BUSINESSTuesday 11 September 2018

PAGE | 24PAGE | 23Zimbabwe will

accelerate plan to deal with debt

Alibaba’s Jack Ma to step down next year; pledges ‘smooth transition’

Qatar records major jump in entrepreneurship rankingTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar has witnessed a remarkable improvement in terms of promoting and advancing the culture of entre-preneurship in Qatar, especially among the local youth over the last few years. A large percentage of entrepreneurs (nearly two-third) say that their products were new and inno-vative for the end-users.

The various government ini-tiatives, especially those on the part of Qatar Development Bank (QDB), towards entrepre-neurship development and the promotion of SMEs, have helped register a significant jump in Qatar’s entrepreneurship

ranking, according to the findings of Global Entrepre-neurship Monitor (GEM) survey.

The Qatar GEM Report 2017 released yesterday noted that the number of entrepreneurs who stated that the motivation

behind their establishment of a new business is the opportunity is about seven times the number of the ones who said that the motivation for establishing their businesses was necessity, at 82.4 percent and 12.0 percent, respectively.

The report is based on the methodology of the Global Entrepreneurship Report. The GEM tracks rates of entrepre-neurship across multiple phases in 54 economies, making it the world’s most authoritative com-parative study of entrepre-neurial activity in the general adult population.

The report was drawn on findings from two surveys: ‘Adult Population Surveys’ (APS)

based on a random, represent-ative sample of 2,742 surveys of Qatar residents aged between 18 and 64, and ‘National Expert Survey’ (NES) that compromise of surveys conducted with 45 carefully chosen Qatar “entre-preneurs experts” across nine framework categories.

The percentage of inno-vation-driven opportunity (IDO) entrepreneurs – not necessarily in Qatar – is considered to be the highest in the Middle East and the eighth globally.

Qatar’s ranking was per-formed in regards to entrepre-neurial levels and in comparison to 54 other economies, which participated in the GEM 2017 Report. Qatar was ranked 33 in

nascent entrepreneurship in 2017 compared to 44 during the year 2016, 42 in the new business ownership, 42 in total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA), 54 in the rate of ownership of established busi-nesses and 17 in business dis-continuance rate.

Respondents pointed to high levels of innovation in Qatar since 2016. In 2017, a large percentage of entrepre-neurs (63.5 percent) indicated that their products were new to all or some consumers. Half (52.2 percent) are completely different from their competitors (they noted that there were no businesses offering the same products or services), while

more than a third (37.9 percent) indicated that they were selling new products or services to all or some of the customers, with few facilities offering the same products or no facilities (com-pared with 22.8 percent in 2016).

Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, CEO of QDB, said: “QDB is working on several focus areas aimed at developing SMEs, including promoting entrepre-neurship. The Bank is keen to improve the understanding of society and policy makers to develop Qatar’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and analyse their characteristics and needs.”

→ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

Qatar begins regular LNG shipments to BangladeshREUTERS

DHAKA: Qatar has begun regular shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Bang-ladesh. An LNG cargo loaded over the weekend from Qatar’s RasGas production facility and will be the first of about three 140,000 cubic-metre cargoes to arrive each month at Moheshkhali, Petrobangla offi-cials told Reuters yesterday.

The Excellence, a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), arrived at Moheshkhali near Cox’s Bazar in April but bad weather hampered its ability to dock properly and connect to shore. It offloaded the cargo it came with last month.

The shipments will ramp up to 2.5 million tonnes a year, as agreed with Qatar, and have turned Bangladesh into the

latest nation to join the fast-growing LNG importing club.

The South Asian country of 165 million people relies on gas for 70 percent of its energy pro-duction but rising demand has coincided with falling domestic output, prompting it to consider a host of LNG projects.

Aside from the Moheshkhali project, several others are being considered, usually combining LNG imports with onshore power plants that would use the regasified fuel as feedstock or with fertiliser complexes that are heavily gas-reliant.

