by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Investing, Large Enterprise
Washington : Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda have announced an investment of $1.6 billion for their new joint manufacturing plant in US state of Alabama.
The plant, to be built in the city of Huntsville, is expected to open in 2021 and is capable of making 300,000 cars a year while creating up to 4,000 jobs, the two companies said on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota Motor Corp., said he was confident that the plant would be a “built-in-America success story”.
The joint plant will be the company’s 11th US manufacturing facility and represents its continued commitment in the country.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey noted that the two companies’ plan “will expand innovative automotive manufacturing,” adding that “We are proud that this partnership puts Alabama on the forefront of technology in this dynamic global industry.”
Alabama is the fifth largest producer of cars and light trucks in the US. With more than 150 Tier one and two automotive suppliers as well as automakers, there are approximately 57,000 automotive manufacturing jobs in the state.
The two Japanese automakers announced in August that they would build a new joint plant in the US. In the fall out of the announcement,about a dozen of US states were in hot pursuit to win the project.
Toyota said the new plant had nothing to do with pressure from US President Donald Trump, who criticized the automaker in January last year for setting up a new plant in Mexico to make cars for the North American market.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Emerging Businesses, Investing
Kumar Mangalam Birla
Lucknow : Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla called on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at his official residence on Tuesday and discussed investment opportunities in the state, an official said.
The Chief Minister informed Birla about the various facilities being offered to investors by the state government for setting up business in the state.
Adityanath pointed out that the present government had spruced up the law and order machinery along with strengthening the infrastructure facilities in Uttar Pradesh.
He also apprised the eminent businessman of how the state had implemented sector-wise policies under the Industrial Investment and Employment Promotion Policy, also assimilating within attractive provisions for establishing industry in the state.
The Chief Minister also extended an invitation to Birla to attend the investors’ meet to be held in the state capital in February.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Investing, Muslim World
IDB Headquarters, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Jeddah : The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group has affirmed its commitment to further strengthen the mechanisms of economic and trade cooperation, expand and deepen partnerships among member countries in the fields of trade, investment and finance, as well as mobilize the necessary resources to meet economic challenges and achieve sustainable development.
This came in a speech delivered by Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO of ITFC on behalf of IDB president Dr. Bandar Hajjar, during the ministerial consultative meeting of the member states of Organization of Islamic Cooperation held on the sidelines of World Trade Organization’s 11th Ministerial Conference opened recently in Buenos Aires.
In his speech, Eng. Hani explained that the member countries are facing many economic, and social challenges, most visible of which are the accelerated growth of population, climate change, and an increase of unemployment rates, especially among youth.
“To meet these challenges, the Bank depends on the 1440H vision, in addition to the Bank’s ten-year strategic framework, and the Bank president’s five- year program, which focuses on enhancing the Group’s fieldwork presence, efficiency & empowerment, increase the awareness of IDB, and enhancing the ties with development partners and finally, the acquisition of science and innovation in introducing the Bank’s model of finance and financial governance and providing integrated development solutions.
“We sincerely hope that the five-year program will contribute to supporting the member countries’ efforts towards finding practical solutions to the developmental challenges that face them.”
In an expansionary move by the IDB Group to finance the private sector in Islamic countries, Eng. Hani has announced, on behalf of IDB President, that five new offices will be established in Egypt, UAE, Suriname, Uganda, and Bangladesh in the coming period to play a crucial role in providing development assistance to member states more effectively. He affirmed that these new offices would play a crucial role in providing developmental assistance to member countries more effectively.
He stressed the importance of lifting the levels of intra-OIC trade, noting that this represents a strategic objective of the Group in the context of economic globalization and the resulting emergence of international economic entities and interests that do not pay attention to small and marginal entities, And the application of the WTO Agreements with all the principles and standards established for trade practices between States.
On their part, the ministers have stressed on IDB’s developmental role and effective contribution to developing the capacities of the countries in the fields of trade, regional integration, and cooperation. Pointing out the need for the Bank to continue its support of member countries in WTO accession issues, trade facilitation and services and new issues for negotiation.
The meeting, chaired by Eng.Tariq Qabeel, the Egyptian minister of trade and industry, was attended by most of the member countries participating in the WTO ministerial meetings held from 10 to 13 December 2017.
—SM/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Investing, Markets, Sales, Technology
Seoul : In a bid to lay a firm foundation for high-end service, South Korean mobile carriers are likely to invest more than $9.36 billion in the fifth-generation network technology in 2018, industry sources said on Monday.
The Ministry of Science and ICT and three mobile carries — SK Telecom Co, KT Corp and LG Uplus Inc — have plans to start commercial operations of the 5G network in 2019 and build nationwide infrastructure by 2020, Yonhap news agency reported.
The companies will make investment in the coming three or four years to run faster and more stable data processing than the current 4G network, or long-term evolution (LTE).
Their investment into the previous LTE network technology was $5.6 billion in 2010, a year before the official commercialisation and peaked at $7.49 billion in 2012, while investment in this field has been hovering around $4.68 billion per year since 2015.
Market insiders noted that the initial costs of launching a super-high speed network service is estimated to reach nearly $18.74 billion in 2018, with the first commercial operation just one year away. The amount can be reduced to some extent on money-saving technologies.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Investing
By Gaurav Sharma,
Dalian (China) : India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and China’s Dalian city have signed an agreement to set up a platform for partnership between Indian and Chinese IT companies.
The move will help Indian IT software companies enter Dalian, a cyber city in China’s northeast province Liaoning where over a dozen of Indian firms such as Infosys, TCS, HCL and others are already present.
Under the agreement signed on Tuesday evening, Indian companies will get “preferential” entry into the Chinese market.
“Today, the lines between hardware and software are merging very fast. Indians companies, who have an edge on the software side, and Chinese companies, who have an edge on the hardware side, can co-develop and co-create for the global market, ” NASSCOM Senior Director Gagan Sabharwal said here.
“This partnership with the government of Dalian will help us create a platform where companies from India and China can co-develop for global markets leveraging their respective strengths in hardware and software,” he added.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), a NASSCOM corridor will be set up in Dalian’s Best city — a hub of IT companies — exclusively for Indian firms for setting up operations and availing policy benefits by the local government.
“We strongly believe this is the innovative step in enhancing and mutually benefiting Chinese and Indian companies in software and services sector,” Governor of Dalian’s Best City Sun Long Ye said.
“The SIDCOP Sino-Indian Digital Collaboration Plaza platform developed by Zeta-V is an extremely innovative use of digital technologies and shall pave the way for greater and wider cooperation amongst our countries,” Sun added.
Zeta-V Technology Solutions Ltd, an Indian start-up with a local presence in Dalian, will be deployed as the operator of the SIDCOP platform.
The firm will help Indian and Chinese companies communicate and understand each other’s requirement by using artificial intelligence.
“We are delighted to play a key role in building this ecosystem of NASSCOM members and Chinese companies to help furthering the Sino-Indian collaboration in the new age technology space,” said Sujit Chatterjee, Co-Founder and Director at Zeta-V Technology Solutions.
—IANS
