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GOVT AND POLICIES ADB

approves $200m projects in Bangladesh

The Asian Development Bank's board of directors has approved a loan package totaling $200 million to strengthen urban infrastructure, service delivery, and governance in Bangladesh's municipalities. "The country's municipalities still need significant investment to not only improve service delivery and the urban environment but also strengthen resilience to climate change," said ADB Urban Development Specialist Alexandra Vogl. "This additional ADB financing for the well performing Third Urban Governance and Infrastructure (Sector) Project builds on the work of two previous ADB projects, expanding work in the municipalities where we are already working and into five new ones," Vogl was quoted as saying in a statement released on Wednesday.

China remains UAE's top trade partner

China has remained the top trade partner of the United Arab Emirates for three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016, the Emirates News Agency reported on Wednesday. The total China-UAE trade amounted to 520.6 billion Emirates dirhams ($141.74 billion) during the 2014-16 period, the report said, quoting statistics from the UAE Ministry of Economy. The China-UAE trade totaled 170.2 billion AED in 2016, down slightly from 174.6 billion AED in 2015 and 175.8 billion AED in 2014. India came second with a total trade volume of 386.4 billion AED from 2014 to 2016. The India-UAE trade reached a record of 131.8 billion AED in 2016. The United States ranked third in the list of UAE's trade partners, with a total trade volume of 312.6 billion AED during the 2014-2016 period. The US-UAE trade reached a record of 111.1 billion AED in 2016.

COMPANIES AND MARKETS

BYD delivers electric bus to US state

Chinese automobile manufacturer BYD, the world's largest producer of electric vehicles, on Tuesday delivered its first all-electric bus to the City of Albuquerque in New Mexico, the United States, according to a news release. The delivery comes one year after the City of Albuquerque announced it had chosen BYD as its manufacturer. It was agreed that a total of 20 buses will be handed over to the city by the end of 2017. The all-electric articulated transit bus will operate as part of Albuquerque Rapid Transit. The selection of electric buses makes the ART project more sustainable for Albuquerque's future, said Mayor Richard Berry. "Careful deliberation has gone into the selection process, and it was found that these buses are the best fit with the most dynamic benefits for the City of Albuquerque," the mayor said.

Weibo posts strong Q2 financial performance

Chinese social media giant Sina Weibo reported strong financial performance in the second quarter of this year, thanks to booming advertising and marketing demand. The tech firm raked in net revenue of $253.4 million, up 72 percent year-on-year, according to its unaudited financial results released on Wednesday. Net income attributable to Weibo reached $73.5 million, an increase of 184 percent year-on-year. Advertising and marketing services remained the major source of income, bringing in $218.3 million in Q2, a 72-percent surge over Q2 of 2016. Weibo boasted of 361 million monthly active users as of the end of June, up 28 percent year-on-year, with 92 percent of them coming from mobile devices.

Bike-sharing company Ofo enters Japan

China's leading bike-sharing company Ofo on Wednesday announced its expansion into Japan under the cooperation with Japan's SoftBank Commerce and Service. Japan is the seventh overseas market for Ofo, following Singapore, the United States, Britain, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Malaysia. Ofo's signature yellow bikes will be placed in Tokyo and Osaka in September. Cao Xiao, in charge of the Asia-Pacific department of Ofo, said the company hopes to provide local residents with a good bike-riding experience. "We hope Ofo can better serve local residents and help Japan's cities improve transportation and the environment," said Tetsuo Kuramitsu, director of SoftBank C&S. Currently, Ofo operates around 8 million shared bikes around the world. Statistics show that it has offered over 3 billion rides for customers in more than 170 cities.

GE to move work from New York to China

General Electric has announced that it will close its manufacturing facility in Rochester, New York, and move the work to China. GE said on Wednesday that "the assembly of the electronic boards at this facility is not core to GE's manufacturing capabilities", and the company has already contracted 80 percent of these products to external partner suppliers. The company said it will close the site by June 2018 and about 90 employees will be affected by the decision. The work will be moved to China, where it will be done by GE's partner supplier, a US manufacturing services company called Jabil, GE said.

AROUND THE WORLD

Vietnam's economy may grow 6.5%

Vietnam's gross domestic product is most likely to grow about 6.5 percent this year, lower than its target of 6.7 percent, the country's Ministry of Planning and Investment announced on Thursday. The Vietnamese economic forecast was broken down into sectors, with 2.9 percent growth in agriculture, 7.3 percent growth in industry and 7.2 percent growth in services, according to the ministry's National Center for Socio-Economic Information and Forecast. Vietnam is most likely to face an inflation rate of 4 percent this year, up from 2.66 percent last year, the center added.

Indonesian bank upbeat over growth

The Central Bank of Indonesia is optimistic that the country's economy will accelerate at a faster pace this year, a top official of the lender said on Wednesday. Governor of the Central Bank Agus Martowardojo said he is confident that Southeast Asia's biggest economy will expand between 5 and 5.4 percent this year. That compares with 5.02 percent gross domestic product growth last year, according to the national statistics bureau. Martowardojo said the lender forecasts the country's economy will grow more than 5.2 percent at the third and fourth quarter of this year after expanding steadily at 5.01 percent in the first and second quarters.

Moody's highlights Mexico's 'flaws'

Mexico's economy has structural flaws that won't be resolved with the upcoming renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, credit rating agency Moody's said on Wednesday. Mexico has for years relied on its poorly paid workforce to compete with other economies, and that is part of what is holding the country back, Moody's said in a report. When Mexico, the United States and Canada signed NAFTA and put it into effect in 1994, the trade deal was expected to help strengthen the Latin American country, "but Mexico has not attained the stellar growth rates that were anticipated from liberalizing its economy". What's more, "wage and productivity gaps with the US have widened rather than shrunk", the agency said in a new report.

Industrial output data positive for Italy

Italy's industrial production index rose by 1.1 percent in June compared to May, and by 5.3 percent over the same period in 2016, the country's statistics agency Istat reported on Wednesday. The unadjusted industrial production index increased by 5.4 percent compared with June 2016, Istat said. Categories posting calendar-adjusted gains in June included energy (9.8 percent), consumer goods (5.6 percent), capital goods (5.1 percent) and intermediate goods (4 percent). Farm Minister Maurizio Martina ascribed these results to the expansive policies including tax breaks and investment incentives of the current and previous center-left governments.