Bangladesh has penned several other long-term supply deals which are expected to begin once the import projects are developed. Using FSRUs is a quicker and cheaper way of importing LNG than the con-struction of traditional onshore facilities.

Cardiff Council delegation visits Qatar; discusses trade, investment dealsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: A delegation from Cardiff Council visited Qatar yesterday to discuss trade and investment deals.

The visit follows on from dis-cussions between Cardiff Council and UK Government Trade Com-missioners about the importance of leading British cities seeking out opportunities across the world for trade and inward investment deals post Brexit.

The leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Huw Thomas, who led the delegation, said: “The Interna-tional Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently predicted that 90 percent of economic growth will come from outside the EU. As the

uncertainty around Brexit grows it’s vitally important that Cardiff, as the capital city of Wales, looks to encourage more trade and investment from overseas and from emerging markets.

“This trip gave us the chance to tell Cardiff’s story to key investors in Qatar. Our city is booming and there are fantastic opportunities for global com-panies to come and invest here. We want to make sure Cardiff is in a good position to capture some of this investment.

“We have a multi-million pounds portfolio of major projects in the pipeline. This is on top of the new business district in the city to the north and the south of Cardiff Central station.

As part of my administration’s Capital Ambition programme we are also creating a new vision for Cardiff Bay as a major leisure destination and we have plans for a new multi-purpose arena in the Bay.

“So it’s important - despite Brexit - the world sees Cardiff as being open for business and we need to ensure that all of these big city projects and plans translate into economic pros-perity whose benefits can be shared by everyone who lives here.”

Cardiff Council’s Chief Exec-utive Paul Orders, its Director of Economic Development, Neil Hanratty and Head of Economic Development Ken Poole, and the

Chair of Cardiff International Airport Roger Lewis, all joined Councillor Thomas in Doha.

The delegation will present a significant range of major investment opportunities in Cardiff to leading sovereign wealth funds and potential Qatari investors.

In May this year, Qatar Air-lines set up a direct service from Cardiff to Doha and the new route is seen as a potential catalyst for creating business opportunities between the two cities. The airline has also been in discussions with the council and Welsh Gov-ernment around developing a new 5-star hotel in the Welsh capital and the council hopes to progress this proposal during the visit.

The Doha visit, which has been facilitated by the UK Gov-ernment and Welsh Government officials based at the British Embassy in Doha, included a presentation to four, leading financial institutions, among them the Qatar Investment Authority(QIA) - the core Sov-ereign Wealth Fund of Qatar.

Cllr Thomas said: “We had the opportunity not only to talk with the Qatar Investment Authority, but also to the Qatari Diar, which co-ordinates the country’s real estate devel-opment priorities. They have a large London-based portfolio and we are keen to show them some of the plans we have for Cardiff.”

China vows to respond if US takes new steps on tradeREUTERS

BEIJING: China will respond if the United States takes any new steps on trade, the foreign ministry said yesterday, after President Donald Trump warned he was ready to slap tariffs on virtually all Chinese imports into the United States.

On Friday, Trump said he was ready to levy additional taxes on practically all Chinese imports, threatening duties on $267bn of goods over and above planned tariffs on $200bn of Chinese products.

“If the US side obstinately clings to its course and takes any new tariff measures against China, then the Chinese side will inevitably take countermeasures to res-olutely protect our legitimate rights,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing, when asked about Trump’s warning.

The US and China have activated additional tariffs on $50bn of each other’s goods since July, as trade friction between the world’s two biggest economies worsened, despite several rounds of negotiations.

Trump has criticised China’s record trade surplus with the US, and has demanded that Beijing cut it immediately. Tension has also persisted over limits on US firms’ access to Chinese markets, intellectual property protection, technology transfers and investment.

The survey

shows a positive

attitude towards

entrepreneurship in

Qatar. In fact, most of

the adult population

(77.3%) believes that

entrepreneurs have

a high status and

respect in society.

Boosting tiesRussian President Vladimir Putin (fourth left) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (fifth left) visit Mazda Sollers Manufacturing Rus, a Russian-Japanese joint car assembly plant, in Vladivostok, Russia yesterday.

