Business

15 August 2023; MEMO: Qatar Postal has secured a 40 per cent stake in prominent Turkish e-commerce platform, Turkish Souq, Hurriyet daily reports.

According to the report, serving as an international e-commerce hub, Turkish Souq offers consumers high-quality products from leading brands, combining an international shopping experience with competitive pricing.

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Merchant ships remained backed up in lanes around the Black Sea on Monday as ports struggled to clear backlogs amid growing unease among insurers and shipping companies a day after a Russian warship fired warning shots at a cargo vessel.

Russia said its Vasily Bykov patrol ship on Sunday fired on the Palau-flagged Sukru Okan vessel after the ship's captain failed to respond to a request to halt for an inspection. After an inspection, the vessel continued its journey towards the Ukrainian port of Izmail along the Danube river, Russia said.

15 August 2023; MEMO: Data from an international statistics website shows a “terrifying” expectation of the size of Egypt’s national debt over the next five years. Statista has predicted that the debt will be $510.32 billion in 2028, compared with $132.86bn in 2018, an increase of more than 284 per cent over the ten-year period.

Chabahar, IRNA – The project to desalinate water from the Sea of Oman and transfer it to Sistan and Baluchestan province and other eastern provinces is 12% complete, Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, Abbas Aliabadi has announced.

The government has allocated over $3.2 billion for the project, which will provide fresh water to people in the eastern provinces, Aliabadi.

Aliabadi plans to visit the strategic project that transfers desalinated water from the Sea of Oman to cities and villages in the eastern provinces, especially Sistan and Baluchestan.

Tehran, IRNA – Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, has said that the US prisoners will remain in Iran until the full transfer of Iranian assets in South Korea which are said to be unfrozen following a prisoner swap deal with the US.

Jamshidi said on Friday that the process of releasing Iran’s total assets in South Korea has begun after the release of the country’s assets in Iraq.

Tehran, IRNA - Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Owji says that the Islamic Republic is producing about 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.

Owji made the remarks on Sunday in a meeting in Tehran, adding that Iran’s production of crude oil will surpass 3.3 million bpd by late August.

Referring to the Ministry's plans for investment in oil and gas industry projects, up to the end of the current Iranian calendar year, semi-finished civil projects valued at $15 billion will be operational.

11 August 2023; MEMO: China's energy company, Sungrow, said this week that it will provide its inverter skid technology and 1+X modular inverter solution for a 2.2 Gigawatt (GW) solar plant that Neom Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC) is building in Oxagon. The project site is in a port area close to the futuristic Neom City project, Reuters reports.

11 August 2023; AA: Türkiye's current account balance posted a net surplus of $674 million in June, the country's central bank announced on Friday.

Gold and energy excluded current account balance saw a net surplus of $5.58 billion in the month, the Turkish Central Bank said.

In June, the goods deficit was at $3.69 billion, while services posted a net surplus of $5.02 billion. Travel item, under services, recorded a net inflow of $4.2 billion.

11 August 2023; AA: Expressing strong opposition to “official interaction of any form” between the US and Taiwan, China on Friday called on Washington to revoke a bilateral trade agreement with Taipei.

“The US move violates the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, contravenes the US’s own commitment of maintaining only unofficial relations with Taiwan,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

11 August 2023; AA: The British economy saw a 0.2% growth in the second quarter of the year, beating economists' expectations of zero growth, official figures showed on Friday.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), gross domestic product grew 0.5% in June, helped by the manufacturing sector, and 0.2% from April to June as a whole.