The State of Israel has 60 million US dollars to invest in various sectors in Angola, in particular in the construction of a solar power plant in the province of Benguela, to fill the local deficit in terms of production and distribution. This information was released in Benguela by the ambassador in Angola, Oren Rosenblat, speaking to the press, after a courtesy meeting with the governor of the province, Rui Falcão, underlining that the construction of this plant comes in response to a request from local authorities. According to Oren Rosenblat, the province of Benguela experiences irregularities in the production and distribution of electricity, for the development of this part of the country, in particular its industrial park, hence the realization of the solar power plant initiative, in the near future.

As mentioned, the infrastructure, with a capacity to produce 50 megawatts, will be built by Israeli entrepreneurs, as part of a project that the state has developed over the last five years for the sustainable growth of African countries, especially in remote locations and for populations that do not have energy from the national network. On the other hand, he stressed that Israel’s priority in Benguela essentially lies in the agricultural sector, since the 10 municipalities in the province have excellent areas for agriculture.

“Our primary objective is to contribute to the expansion of the agricultural sector, through technical exchange, taking into account the great agricultural potential of the region, whose foundations are based on family farming, to encourage the participation of the private sector in feasible projects outlined by the government, due to the scarcity of financial resources, “he said.
Incidentally, he reported that the State of Israel has already invested USD 300 million in the agro-livestock sector in Angola, since 2014.

“We want to establish cooperation with the Government of Benguela in agriculture and energy, such as those already established in different provinces, where farms built by Israel are successfully advancing, thus ensuring food security in those areas,” he said. Asked about the importance of the Lobito Corridor, he said that its development necessarily implies an increase in the volume of internal investments. From his point of view, in the African continent there is a problem since “entrepreneurs prefer to invest outside their countries”, he said.
For Oren Rosenblat, the increase in investments in the Lobito Corridor is crucial for the future of the economies of Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia, a process where the Benguela Railway will play a leading role.
(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

Exports of Tunisian olive oil generated revenues of 2.14 billion dinars and 215 thousand tons at the end of October 2018, according to the figures presented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, knowing that during the 2017/2018 season, olive oil production reached about 325 thousand tons, compared to 100 thousand tons of last season.

Also according to these figures, production reached 1.6 million tons of olives, which generated 325 thousand tons of oil. For comparison, last season’s olive production reached 500 thousand tons per 100 thousand tons of oil.

The exports of olive oil performed well, too, with an evolution of 156%, in value and 147% in volume.

It should be noted that the European market absorbs 70% of Tunisian exports. Between January 2018 and October 7, 2018, 44,000 tons were authorized for export under a quota (56,700 tons) established with the European Union (EU), were exported to Europe.

(ITALPRESS/MNA)

Source: medNews

The European Commission asked the European Banking Authority (EBA) to conduct a survey which found that the Malta Financial Intelligence and Analysis Unit (FIAU) was violating EU legislation. The European Commission has therefore formulated a formal opinion requesting the Maltese Anti-Money Laundering Supervisory Authority (Financial Intelligence and Analysis Unit) to take a series of precautions including improving its risk assessment methodology for money laundering and financing. terrorism, strengthen its control and monitoring strategy by aligning resources with the risk presented by some recycling institutes, ensure that the authority is able to react quickly to any identified shortcomings, including  through the revision of its sanctioning procedures, to ensure that its decision-making process is adequately motivated and documented, to adopt systematic and detailed registration procedures for non-site inspections. Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President responsible for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, said “the EBA will be given the tools and additional resources needed to ensure effective cooperation and convergence supervision. I trust in the cooperation of the European Parliament and the Council to make this proposal immediately a legislative act”. 