22 TUESDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2018BUSINESS

9,889.62

+119.19 PTS

1.22%

QSE FTSE100 DOW BRENT7,279.30

+1.60 PTS

0.22%

25,911.68

−4.86 PTS

0.19% Dow & Brent before going to press

$67.96

+0.21

MarketWatch

→ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

Al Khalifa added, “The importance of this report stems from the fact that it provides decision-makers and researchers with a treasure trove of information and data that represents an important entry point for the development of the SME and entrepreneurship sectors.”

Respondents showed a high degree of entrepre-neurial determination in an encouraging manner (with about 45.6 percent seeing an opportunity to start a business).

The result of the survey of total early-stage entrepre-neurial activity was close between males and females, equivalent to 4.7 percent, an encouraging indicator of gender equality in the entre-preneurial environment in Qatar. This percentage rose for Qataris to 8.4 percent compared to 4.1 percent of the expatriates surveyed.

The results of 2017 show a positive attitude towards the community of entrepre-neurship in Qatar.

In fact, most of the adult population believes that entrepreneurs have a high status and respect in society (77.3 percent) and that the establishment of a new project is a good career choice (65.9 percent).

Qatar records major jump in entrepreneurship ranking

QIMC signs MoU with German consulting firmTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Industrial Manu-facturing Company (QIMC) has announced it signed a memo-randum of Understanding (MoU) with GLASSGLOBAL, a German consulting firm specialised in providing technical and advisory services to the glass industry worldwide.

The MoU was signed on the sidelines of the just-concluded Qatar-Germany Business and Investment Forum held in Berlin, Germany.

Qatar Industrial Manufac-turing Company’s Chief Exec-utive Officer Abdul Rahman Abdullah Al Ansari and GLASS-GLOBAL’s Chief Executive Officer, Andre Ommer signed the MoU on behalf of the respective companies.

The agreement aims to establish a general framework for technical cooperation between the two companies to complete the evaluation of the feasibility of a project to produce glass containers in Qatar and to provide technical advice to the project through reviewing and evaluating the technical offers from the equipment suppliers and then participate in super-vising the implementation of the project though out commis-sioning and start-up, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The project has already obtained preliminary approvals

and necessary official licenses and currently work is being done to obtain the final approvals required for its imple-mentation. The project is the result of cooperation between QIMC and the Gulf Glass Factory Co. which includes number of Qatari and foreign investors and businessmen.

The QIMC has already coop-erated with GLASSGLOBAL in number of studies and con-sulting services to evaluate both the glass containers and the float glass projects. These services included studying the markets for these products and the pos-sibilities of exporting to number of Arab countries, neighboring countries and other countries of the world. GLASSGLOBAL also provided other technical services including reviewing and evaluating technical offers from equipment suppliers. In addition, QIMC commissioned GLASSGLOBAL to perform the

necessary technical analysis on samples of local sand to determine the possibility of using it to produce glass through specialized technical labora-tories for this purpose. The results of these studies were positive and encouraging, which is expected to be reflected on the ground through number of projects in the near future.

The project aims to produce glass bottles and various con-tainers used in the packaging of food products (oils, pickles, jams, honey) and beverages (drinking water, soft drinks, juices, dairy). The design capacity of the project is 200 tons per day and is expected to cost about QR230m. The project utilizes local sand as the main raw material and will need natural gas to melt sand and other raw materials.

This project is important and will serve the strategic vision of Qatar and contributes to the development of the national economy and diversification of the industrial base in the country.

The project is the first of its kind in Qatar and will meet the needs of the ongoing growth and development through the pro-vision of glass containers to a number of downstream projects, especially food industries, in addition to supporting the national economy by exporting its products to the world markets.

MEEZA named ‘Service Provider of the Year’THE PENINSULA

DOHA: MEEZA, Qatar’s prom-inent end-to-end Managed IT Services & Solutions Provider is pleased to announce that it has been named winner in the “Service Provider of the Year” category by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) at the fourth edition of the Qatar IT Business Awards.

