Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday said the kingdom would provide African countries with $1 billion to help them cope with Covid-19.
“The impact of the pandemic on low-income African countries was severe, as it widened the financing gap needed to achieve development goals," Prince Mohammed said in a televised address.
"It is important to continue joint international efforts to overcome this crisis."
He said that the G20 countries under the Saudi presidency last year realised the need to support low-income countries in Africa and the rest of the world to address the pandemic.
“The statement of the G20 countries at the extraordinary summit held in March 2020 considers strengthening the health system in Africa as a basis for the integration of the global health system,” Prince Mohammed said.
The summit brought together lender countries, 30 African and European heads of states, the IMF and the World Bank to help African economies.
“This historic initiative provided urgent liquidity to 73 of the poorest countries, including 38 African countries, that received more than $5bn,” Prince Mohammed said during the summit in Paris.
“We are aiming that this summit concludes with solutions to the debts of African countries.
“Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that supports Covax and the kingdom is one of the countries that supports exporting vaccines to developing countries.”
He said the projects would be assisted by the Saudi Fund for Development.
“The fund also announced an initiative of €200 million ($244.6m) to develop the Sahel countries, in partnership with the French Development Agency.”
Saudi Arabia has spent €100m to battle terrorism in Africa and continues to work with countries under the Sadak community, led by South Africa, to strengthen Mozambique’s security forces to help the fight against extremists.
Prince Mohammed said Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, has projects and activities in the sectors of energy, mining, communications, food and others, with a value of $4bn.
“Saudi Arabia has given 580 loans and grants to more than 45 African countries with a value exceeding $ 13.5 billion,” he said.
Prince Mohammed said his Green Middle East Initiative, which aimed to plant more than 50 billion trees and reduce more than 10 per cent of carbon emissions in the world, included many African countries.
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Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
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What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
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How to avoid crypto fraud
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The five pillars of Islam
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
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- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
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.
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
