by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
In this photo released by MHI, an H-IIA rocket with United Arab Emirates’ Mars orbiter Hope lifts off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima, southern Japan Monday, July 20, 2020.
Mari Yamaguchi and Victoria Milko
TOKYO — A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed into blue skies from a Japanese launch center on Monday at the start of a seven-month journey to Mars on the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission.
The liftoff of the Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, starts a rush to fly to Earth’s neighbour that is scheduled to be followed in the next few days by China and the United States.
At the space center in Dubai, people watching were transfixed by the liftoff, then cheered and clapped, with one woman with offering a celebratory cry common for weddings.
Amal blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center aboard a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-IIA rocket on time at 6:58 a.m. (2158 GMT Sunday) after being delayed five days by bad weather.
Mitsubishi later said the probe successfully separated from the rocket and was now on its solo journey to Mars.
The probe was sending signals that would be analyzed later but everything appeared good for now, Omran Sharaf, the UAE Mars mission director told journalists in Dubai about an hour and a half after liftoff.
Amal is set to reach Mars in February 2021, the year the UAE celebrates 50 years since the country’s formation. In September that year, Amal will start transmitting Martian atmospheric data, which will be made available to the international scientific community, Sharaf said.
“The UAE is now a member of the club and we will learn more and we will engage more and we’ll continue developing our space exploration program,” UAE Space Agency chief Mohammed Al Ahbabi told a joint online news conference from Tanegashima.
Emirati men claps as they watch the launch of the “Amal” or “Hope” space probe at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, July 20, 2020.
At Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center in Dubai, Emirati men in their traditional white kandora robes and women in their black abayas watched the liftoff. As its stages separated, a cheer went out from men seated on the floor. They began clapping, one using his face mask, worn due to the coronavirus pandemic, to wipe away a tear.
“It was great to see everything going according to schedule today. It looks like things are all on track. It’s a huge step in terms of space exploration to have a nation like the UAE taking that giant leap to send a spacecraft to Mars,” said Fred Watson, Australia’s astronomer-at-large. “Being on route to a planet like Mars is an exceptional achievement.”
A newcomer in space development, the UAE has successfully put three Earth observation satellites into orbit. Two were developed by South Korea and launched by Russia, and a third — its own — was launched by Japan.
A successful mission to Mars would be a major step for the oil-dependent economy seeking a future in space, coming less than a year after the launch of the first UAE astronaut, Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. He spent over a week at the International Space Station last fall.
The UAE has set a goal to build a human colony on Mars by 2117.
“It sends a very strong message to the Arab youth that if the UAE is able to reach Mars in less than 50 years, they could do much more,” Sharaf told The Associated Press on Sunday as his colleagues prepared for the launch.
The Emiratis also acknowledged it represented a step forward for the Arab world, the home of mathematicians and scientists for centuries before the wars and chaos that have gripped wide swathes of it in recent times.
“So the region has been going through tough times in the past decades, if not centuries,” Sharaf said. “Now we have the case of the UAE, a country that’s moving forward with its plans, looking at the future and the future of region also.”
For its first Mars mission, the UAE chose partners instead of doing it all on its own.
“Developing a spacecraft is not easy even if there is ample funding,” said Junya Terazono, an astronomer at Aizu University.
Emirati scientists worked with researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder, University of California, Berkeley, and Arizona State University. The spacecraft was assembled at Boulder and transported to Japan as the two countries looked to expand their ties with the rich and politically stable Middle Eastern nation.
The Amal spacecraft, along with its launch, cost $200 million, according to Sharaf. Operation costs at Mars have yet to be divulged.
Amal, about the size of a small car, carries three instruments to study the upper atmosphere and monitor climate change while circling the red planet for at least two years. It is set to follow up on NASA’s Maven orbiter sent to Mars in 2014 to study how the planet went from a warm, wet world that may have harbored microbial life during its first billion years, to the cold, barren place of today. Hope also plans to send back images of weather changes.
Japan has long collaborated with the U.S. and other partners in defense and space technology, and the resource-poor country has traditionally kept friendly ties with Middle Eastern countries. Japan’s launch services are known for accuracy and an on-time record, but the providers are working to cut costs to be more internationally competitive.
Two other Mars missions are planned in coming days. China aims to explore the Martian surface with an orbiter and rover and to search for water and ice with a launch expected around Thursday. The U.S. plans to send a rover named Perseverance to search for signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for return to Earth. Liftoff is targeted for July 30.
Japan has its own Mars mission planned in 2024. It plans to send spacecraft to the Martian moon Phobos to collect samples to bring back to Earth in 2029.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Muslim World
Dubai : Slovakia’s Deputy Prime Minister for Investments and Information Richard Raši shared prospects for cooperation between his country and the United Arab Emirates during his participation in the 7th World Government Summit (WGS).
“We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the UAE during our participation in the 7th edition of the World Government Summit,” Raši told Emirates news agency WAM on the second day of the WGS which concludes Tuesday in Dubai.
“We are looking forward to sustaining our collaboration with the UAE which we consider the most developed nation in the region. We are looking forward to strengthening the exchange of expertise. The WGS is a valuable platform for us to share information, views and expertise and we are positive there is a wider scope of cooperation between the two countries,” he said.