The Qatar IT Business Awards by The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) honours organisations that have benefited the ICT Industry and the development of innovation. The award program is an annual event, where independent panel of experts in technology and business judge the awards nominations.

Commenting on the occasion, CEO of MEEZA, Ahmad Al Kuwari said: “It is an honour and a great achievement for us at “MEEZA to receive Service Provider of the Year at the pres-tigious Qatar IT Business Awards 2018. This recognition is a

testament to the company’s efforts and hard work in deliv-ering on its commitment to offer service excellence and best practices in Managed IT services to all its customers. MEEZA is committed to operational excel-lence and commercial success and the award will also motivate us to continue our serious and diligent efforts and develop our services in line with the market requirements.”

MEEZA was named winner for the ‘Service Provider of the Year” category for providing sophisticated range of end-to-end Managed IT Services and Solutions, ICT Infrastructure, Security Services, Service Oper-ations, Disaster Recovery, Call Center Operations, as well as a number of End User “Desktop-as-a-Service” features.

MEEZA, a Qatar Foundation joint venture, is an established end-to-end Managed IT Services & Solutions Provider based in Qatar that aims to accelerate the growth of the country and the region through the provision of its services.

EU, US trade officials meet but trans-Atlantic rift remains wideAFP

BRUSSELS: Top trade officials from the US and EU met yesterday to begin efforts to turn a much heralded deal to avert a trade war into a concrete long-term agreement.

After the meeting, EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malm-strom said she would meet US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer again by the end of the month. But neither side announced any immediate breakthrough.

“We discussed how to move forward and identify priorities on both sides,” Malmstrom wrote on Twitter, “and how to achieve concrete results in the short to medium term.”

Lighthizer’s office called it a “constructive meeting”.

The negotiators’ cautious response to this first chance to “operationalise” plans for a limited trans-Atlantic trade pact came in stark contrast to the enthusiasm surrounding its birth.

In July, US President Donald

Trump and European Com-mission head Jean-Claude Juncker pledged to hold off from further tit-for-tat tariffs and to work towards scrapping customs duties on all goods.

Both sides hailed the deal as a major breakthrough, but sub-sequent statements showed that

disputes persist, especially over agriculture, which Washington insists will be a key part of any agreement.

“Lots of work remains this autumn, our services will be in close contact in the coming weeks,” Malmstrom said, prom-ising that technical teams will

meet in October. Under pressure from France, Europe refuses to allow farm goods be included in trade negotiations, creating a sticking point that Malmstrom and Lighthizer must get past.

“The idea is that the com-mission and the United States agree on a framework doc-ument, perhaps by the end of the year,” a European source told AFP.

“Trump and Juncker have an agreement, but in reality, we didn’t completely agree on the scope of the discussions,” she added.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told AFP that agriculture remains a “red line” and that there is no question that it be included in the talks -- despite US insistence.

“The meeting between pres-idents Juncker and Trump allowed a return to dialogue, and that’s positive,” he said. “Beyond that, we have no illusions. We’re a long way from a lasting solution.”

The US delegation did not explicitly mention the farm

dispute. But its statement appeared to nod towards the agricultural issue by saying: “Specifically, we hope for an early harvest in the area of tech-nical barriers to trade.”

Officials had set very low expectations for the meeting, which is the first of several antic-ipated sit-downs to map out sectors in which common ground might be found. The summer’s mending of fences was already fragile.

Last week, Trump harangued the EU and raised the spectre of slapping tariffs on Europe’s auto industry. Auto tariffs would be seen as a blow by Germany and would add to existing levies on steel and aluminium that Trump imposed on Europe in June. The EU imposed a raft of counter-duties in return.

Last month, Malmstrom said a trade deal could include scrapping transatlantic tariffs on autos, but Trump swiftly excluded the possibility, arguing that Europe was virtually closed to US cars.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer (left) with European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom.

The deal aims

to establish a

general framework

for technical

cooperation between

the companies

to complete the

evaluation of the

feasibility of a project

to produce glass

containers in Qatar.

