The UAE has signed a nuclear treaty with Canada that paves the way for the country to export atomic material and technology to the Emirates.
The pact was accompanied by an announcement the UAE would reduce its visa fee for Canadians by a third, marking a thaw in relations after a two-year dispute over commercial aircraft landing rights.
"This pact is testimony to bilateral ties that are strong and getting ever stronger," said John Baird, the Canadian foreign minister, who signed the treaty with his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the capital of Ottawa on Tuesday.
Two years ago, Canada rebuffed a request from the UAE for more landing rights for its two airlines at Canadian airports.
Soon after, the UAE expelled Canada from Camp Mirage, a staging base for Afghanistan operations, and introduced fees for Canadians seeking visas.
The rapprochement comes as the UAE proceeds with its ambitious nuclear programme, which will rely in part on Canadian supplies.
Canada is the world's second-biggest uranium producer, accounting for 22 per cent of global output. Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, the Abu Dhabi-owned company overseeing the construction and operation of the plant, awarded a US$3 billion (Dh11.01bn) contract last month to suppliers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Russia and France, as well as Canada's Uranium One.
Construction on the first of four 1,400-megawatt reactors in Baraka, 300km west of the capital, has also started.
The initial financing for the nuclear plant, valued at $20bn in a contract awarded to a Korean consortium in 2009, came this month in a $2bn export credit loan from the US.
ayee@thenational.ae
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
