According to Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (#DEWA), the utilities sector of Dubai has drawn investments worth around 40 billion UAE dirhams ($11 billion) from public-private partnership.

The #PPP law will help large-scale investments and open more opportunities for private investments in the United Arab Emirates.

With major construction projects and plans, Dubai seeks to ease the path with the public-private process. In a statement, Dubai utility said that the investments will be made through the Independent Power Producer (#IPP) model.

The IPP model will serve Dubai’s goals in developing solar power projects, while implementing a sustainable economy based on diversity and expertise. With investments worth about 50 billion dirhams ($13.6) billion, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park has aimed a capacity of 5,000 megawatts by the year 2030.

In a statement, DEWA CEO and MD Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer said that DEWA’s achievements include the lowest global solar prices five times in a row with the aid of the IPP model.

The shift towards various forms of public-private partnership models to develop utility projects in Dubai is gaining ground and aims at cutting capital expenditure.

In a statement, World Trade Organization said the European Union (#EU) can impose tariffs on $4 billion of U.S. Goods for Boeing annually, heightening the 16-year legal aircraft dispute.

Attention in the U.S. is made on the EU retaliatory tariffs, which includes aircraft. The trade talk is significant for Boeing as the company wants to have its 737 Max corrected after the aircraft crashes and safety investigation.

On Tuesday, the ruling made way for the EU to acknowledge the tariffs imposed on $7.5 billion Airbus by the trade body last year. Both the parties- US and EU have hinted in the settlement of the dispute over aircraft subsidies.

The aircraft dispute is the longest since the inception of World Trade Organization (#WTO).  Since 2004, the jetline battle has tested the resolve of WTO, having consumed over $100 million in costs.

In a tweet, EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis mentioned that he’d re-engage with the US immediately to favor a just settlement.

According to #Airbus Chief Executive, Guillaume Faury, support towards any action of EU is made as the company is ready to support a fair negotiation process leading to a fair settlement.

In a merger deal, Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (#NCB) made a statement on Sunday on purchasing rival lender #Samba Financial Group at a value of $14.8 billion.

According to the announcement by National Commercial Bank, the new bank will be in charge of around $223 billion in the assets, along with a market capitalization of $46 billion after the merger deal gets approvals. The merger deal will enable NCB to become one of the largest Islamic banks in the world, as per the Ratings agency Moody’s.

The deal marks as meeting the kingdom’s vision 2030 plan, made by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and create job opportunities for the youth. In a statement, NCB Chairman Saeed al-Ghamdi said that the kingdom is going through a historic transformation with the Vision 2030, and their ambition is to facilitate the transformation and create a pioneer for the coming generations of banking services.

With a premium of 3.5%, the bank will make payments to Samba Group on Thursday next week, on the closing price. Additionally, the new merger bank will control a quarter of all banking in Saudi Arabia, along with the

National Commercial Bank’s biggest shareholders are listed as the General Organization for Social Insurance, the kingdom’s Private Investment Fund (PIF), Public Pension Agency, along with all the government entities.

FPT Telecom, Vietnamese Telecommunications firm, has acquired the broadcasting rights in the country for all tournaments under the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in a three-year deal at an undisclosed fee.

As per the contract, FPT will have access to the AFC team with a total of 1,641 games and club competitions, and the tournaments will be broadcast on every FPT television channel. Not limiting to the AFC Asian Qualifiers, the contract covers the AFC Cup from 2021, AFC Asian Cup China 2023, the AFC U23 Asian Cup Finals 2022 and 2024, and Road to Qatar.

The deal also covers the AFC Solidarity Club and AFC Futsal Championship.

In a statement, AFC General Secretary, Dato’ Windsor John expressed his delight with the new partnership in Vietnam, where citizens are passionate about football. Additionally, he thanked the FPT Telecom for their confidence in the future of Asian football by entering into the agreement.

