors have been selected by the Cop28 Sponsorship Committee, which comprises seven internal Cop28 departments and an independent third party, professional services company […]

Families at Dubai Mall. The PMI figures on discounts come despite the Summer Surprises shopping festival held in August

Dubai businesses ease up on discounting as costs climb

Dubai’s appetite for discounting waned in August as more companies opted to pass on increased costs to customers, a survey of non-oil businesses has found. The S&P Global Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for August found that the impact of rising input costs on margins made companies “less inclined to offer discounts on their products and […]

Dubai AI film

Dubai embraces AI to disrupt the film sector

Are robot writers and CGI actors about to steal our jobs? That’s one of the core fears at the centre of Hollywood’s largest strike by actors and writers in over 60 years. From ChatGPT generating scripts and AI-generated actors replacing extras in crowd scenes, to computers automatically editing scenes and creating stunning visual effects (VFX) […]

Al Jaber first UN global climate stocktake

Al Jaber responds to first UN global climate stocktake

Cop28 president designate Sultan Al Jaber has urged nations to “urgently disrupt business-as-usual” to meet climate change goals, as the UN warned in its first global climate stocktake that progress made to date has been “inadequate”. The stocktake is a comprehensive review of countries’ progress on cutting emissions since the Paris Agreement was signed in […]

Emirates NBD sustainable finance

Emirates NBD to expand sustainable finance offering

Dubai’s largest lender Emirates NBD plans to increase its provision of sustainable finance, including directly issuing green debt and other instruments to support social and environmental aims.  The bank previously issued ESG-linked debt instruments via its investment banking arm, EmCap (Emirates NBD Capital), in 2019 for what it claims was the region’s first corporate green […]

UAE prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid looks on as Masdar chairman Sultan Al Jaber and Dewa CEO Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer sign the solar park agreement

Next $1.5bn phase of Dubai’s solar park to be ready in 2024

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and Masdar have signed an agreement to build and operate the 1,800-megawatt sixth phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. The next phase of the world’s largest single-site solar park will cost AED5.5 billion ($1.49 billion).  “This phase will power over half a million residences while reducing […]

Metaverse

Dubai bullish on metaverse as hype fades

The metaverse has been seen as the silver bullet that would revive businesses in Dubai and the wider Gulf region in the post-pandemic era.  The UAE is still bullish about its potential, but Mohammad AlBlooshi, CEO of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Innovation Hub, told an event on Monday that enthusiasm for the nascent […]