Search Results for: saudi arabia

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS, in Johannesburg

ONGOING recruitment of South African nurses to the UK is pushing South Africa’s already hard pressed public health system close to the brink of collapse and putting patient care at risk, the country’s lead nursing union and health experts have warned.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) competition commissioner has indicated she could push for regulatory reform to improve competition in EU energy markets, in parallel with legal enforcement action using existing rules. Neelie Kroes highlighted "bundling of generation, supply, pipelines, grids, and distribution (as) at the heart of the current EU energy market failure."…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Cairo

FOREIGN investment in Egypt is on the rise, spurred on by new legislation, deregulation and a pro-business Cabinet under Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, although there are still plenty of pitfalls for the unwary and unprepared.

Indeed, the door has only recently opened wide to overseas investors, with Egypt in 1997 allowing foreign companies 100% ownership of Egyptian companies, the repatriation of dividends and tax exemptions.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Beirut

THE NUMBER of Syrians studying in the US has dropped a steep 32% over the past five years, with sometimes-criticised universities in Syria the direct beneficiaries, even attracting foreign students from around the Middle East.

The move comes as Arab students are increasingly shunning top ranked US universities because of anger about its government’s foreign policy, and as Syria’s ossified university system opens up to the private sector.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

OUT of 60 recommendations made in a report last December by the European Parliament on strategies to prevent human trafficking only one specifically mentioned money laundering and even there the message was essentially "carry on as before" and "keep your eyes open".…

BY MARK ROWE AND PAUL COCHRANE

INTRODUCTION

JUST as chocolate sells well in cold countries, so do soft drinks flourish in hot countries, which would suggest that North Africa and the Levant presents an inviting face to the international drinks market.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FACILITIES for the new permanent secretariat for the International Energy Forum (IEF) have been launched in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The secretariat will help run biannual summits for the IEF, which links oil producer and importing countries.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) has admitted Saudi Arabia as a member, a move making Riyadh remove rules preventing overseas oil and gas companies from serving its wealthy petroleum sector. All WTO member countries would have equal access, under the WTO ‘most favoured nation’ principle.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
SAUDI Arabia will open its valuable oil sector to foreign suppliers, to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In a bilateral deal with the US, which will have to be matched for other WTO members, the Saudis, said the US Trade Representative (USTR), will allow US companies to compete against local energy service providers for “oil and gas exploration and development, pipeline transport of fuels, management consulting technical testing and analysis, and repair and maintenance of equipment, among others”.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE
THE EGYPTIAN paint industry is in a state of flux after the sector was deregulated, with competition increasing both domestically and internationally, and long-term projections hampered by the government’s inability to decide on whether or not to cease subsidising turpentine supplies.…