“We have more than 150 Slovak companies operating in the UAE and we are looking forward to further cementing our collaboration. Last year, our exports to the UAE hit 200 million euros and we are seeking to accelerate our trade cooperation to a higher level. And I think the MoU signed in the presence of Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, during the Summit will be a fresh impetus to promoting these relations, especially in areas of automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Information Communications Technology (ICT).”
The Slovak official also spoke highly of the leading position assumed by the UAE on sustainable development.
“We share the same passion with the UAE with regards to the central importance of sustainable development,” he said, “a topic which should be at the center of all public policies at the national, regional and local levels as well as in foreign policy. We have been a long way to develop the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as the core of our strategic management framework.”
Raši went on to stress the importance of strengthening mutual partnerships between countries in order to reach the common goal of Sustainable Development. “This summit sends a message of collaboration and networking for all participants. It helps us as different government leaders to provide a better life for our citizens,” he said.
On the multifaceted challenges facing the world as a result of the digital revolution, the Slovak deputy premier underlined the necessity that every country must be proactive and preemptive.
“We have to prepare our citizens to survive the challenging demands of the digital age. We have to launch a coalition between the governments, public sectors and academia. We have to prepare our people to face the challenging side of technology,” he added.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Dubai : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday complained against Qatar at the World Trade Organization (WTO) due to a ban imposed by Doha on imports from Abu Dhabi.
“The complaint follows a ban of the sale of consumer goods manufactured in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt,” said the Middle Eastern country’s official news agency WAM.
The four Arab countries had imposed a diplomatic, trade and transport boycott on Qatar since June 2017 over charges that it supported terror. Doha denied the charges.
Qatar had removed the names of Emirati companies from lists of approved vendors for infrastructure projects in “undeclared” ban on the UAE, according to WAM.
Qatar gave no excuse to the ban which was another confirmation of “malicious discrimination”, the report said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Abu Dhabi : The United Arab Emirates Central Bank (UAECB) and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) announced Tuesday the launch of a common digital currency project ‘Aber’, which will be used in financial settlements between the two countries through Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies.
This comes under the framework of ‘Proof-of-Concept’, which can be summed up in closely understanding and studying the dimensions of modern technologies and their feasibility through practical application and the determination of their impact on the improvement and the reduction of remittances costs and the assessment of technical risks and how to deal with them. This is in addition to the qualification of cadres that will deal with the technologies of the future and understanding the requirements of issuing a digital currency for use by the two countries.
The project will also establish an additional means for the central financial transfer systems of the two countries and enable banks to directly deal with each other in conducting financial remittances, said a joint statement by SAMA and UAECB.
Regarding the joint launching of the project by the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the statement pointed out that central banks in some countries have already begun pilot projects to explore the dimensions of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger technologies applied in the circulation of digital currencies. SAMA and UAECB share the same desire to launch pilot projects in the use of these technologies to identify and learn how to benefit from them.
The statement attributed the agreement to launch this project jointly rather than independently in each country to the fact that the two countries have in place central systems for remittances and domestic transactions which have evolved over time and proved their feasibility. However, there are still some aspects of international remittances that need further development. It may be proved after study that the use of digital currency may contribute to supporting this development.
The project will further enable considering the possibility of using the system as an additional reserve system for domestic central payment and settlement systems in case of their disruption for any reason.
UAECB and SAMA hope that this project will be beneficial for everyone locally and internationally. Based on this desire, the two countries do not only aspire to be the forerunners in the application of modern technologies, but also in their adaptation, development and delivery to the world. Hence, the two countries have embarked on carrying out the experiment of issuing a common digital currency for use across borders to carry out remittances.
As for the mechanism agreed upon by UAECB and SAMA for the implementation of Aber project, the statement emphasized that focus in the initial stages will be on technical aspects. The use of the currency will be restricted to a limited number of banks in each country. In the case of no emergence of technical obstacles, economic and legal requirements for future uses will be considered.
–AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) received $1 billion from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) following an agreement with the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), to help bridge Islamabad’s current account deficit.
The ADFD on January 22 agreed to provide $3 billion to Pakistan in three instalments, reports Dawn news.
“The SBP has received $1 billion from the UAE today,” the bank’s spokesman Abid Qamar told the media here on Thursday.
Prior to this, Pakistan had approached China and Saudi Arabia for funds to avoid a balance of payments crisis.
The country’s current account deficit rose to $7.9 billion in the first half of the current fiscal year and is likely to reach $16-18 billion by June 30.
Finance Minister Asad Umar, while presenting the mini-budget in Parliament on Wednesday, said that the government may also enter into an International Monetary Fund-led programme.
He also said that the government was not in a hurry as it was considering other options including bilateral support.
The government signed a similar deal of $3 billion with Saudi Arabia earlier and the kingdom has so far placed $2 billion in the SBP account whereas the last tranche of $1 billion is expected in February, Dawn news said.
Saudi Arabia also agreed to supply $3 billion oil on deferred payments.
—IANS