AI Expo Africa 2018Delegates and exhibitors network and visit stands at the AI Expo Africa, at the Century City Conference Centre, in Cape Town, South Africa, yesterday. The AI Expo Africa 2018 focuses on real world applications and trends driving the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Economy in Africa and seeking to build the largest AI Business focused Community across the continent.

Turkey tops OECD nations with GDP growth rateANATOLIA

ANKARA: Turkey topped the OECD member countries and ranked second in Europe with its gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the second quarter of 2018.

The Turkish economy grew by 5.2 percent to 884bn Turkish liras ($204.3bn) in April-June period compared to the same period last year, Turkey’s Statistical Institute said yesterday.

With these figures, Turkey was ranked first among the OECD countries, who released their data. Turkey was followed by Poland and Chile (5 percent), Hungary (4.6) and Latvia (4.4), according to data compiled by an Anadolu Agency correspondent.

OECD countries’ average growth rate was 2.5 percent in the second quarter, versus the same quarter of 2017.

On the other hand, the lowest growth rates were seen in Denmark, Japan, and Italy, by 0.6 percent, 1 percent, and 1.2 percent, respectively.

In the first quarter of 2018, Ireland was first among the 36 OECD countries with a growth rate of 10 percent, while Turkey ranked the second with 7.3 percent.

Among 28 countries of the EU, Turkey ranked the second after Malta, whose GDP rose by 5.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter. Poland, Hungary, and Latvia followed Malta and Turkey.

In the same period, EU28’s slowest-growing countries were Denmark (0.6 percent), Italy (1.2) and the U.K. (1.3).

Meanwhile, Nafta coun-tries’ average growth rate for the second quarter was 2.7 percent.

Turkey’s annual GDP growth rate was also 7.4 percent in 2017.

Oil up as US drilling stallsREUTERS

LONDON: Oil prices rose yesterday as US drilling stalled and investors anticipated lower supply once new US sanctions against Iran’s crude exports kick in from November.

Brent crude oil jumped $1.09 a barrel, or 1.4 percent, to a high of $77.92, but then eased to $77.60 by 1330 GMT. US light crude was 55 cents higher at $68.30.

“A higher oil price scenario is built on lower exports from Iran due to US sanctions, capped US shale output growth, instability in production in countries like Libya and Vene-zuela and no material negative impact from a US/China trade war on oil demand in the next 6-9 months,” said Harry Tchi-linguirian, oil strategist at French bank BNP Paribas.

“We see Brent trading above $80 under (that)

scenario,” he told Reuters Global Oil Forum.

The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States has stalled since May, reflecting increases in well productivity but also bottlenecks and infra-structure constraints.

US Energy Secretary Rick Perry will meet counterparts from Saudi Arabia and Russia as the Trump administration encourages the world’s biggest exporter and producer to keep output up.

Investors are concerned about the impact on oil demand of the trade dispute between the United States and other large economies, as well as the weakness of emerging markets.

“Trade wars, and especially rising interest rates, can spell trouble for the emerging markets that drive (oil) demand growth,” energy consultancy FGE said.

23TUESDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2018 BUSINESS

QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE Index 9,889.62 1.22 %

QE Total Return Index 17,424.41 1.22 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic

Index - Price 2,362.23 1.04 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,832.78 1.04 %

QE All Share Index 2,886.18 1.25 %

QE All Share Banks &

Financial Services 3,548.01 1.39 %

QE All Share Industrials 3,184.15 1.60 %

QE All Share Transportation 2,018.52 0.21 %

QE All Share Real Estate 1,832.53 1.19 %

QE All Share Insurance 3,154.72 1.63 %

QE All Share Telecoms 993.69 0.07 %

QE All Share Consumer

Goods & Services 6,261.28 0.80 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON WORLD STOCK INDICES