 

Source: medNews

Orascom Road Construction announced that the volume of business implemented as part of  the national road projects amounted to 13 billion Egyptian pounds, the company CEO said.
The National Roads Project is a large Egyptian infrastructure project initiated by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in August 2014. The project includes the construction of 39 new roadways with a total length of 4,400 km. The new road network will account for around 10% of the total length of all roads in Egypt. The company is currently carrying out El Tor-Sharm El Sheikh road of 250 kilo meter, in addition to implementing internal roads within the new administrative capital.
El Tor-Sharm El Sheikh road will be completed by the end of end of the current year.(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

The Malta Blockchain Summit, an international event dedicated to DLTs (Distributed Ledger Technologies), was held in Malta. Over 8.000 people including investors, companies and specialists in the sector participated. The smallest member of the European Union has decided to focus strongly on this type of technology and has established itself as a Blockchain Island, also thanks to the promptness with which the government has approved several bills that regulate the sector.
The presence of a precise legislative framework has attracted the interest of many companies that offer services that are based on this new technology, and that see in Malta the ideal environment to carry out their operations. 

The Summit opened with the presence of Joseph Muscat, Maltese Prime Minister, who stressed that “the blockchain seed landed on fertile soil here. We began watering it to ensure it grows in an organic way, building the blocks to ensure that it will bear fruit when the time is right”.
During the course of the summit, the issues of legislation, transparency, the relationship between decentralization and government, cryptocurrencies, investments in the sector, the protection of operators and the numerous applications of DLTs were analyzed.

The stand area welcomed 300 exhibitors, including cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency exchange services, government agencies and law firms. The technological part was not exclusively limited to blockchain, as it also extended to the fields of artificial intelligence and quantum technology and the Internet of Things with their application in many sectors, from medicine to agriculture, from transport to customer service.

The Malta Blockchain Summit also featured a Start-up Village, sponsored by Malta Enterprise, the Maltese government agency for economic development, which is also responsible for attracting foreign direct investment to Malta. The Start-up Village gave the opportunity to 40 start-ups to show their technological offer to over 1000 investors. “Malta Enterprise has, among its main objectives, that to promote and support new business ideas”, explained Anthony David Gatt, Malta Enterprise Investment Promotion Manager. 

“We strongly believe that new technologies, such as blockchain, internet of things and artificial intelligence, represent the future for almost all productive sectors. For this reason we have invited 40 start-ups to the Malta Blockchain Summit, and we are confident that many of them will choose Malta as a base for their activities, taking full advantage of the opportunities that Malta offers not only from a legislative point of view, but also specifically from the direct support that Malta Enterprise provides to young companies that invest in technology”.

Source: medNews

 € 20 million is the sum raised by one of the ICOs launched in recent months by a startup of young experts from the Crypto world. On 24 November 2018 in Malta, the Maltese Italian Chamber of Commerce organizes Italy Blockchain Summit.

The event is part of the first Malta Italy Business Forum to be held from 21 to 24 November, organized by the Maltese Italian Chamber of Commerce. 4 days dedicated to Italian and Maltese professionals and entrepreneurs working in internationalization, international taxation, fintech, blockchain and stock exchange quotations.

“Malta has been called Blochckain Island – says Victor Camilleri, president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Malta – as from November 1 will enter into force the new legislation that regulates the Blockchain and the Crypto currencies, turning Malta into the first regulated hub in Europe and among the first in the world”.

During the first Italian Blockchain Summit in Malta, Italian entrepreneurs and professionals will compare themselves with the most important lawyers and consultants in the Blockchain sector of the island. The program is very broad and will cover all the peculiarities of Maltese legislation in the sector such as the procedure for starting an ICO, the difference between utility or security Tokens, the taxation of tokens and virtual coins.

“We will try to provide a clear overview of Blockchain in Malta – said Oliver La Rosa, a member of the MICC Council and Blockchain expert – our speakers, one of Malta’s most successful professionals, will address in detail the peculiarities of the new legislation. In concrete cases, participants will have the opportunity to better understand the regulation of the ICOs of the future and how to manage an already implemented before November 1 “.

Places are limited and reservations can be made on the Malta Italy Business Forum website.

(ITALPRESS/MNA)

 

Source: medNews

The annual unemployment rate in Turkey hit 10.8,the country’s statistical authority stated on Oct. 15. “The number of unemployed persons aged 15 years old and over increased by 88,000 to 3,531 million persons in the period of July 2018 in Turkey compared with the same period of the previous year. The unemployment rate occurred as 10.8 percent with 0.1 percentage point increase. In the same period, non-agricultural unemployment rate occurred as 12.9 percent with 0.1 percentage point decrease,” Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜIK) said.