Alongside broadcasting, FPT will also be producing sideline content from experts and guests for game commentary on social media and fan pages to keep fans updated on latest tournament news.

South Korean electronics giant #Samsung Electronics made a remark expecting around $10.6 billion in operating profits this year in the third quarter, showing remarkable resilience to the coronavirus pandemic, as compared to the same period in 2019.

According to the Korea Herald’s report, Samsung has logged its biggest operating profit in two years.

In a statement on Thursday, Samsung said it estimated around 12.4 trillion Korean won (about $10.6 billion) compared to 7.78 trillion won in the same period in 2019. With #Huawei Technologies faltering, Samsung rose to its feet with its smartphones and consumer electronics’ sales.

The sales for the 3rd quarter gained 3.2% on year as a recovery on sales, covering smartphones and home appliances. The company’s recent launches are the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, Galaxy Z Flip 5G, Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Tab S7, and the Galaxy Tab S7+.

The anti-China sentiment as well as the $6.65 billion deal with #Verzon Communications to provide wireless communications solutions has further boosted the company’s viewpoint. Additionally, #Nvidia chose Samsung as the manufacturer for its latest range of GeForce RTX 30 Series of  GPUs.

#Omnicom Media Group (#OMG) has made an announcement of the official launch of Transact, Omnicom Media Group’s end-to-end commerce practice- in the Asia-Pacific region with an aim at boosting their sales across multiple channels.

Backed across 25 markets, Transact offers consultancy, store management, and new capabilities in media, commerce strategy, and marketplace investment across China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Australia, and New Zealand.

Transact will focus on helping businesses with their brand presence by refining their digital availability and basing on new opportunities across retail and eCommerce channels.

In a statement CEO, Omnicom Media Group, Tony Harradine said that with #Asia-Pacific leading the global eCommerce growth charge, they have a solid blueprint in Transact that will help bolster brands with their online sales by enhancing profitability, reach, and exposure across all channels and digital models.

#Emirates NBD, a leading bank in the #Middle-East, North and Turkey region, has launched an online Supply Chain Financing Platform named #smartSCF to offer its institutional and corporate clients automated tools and supply chain collaborations.

According to a press release on Monday, this digitization enables businesses to reduce transactional costs, all the while optimizing working capital and enhancing supply chain collaborations.

The platform smartSCF comprises first-of-its-kind digital supplier onboarding toolkit, customized generated reports, and data analytic tools for better program visibility for its clients.

Additionally, smartSCF offers clients the benefits from early payment of their invoices and better cashflow efficiencies.

In a statement, Ahmed Al Qassim, Senior Executive Vice President and Group head, Corporate and Institutional Banking at Emirates NBD, said that the innovative solutions will enhance the ease of doing business and support UAE’ drive towards digitalization in all spheres of business.

The smartSCF will deliver possibilities for corporate clients while optimizing their effective capital, he added.

In an announcement, IBM said that the central bank, Bank of Thailand (#BOT), has launched world’s first blockchain-based platform for government saving bonds with an issuance worth $1.6 billion USD in two weeks.

Earlier, what used to be complex and time-consuming will have reduced operational complexity and faster bond issuance with the platform.

As per the Thai Bond Market Association, the outstanding Thai bond market amounted to $421 billion USD in December last year.

The #blockchain technology will aim at reducing redundant validation and minimize costs of reconciliation, which will cater issuers, investors, registrars, and underwriters. Alongside, there is now room for decreased workload for issuers.

Being secured with the #IBM cloud, the time duration will reduce from 15 days to a mere 2 days. Thai investors can purchase bonds from one single bank, and to the maximum value of their individual allocated quota.

The Thai government also plans to extend the platform to both retail and wholesale investors.

In a statement, the VP for Indochina expansion and Managing Director of IBM Thailand, Patama Chantaruck said that the BOT’s success with the government savings bond project will serve as an example for blockchain technology’s way to represent businesses- by simplifying complex processes and faster, secured multiparty collaboration.