Search Results for: UAE

An African garment and textile sector rebounding from the Covid-19 pandemic has seen strong export growth in the first three-quarters of 2022 start to sputter through a tightening of retail demand in Europe and the United States. These remain Africa’s two primary export markets and their consumers are reducing spending as inflation and recession concerns grow.…

The African knitwear manufacturing sector has been regaining ground lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, with established manufacturing hubs capitalising on the growing demand for nearshoring in Europe and to a lesser extent the USA. There are major investments under way in developing production capacity, particularly in West Africa.…

High value banknotes remain of concern to AML regulators, even though they are increasingly being withdrawn from circulation. Despite the growth of electronic payments, the amount of physical cash in circulation remains huge. The USD remains the currency that circulates most widely in the world, with the US Currency Education Programme (a Federal Reserve scheme) saying that there was USD2 trillion in circulation by the start of 2021 (December 31, 2020).…

While FATF assessments focus on the policy and regulatory response of governments, law enforcement and AML agencies in fighting dirty money, the fact remains that these efforts are undertaken by teams – and how these groups’ staff members work together and are managed underscores their effectiveness.…

The tobacco industry is a global sector, with supply chains spanning the world. Muslim consumers – and there are 1.97 billion if them – are an important part of any tobacco major’s market portfolio, not to mention local Muslim companies. But a key challenge for tobacco companies targeting Muslim smokers, vapers and other consumers is religion – some Muslim scholars say tobacco is haram, and not in keeping with Islamic guidance, because of mental and physical impact on smokers.…

In recent years, Iranians have been driving growth in the Middle East’s cosmetics market, but worsening economic and political developments in Iran have restricted this growth. That has not deterred some personal care product companies, however, who continue to prosper in the country, whose market of 84 million people has significant potential.…

The benefits to knitwear manufacturers of investing in sophisticated machinery and software may be undeniable, but when an industry can call on a large pool of cheap human labour, companies need to see clear financial benefits from acquiring such tech.

This dilemma is particularly stark in south Asia textile and clothing outsourcing centres, where labour can be particularly low cost.…

Zimbabwe was taken off FATF’s grey list in March, but serious issues still abound claim critics of the move – from corruption to large scale gold smuggling, while a controversial law on NGOs may be misused to go after political opponents, they argue.…

United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Pure Harvest Smart Farms plans to raise funding through a new sukuk (Islamic bond) to support its food-security driven expansion plans, Tariq Sanad, the company’s chief financial officer, told Salaam Gateway.

The agritech firm’s breakthrough farming system that can produce year-round crops in the desert has attracted a diverse mix of investors since its inception in 2016.…

Researchers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been developing the extraction of gelatine from camel skin and bones, to boost production of this important manufacturing input that is often sourced from pigs. This creates halal/haram tracing problems for food, drink, medical and cosmetics product manufacturers who use gelatine.…