“While youth unemployment rate including persons aged 15-24 was 19.9% with 1.2 percentage point decrease, the unemployment rate for persons aged 15-64 occurred as 11% with 0.1 percentage point increase,” it added in the statement on its website.

The number of employed persons rose by 507,000 to 29,2 million persons in the period of July 2018 compared with the same period of the previous year, according to the statement.

The employment rate occurred as 48.2 percent with 0.2 percentage point increase.

Employed people in the agricultural sector decreased by 247,000 persons and the number of non-agricultural employment increased by 755,000 thousand persons in this period.

According to the distribution of employment by sector; 19.7 percent was employed in agriculture, 19.5 percent was in industry, 6.9 percent was in construction and 53.9 percent was in services.

Employment in agriculture decreased by 1.2 percentage point and construction decreased by 0.7 percentage point while industry increased by 0.8 percentage point and services increased by 1.1 percentage point compared with the same period of the previous year.

The number of persons in the labor force realized nearly 32.8 million persons with 596,000 persons increase in the period of July 2018 compared with the same period of the previous year.

Labor force participation rate (LFPR) was 54 percent with 0.3 percentage point increase.

LFPR for male was 73.8 percent with 0.3 percentage point increase and the rate for female was 34.7 percent with 0.4 percentage point increase compared with the same period of the previous year.

The number of seasonally adjusted unemployed persons increased by 53,000 to 3.5 million persons in the period of July 2018 compared with the previous period. The unemployment rate was 11 percent with 0.1 percentage point increase.

(ITALPRESS/MNA)

Source: medNews

Egypt ranks the first among African countries in 2017 in terms of attracting foreign direct investments, said CEO of COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA) Heba Salama. In 2017, foreign direct investments in Egypt were estimatedat $7.4 billion to be followed by Ethiopia, she added.

Salama told African Business Magazine that Egypt took the lion’s share of foreign direct investments coming to the African continent in 2017 with a share representing 42 per cent of total investment in flows to Africa. 

Meanwhile, she made clear that foreign direct investments declined in world states from $1.87 to 1.43 trillion in 2017 and consequently they went down in the African continent to $42 billion. Shelauded the Free Trade Area agreement signed among African states, saying it help ed provide more opportunities for investments, facilitating the movement of citizens and increasing inter-Africa trade. 

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

 

Source: medNews

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 11th Arab Energy Conference, minister Rebbah said that investments in the energy sector will reach 30 billion dollars for renewable energy generation projects, which represents great opportunities for the national, regional and international private sector.
To implement these programs, the Kingdom of Morocco attaches great importance to the issue of encouraging investment in the energy sector in general and in the field of renewable energy, in particular, added the minister, underlining in this context that Morocco is committed to efforts in this area through new measures for the development of the legislative framework to improve the climate attracts domestic and foreign private investors.
The minister also noted that the energy sector in Morocco is characterized by an increase in energy demand and an almost total dependence on imports, noting that the total consumption of the Kingdom is equal to 20.8 million tons in 2017, including oil (55.9%) and coal (25.5%).

Rebbah also stressed that renewable energy (wind, hydro, solar) contributes about 5.8%, while it was only 2.6% in 2002. After underlining the diversity of partners in the Moroccan market, Rebbah reported that almost 80 groups are currently interested in the project of liquefied gas at the port Jorf Lasfar, which makes available about 4.5 billion dollars, noting that the ministry is finalizing the final touches before launching the call for tenders.

Source: medNews

Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) and the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCEZ) Mohab Mamish signed a memorandum of understanding with the Portuguese Port of Sines.
The MoU is intended to strengthen parternships and exchange expertise and information regarding the field of ports, according to a statement released by the SCEZ on Thursday.

The statement continued on to highlight that the agreement was signed during a meeting between Mamish and Portugal’s Minister of Sea Ana Paula Vitorino. The meeting was held in order to discuss boosting bilateral cooperation in the port sector. During the meeting, Mamish reviewed a number of key mega-national projects implemented by the country, including the underway Suez Canal development corridor.
Source: Amwal al Ghad.
(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews