President Sheikh Mohamed and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attend the Italy-UAE Business Forum in Rome on Monday. Abdulla Al Neyadi / UAE Presidential Court
President Sheikh Mohamed and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attend the Italy-UAE Business Forum in Rome on Monday. Abdulla Al Neyadi / UAE Presidential Court
President Sheikh Mohamed and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attend the Italy-UAE Business Forum in Rome on Monday. Abdulla Al Neyadi / UAE Presidential Court
The UAE is to invest $40 billion in key sectors of Italy’s economy as the two countries strengthen ties.
Italy and the UAE signed over 40 new agreements covering sectors including economy and investment, defence, energy and space during President Sheikh Mohamed's state visit to Rome on Monday.
Connectivity, infrastructure, high-tech industry, artificial intelligence, water technology, information and communication technology, SMEs and start-ups, agriculture, civil aviation, education, culture and health care were the other areas of mutual interest for the two countries, Emirati state news agency Wam reported on Monday.
The two countries are also aiming to explore opportunities for co-operation with other partners, particularly in Africa.
The announcements came as the two countries continue to bolster their trade ties, with non-oil trade reaching $11.7 billion in 2023. Italy has increased investment in the UAE by 50 per cent in the last five years.
Sheikh Mohamed held talks with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Monday and the two leaders discussed the UAE's goal of enhancing its presence in European markets with Italy’s support, particularly by “pursuing negotiations for market liberalisation through a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement [Cepa], a bilateral free trade agreement, with the European Union", Wam reported, citing a joint statement issued by the two countries.
Cepas are playing a key part in boosting the UAE's non-oil foreign trade, which hit a record Dh3 trillion ($816.7 billion) last year − up 14.6 per cent year-on-year.
The two countries also highlighted Italy’s and the UAE’s roles as logistic hubs and stepping stones in global connectivity, strengthening trade and investment ties between Europe and Asia.
“This collaboration underscores the importance of Italy and the UAE as strategic partners for innovation, sustainable economic development and technological exchange, fostering deeper ties between Europe, the Middle East and Asia, also in the framework of IMEC [The India-Middle-East-Europe Economic Corridor],” the statement said.
The IMEC announced during the G20 summit in 2023, consists of an eastern route connecting India to the Gulf and a northern pathway connecting the Gulf to Europe.
The cross-border, ship-to-rail transit corridors are expected to reduce shipping costs across the network and support trade in goods and services to, from and between the UAE, Saudi Arabia, India and Europe.
The UAE, Italy and Albania last month announced a partnership to build a subsea interconnector for exporting renewable energy across the Adriatic Sea.
As part of the deal, green power produced in Albania will be exported to Italy through an undersea cable, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi in January.
Also on Monday, Abu Dhabi sovereign investor ADQ signed an initial agreement with Rome-based energy company Eni to identify potential strategic areas of co-operation aimed at strengthening supply chains for critical minerals.
The collaboration will prioritise potential investment in regions such as Africa, North America and Central Asia. They will explore synergies across the entire critical and strategic minerals value chain, from mining to refining, processing and downstream applications, the companies said.
The companies will also assess the feasibility of establishing refining and processing facilities in the UAE and Italy.
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
GROUP RESULTS
Group A
Results
Ireland beat UAE by 226 runs
West Indies beat Netherlands by 54 runs
Group B
Results
Zimbabwe tied with Scotland
Nepal beat Hong Kong by five wickets
Sole survivors
Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
