by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise, Muslim World
Ankara : Turkey’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector reached 54.9 in December thanks to robust growth in new orders, according to a closely watched business survey released on Tuesday.
London-based global data company IHS Markit’s monthly purchasing managers’ index report, prepared in collaboration with the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, showed manufacturing operating conditions in Turkey continuing to improve for a tenth consecutive month, Anadolu Agency reported.
“Higher demand from both home and abroad, with the growth of new export orders at a near seven-year high. This, in turn, supported stronger increases in output, employment, and purchasing activity,” said the report.
Strong production growth was supported by a further rise in employment during the month, it added. “The Turkish manufacturing sector saw growth accelerate at the end of 2017, with output and new orders each rising at sharper rates,” Gabriella Dickens, IHS Markit’s economist, said in the report.
She added: “Notably, new export orders increased at the fastest pace since February 2011. Higher new orders encouraged firms to increase employment sharply.”
In the report, any figure greater than 50 points indicates an overall improvement of the sector. Turkey’s PMI has been standing at over 50 points since March. PMI was 52.9 in November and 53.5 in September.
—SM/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Murat Birinci,
Istanbul : The Bank of China has been granted a license to operate in Turkey, head of Turkey’s banking watchdog said on Friday.
“Permission has been already given to the bank. Now, license was given. Bank of China Turkey AS can officially start its banking transactions as of tomorrow, Mehmet Ali Akben, chairman of Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, said.
In the beginning of the year, the Chinese bank had received permission to operate a deposit banking in Turkey by investing $300 million.
The bank, world’s seventh largest and the third largest in China, has been interested in Turkey for a long time. The Bank of China had launched its preparations to establish a commercial bank in the country in 2015 after running a representative office since 2011.
It becomes the second Chinese lender to operate in Turkey after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which had purchased a majority stake of Tekstilbank last year.
Akben also said that beginning of operations in Turkey by one of the world’s biggest bank showed the fallacy of speculations and perception operations on Turkish banking system.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Halal Food, Halal Industries, Halal Medicine, Muslim World
Istanbul : The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) stated that the size of the global halal products market has grown exponentially in the last decade, from $3.7 trillion in 2012 and expected to reach $6.4 trillion by 2019.
This was contained in the statement of OIC Secretary General Dr. Yousef Al-Othaimeen at the opening ceremony of the 5th edition of the OIC Halal Expo and the World Halal Summit held in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 23-25.
OIC Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs Ambassador Hameed Opeloyeru, who read out the statement of the secretary general, explained that organizing the annual halal expo is one of the main planks for advancing trade in the OIC. The event affords actors — traders, investors, exporters, the industry guilds and the general public — the opportunity to know the latest halal products in the member states, with a view to promoting halal products and increasing communication between the investors and industry leaders.
He stressed that there was a need for active bodies in the food, halal services, production and marketing sector in the OIC member states to follow a common course to ensure that all specialized bodies unify their standards and issue accreditation certificates for a suitable regulatory environment for these procedures.
Istanbul is hosting the Halal Expo in cooperation with the OIC-affiliated Islamic Centre for the Development of Trade (ICDT), Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC).
—IINA/SM/OIC-UNA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Haydar Hadi,
Baghdad : Iraq is planning to build a new pipeline to export oil from its Kirkuk province to Turkey’s port of Ceyhan in the southern Adana province, an Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
In a statement, Asim Cihad said, “Jabbar Ali Hussein Al-Luiebi, the minister of oil, has ordered the related authorities to start initial preparations for construction of a new pipeline from the city of Baiji [in the Saladin province, near Kirkuk] reaching to the Fish-Khabur border crossing with Turkey.”
Cihad said the new pipeline would serve to replace an old pipeline which suffered severe damaged in terror attacks.
Companies interested in building the new pipeline will be invited to the ministry, he said.
Unidentified attackers on several occasions blew up the strategic Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline in Iraq’s northern Kirkuk province.
Iraq is the second-largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, and holds the world’s fifth-largest proven crude oil reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Iran, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : With emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data Analytics knocking at India’s doors, the country needs to sow the learning seeds early — in the classroom — and China and Turkey can show the way, top global Intel executives have said.
The world has realised what is coming its way in the next 10-20 years and has already begun modernising classrooms at schools to prepare a technology-ready workforce.
“The Chinese and Turkish authorities have given kids IoT-enabled devices in millions of schools. Every student has a device connected to an intelligent whiteboard at the front of the classroom. There are teacher-controlled devices too. The curriculum is designed for that kind of environment. This is the future of education,” Joe D. Jensen, Vice President, Internet of Things (IoT) Group, and General Manager, Retail Solutions Division at Intel, told IANS.
“Intel has installed 400,000 IoT-enabled connected devices for schools in Turkey, a million-and-a half in Chinese schools and another million to go in China in the next two years,” Jensen informed.
Technology can do wonders in providing a great educational experience and create a pool of talent for these disrupting technologies.
“In China, the newest innovation is that there are eight video cameras and a series of microphones in a classroom at certain private schools and colleges. The videos of the classroom activities are recorded daily. Parents can later log on and see the student-teacher interaction,” Jensen told IANS.
For Lisa Davis, Vice President and General Manager, IT Transformation for Enterprise and Government at Intel, while India is at the cusp of dramatic changes in delivering next-generation education, it is also set to learn new ways to infuse technology in many other sectors.
“Not just education, we are looking at the financial services, transportation, retail and health-care sectors too in India. The next big wave is coming in video surveillance and the security sector, and our teams are engaged with the stakeholders in the country,” Davis told IANS.
Intel has also pushed the envelope towards creating a modern workforce in India. In April this year, Intel made a commitment to democratise AI in the country by training 15,000 developers and engage with not just businesses but also the government and academia to enable the adoption of AI.
Intel India has trained 9,500 developers, students and professors in the past six months.
The chip giant has collaborated with 40 academic institutions that are using the technology for scientific research and 50 public and private organisations across e-commerce, health-care, technology, defence, and banking and financial services.
Intel India has also launched an initiative to strengthen the use of technology in the country’s education ecosystem. It is collaborating with leading device manufacturers, education digital content publishers and education solution providers to build end-to-end solutions that promote the use of technology.
The company will then help deploy management solutions for schools, classrooms, content and learning, and also manage student information systems.
There is an Intel India Maker Lab in Bengaluru to drive the innovation ecosystem in the country. The lab offers access to start-ups of hardware and software development kits, reference boards, design collaterals, test and debugging equipment. It provides technical support for design, development and testing products.
“India is at the cusp of a technology boom, but needs training and teaching right from the beginning to prepare a future digital workforce,” Davis stressed.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
