Business

06 Jan 2022; MEMO: Morocco and China signed, on Wednesday, an agreement on joint implementation of "Belt and Road Initiative" reached in 2017, which stipulated establishing a trade and infrastructure bridge linking Asia to Europe and Africa, news agencies reported.

Nasser Bourita, Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister, and Ning Jizhe, Vice Chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission signed the deal virtually.

05 Jan 2022; MEMO: A return to the Iran nuclear deal is better than not having a deal, the Jerusalem Post reported Chief of Israeli Military Intelligence, Aharon Haliva, saying.

The paper quoted Israeli news website Walla reporting Haliva saying in a meeting that the restrictions on Iran's nuclear programme within the framework of the deal are better for Israel than total non-compliance with the agreement.

This stance, it added, opposes Mossad chief David Barnea's who was reported not to support the deal.

05 Jan 2022; MEMO: Israel's National Planning and Building Council yesterday approved establishing a new Jewish community in the periphery of the occupied Gaza Strip, Anadolu reported.

The new settlement would be given a temporary name – Hanoun – and it will be home to 500 Israeli Jewish families.

Kolkata, Jan 3 (PTI) Two more jute mills - India Jute and Gondalpara Jute Mills - shut down in the first few days of the new year.

The jute mills each employing 4,000 workers owned by the same group issued `suspension of work 'notices.

Jute industry officials on Monday claimed the mills each employing around 4000 workers each under the same management were forced to close down over raw material concerns. Earlier last year about ten mills had taken similar steps.

02 Jan 2022; MEMO: The Armenian government has announced that it is lifting its embargo on Turkish goods from the beginning of 2022, marking a new step in the thawing of relations between the two countries.

Armenia's economy ministry made the announcement in a Facebook post on Thursday, stating that "as a result of interdepartmental discussions, a decision was made not to extend the embargo on Turkish goods."

03 Jan 2022; MEMO: Egypt's Suez Canal achieved a total of $6.3 billion revenue in 2021, the highest in the canal's history, official data showed yesterday.

The state-run Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief, Osama Rabie, said in a statement that the high revenues had stemmed from a "significant increase in the transit rates of various types of ships compared to 2020."

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: An Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company has been found guilty by an American Jury of fuelling the deadly drug crisis in New York. A lawsuit filed by the state's attorney general in 2019 accused Teva and other firms of aggressively marketing painkillers across the state, while doing nothing to minimise addiction.

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turks should keep all their savings in lira in 2022 amid recent exchange rate volatility, Reuters reports.

According to the report, Erdogan called on Turks to keep their savings in local currency, Turkish liras, and to bring their gold savings into the banking system.

"I want all my citizens to keep their savings in our own money, to run all their business with our own money, and I recommend this," Erdogan said.

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: Israel has signed a deal with the United States to buy 12 Lockheed Martin-Sikorsky CH-53K helicopters and two Boeing KC-46 refuelling planes, the Israeli Defence Ministry announced today.

The Ministry said the deal is worth around $3.1 billion adding that the procurement is "part of a wider programme to strengthen the capabilities of the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] and preparedness to face current and developing threats."

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: Turkey's Treasury and Finance Minister has claimed that the United States' Federal Reserve does not belong to the American public but is, instead, owned by five wealthy families, sparking criticism by economists.