Egypt conference on future of chemical industries
The National Research Center (NRC) will hold the third International Conference of Chemical Industries Research Division on Dec. 16 to discuss the role and the future of chemical industries.
The three-day conference is held under the auspices of NRC Chairman Hani El-Nazer, who said that the conference will be attended by more than 30 scientists and experts from various Arab and foreign nations. The event will discuss more than 125 research papers in organic and non-organic chemical industries.
The conference aims at exchanging views regarding future challenges facing this industry and getting acquainted with the latest discoveries in this domain, he added. -MENA
Orascom to launch mobile phone service in North Korea
A mobile phone service will be launched this month in North Korea but it is unclear who will be allowed to use it in the secretive communist state, a news report said Thursday.
The service is due to begin in Pyongyang on December 10, US broadcaster Radio Free Asia said in a Korean-language website report which quoted a Chinese trader operating in the country.
The broadcaster said the service will gradually expand to other parts of the country, with mobile handsets costing 700 dollars. This would make them too expensive for all but a tiny minority.
Radio Free Asia said it was not known whether the new service would be restricted to communist party officials.
Egypt s Orascom Telecom announced in January it had won the right to offer the mobile service and said it would invest $400 million in the project.North Korea strictly controls information, with the tuning controls of radios and televisions fixed to official stations.
It began a mobile phone service in November 2002. But 18 months later it banned ordinary citizens from using it and began recalling unauthorized handsets.
There is still thought to be a mobile network in Pyongyang which is open for government officials. Most foreigners are not allowed to use mobile phones inside the country.
Authorities have staged periodic crackdowns on residents in northern border areas who illegally use mobile phones through relay stations in China.
Orascom is also reportedly funding construction work on the 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel, a landmark in the capital. Work was suspended for nearly 20 years due to funding problems. -AFP
Etihad firms up major Airbus order
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways firmed up a major order for Airbus planes, including six A380 super-jumbos, a source close to the deal told Reuters on Friday.
Etihad also ordered 25 A350 long-range wide-bodied jets from the EADS unit and 20 single-aisle A320 family aircraft, the source said. -Reuters
Kuwait to invest $5.4 bln in local bourse
The Kuwait Investment Authority will begin investing at least 1.5 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($5.4 billion) in the Kuwaiti bourse after the Muslim Eid holidays, Kuwait s finance minister Mustapha al-Shamali told reporters.
The fund will be about 1.5 billion Kuwaiti dinars and it could be extended to more, Shamali said in Cairo, adding that the authority would not sell any foreign investments to finance the fund. -Reuters
Italy says no firm Libya interest in T.Italia
Libya has shown no concrete interest in investing in Telecom Italia but, like the United Arab Emirates, is looking at Italy s transport, tourism and infrastructure sectors, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said. Asked about possible Libyan interest in Telecom Italia, Frattini told Reuters: For now, we ve had explorations, contacts which have not translated into a concrete interest.
There is an interest in the infrastructure, tourism and transport sectors – Libya is interested, but there is also (interest) by funds like the one from the Emirates, he said in an interview.
Frattini said Italy was also promoting talks with Chinese and Indonesian sovereign funds, which have a particular strength .
As sovereign wealth funds around the world make headlines for propping up Western companies, Libya has emerged as a leading source of capital for Italian companies, in addition to being an important energy partner.
Libya s ambassador to Italy, Hafed Gaddur, told Reuters last month Libya was interested in investing in five or six Italian companies, with some deals more important than its recent purchase of a nearly 5 percent stake in UniCredit.
But he also said Libya would only invest in healthy companies without debt problems, implying that the country was no longer eyeing a stake in Telecom Italia, which is burdened by 37 billion euros of debt. – Reuters
Iraqi oil minister says Iraq s safe for investment
Iraq s oil minister on Friday appealed to international oil companies to help Iraq to develop its petroleum sector, saying his country is now safe for investment.
In return, Oil Minister Hussain Al-Shahristani promised full cooperation and a competitive environment for fair business.
He also said his country promises vast oil riches that have yet to be tapped.
Al-Shahristani spoke at the opening of a three-day energy conference that drew international investors from as far away as Russia and Japan to a convention center in the tightly secured area surrounding the Baghdad International Airport.
Iraq sits on the world s third-largest proven oil reserves with more than 115 billion barrels. The country depends on oil revenues for more than 90 percent of its budget.
But decades of wars, UN sanctions, aging infrastructure and insurgent attacks that erupted after the 2003 US-led invasion have devastated the oil industry s infrastructure.
Al-Shahristani said the country s rebuilding efforts also have been undermined. These factors have combined to keep our petroleum sector in prison … isolated from many technology advances that the industry made, Al-Shahristani said.
Now the government is looking to the sector as a critical engine for future growth and economic development and we have the full support from the government to lead the way for the national reconstruction program, he added.
The oil minister said that Iraq has so far discovered 78 oil and gas fields that comprise about 75 percent of Iraq s oil reserves, but only few of them have been developed and brought into production.
Iraq s short-term plan is to have a daily production of 4.5 million barrels per day in 2013 and a long-term plan to reach 6 million barrels per day in 2018, Al-Shahristani said. -AP
