Business

07 September 2023; MEMO: Foreign investment in Israel plummeted 60 per cent during the first quarter of the year, according to a report released yesterday by the Finance Ministry.

The data reveals that Israel attracted approximately $2.6 billion in foreign investment during the initial three months of this year, marking a substantial 60 per cent drop when compared to the average quarterly figures observed in 2020 and 2022.

04 September 2023; MEMO: Iran’s new Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alireza Enayati, is set to begin his diplomatic mission in Riyadh on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

“I will leave for Riyadh on Tuesday,” Enayati told the state news agency, IRNA.

He said the new Saudi Ambassador to Iran will also start his mission in Tehran “in the same period of time”.

04 September 2023; MEMO: The Shanghai Stock exchange said it signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Saudi Exchange in Riyadh on Sunday, to lay the foundation for future cooperation, Reuters reports.

Both exchanges will explore cooperation opportunities in cross-listings, fintech, ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and research, the Shanghai Exchange said in a statement on Monday.

04 September 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said Monday that a landmark deal allowing Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea amid the war will not be restored until the West meets Moscow’s demands on its own agricultural exports, AP reports.

According to the report, Ukraine and its Western allies have dismissed the Kremlin’s demands as a ploy to advance its own interests.

04 September 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia and Italy have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost economic relations and strategically important investments, in the latest development between the two countries.

Speaking to reporters at the Investment Forum between Italy and Saudi Arabia in Milan today, Italian Industry Minister, Adolfo Urso, was quoted by Reuters as stating that “Dialogue can help companies develop a technological and industrial partnership”.

BEIJING, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping's first major reform plans a decade ago were also his boldest, envisaging a transition to a Western-style free market economy driven by services and consumption by 2020.

The 60-point agenda was meant to fix an obsolete growth model better suited to less developed countries - however, most of those reforms have gone nowhere leaving the economy largely reliant on older policies that have only added to China's massive debt pile and industrial overcapacity.

02 September 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, will hold talks with Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, on Monday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, the Kremlin said on Friday, Reuters reports.

30 August 2023; MEMO: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that the world with its different blocs and powers “will not be the same after the expansion of the BRICS group” during the recent South African summit. President da Silva, otherwise known simply as Lula, made his comment in a weekly video presenting the most prominent local developments, Anadolu has reported. 

31 August 2023; MEMO: The European Commission is looking “very closely” at whether the terms of a controversial gas deal between Bulgaria and Turkiye breach the EU’s competition rules, Energy Intelligence reports.

According to the report, Bulgaria wants to book capacity of about one bcm of gas per year at Turkish LNG terminals and seal import deals with European and United States LNG producers.

31 August 2023; MEMO: Domestic, Asian and European companies, Thursday, signed seven major mining contracts worth around $6.5 billion with the interim Taliban administration in Afghanistan, Anadolu Agency reports.