GOLD AND SILVER

10-09-2018Index 9,889.62Change 119.19 % 1.22YTD% 16.03 Volume 5,925,002Value (QAR) 200,791,534.50 Trades 3,594Up 33 | Down 05 | Unchanged 0009-09-2018Index 9,770.43Change 56.41% 0.57YTD% 14.63Volume 3,437,339Value (QAR) 98,176,031.16Trades 1,833

EXCHANGE RATE

GOLD QR140.1283 per grammeSILVER QR1.6671 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low

All Ordinaries 6249.7 -2.6 -0.04 6481.3 5834

Cac 40 Index/D 5277.83 25.61 0.49 5657.44 5038.12

Dj Indu Average 25916.54 -79.33 -0.31 26616.71 21927.79

Hang Seng Inde/D 26613.42 -360.05 -1.33 33484.08 26669.58

Iseq Overall/D 6615.23 -31.11 -0.47 7257.41 6410.26

Kse 100 Inx/D 40684.05 -170.72 -0.42 47144.12 38561.31

S&P 500 Index/D 0 0 0 2916.5 2532.69

Currency Buying SellingUS$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 4.6810 QR 4.7471

Euro QR 4.1902 QR 4.2484

CA$ QR 2.7375 QR 2.7915

Swiss Fr QR 3.7151 QR 3.7668

Yen QR 0.0325 QR 0.03312

Aus$ QR 2.5707 QR 2.6209

Ind Re QR 0.0499 QR 0.0509

Pak Re QR 0.0291 QR 0.0301

Peso QR 0.0669 QR 0.0683

SL Re QR 0.0222 QR 0.0227

Taka QR 0.0430 QR 0.0439

Nep Re QR 0.0312 QR 0.0318

SA Rand QR 0.2378 QR 0.2427

Investcorp acquires property in Germany for €86mTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Investcorp, a leading global provider and manager of alternative investment products, yesterday announced the purchase of KO Campus, in Eschborn, Germany from Cilon AG for approximately €86m. The acquisition is Investcorp’s second real estate investment in Germany.

The newly renovated KO Campus is a modern office campus situated prominently in the commercial area of Eschborn, Germany, part of the

Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. KO Campus is comprised of three office buildings totaling approximately 40,000 square meters and houses some well-known tenants across a diverse set of sectors, including:

manufacturing, retail and technology.

KO Campus features high quality and recently renovated office buildings, state-of-the-art research and development, data and design centres, a res-taurant and conference rooms.

In April 2018, Investcorp announced its first German real estate deal.

Together with Continuum Capital Investment Management GmbH, Investcorp purchased the Bürocampus Wangen based in Stuttgart, Germany.

Both investments are part of

Investcorp’s broader pan-European real estate strategy, following its initial focus on UK industrial and logistics assets.

Hazem Ben-Gacem, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Investcorp, said: “Investcorp has a long history and an estab-lished track record of identi-fying valuable real estate acquisitions. This acquisition forms an exciting addition to our diversified portfolio of prime assets, and we believe that we are well-positioned to add value to this investment. With a solid buy-and-build

strategy in place, we believe we are on the right track to con-tinue to identify opportunities in the sector.”

Commenting on the acqui-sition, Babak Sultani, Managing Director, Real Estate Product Specialist, at Investcorp, said: “Following on Investcorp’s expertise in the US market, we have committed to expand our real estate footprint in Europe. Germany has always been con-sidered an attractive market for us. We believe that KO Campus and Burocampus Wangen are well-occupied, stable assets in

two of the most dynamic markets.”

Investcorp’s Real Estate group is a fully-integrated acqui-sition and asset management platform, which operates in the US and Europe. The group has over $6bn in gross assets under management and operates a diversified investment approach, investing across a broad range of sectors including office, mul-tifamily, student housing, indus-trial, retail, and hotels. Investcorp has its offices in Doha, Bahrain, New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, and Singapore.

Zimbabwe will accelerate plan to deal with debt: Finance Minister REUTERS

HARARE: Zimbabwe’s new Finance Minister said yesterday he would accelerate plans to pay arrears to the World Bank and the African Development Bank and would work on a three-year programme to cut government spending.

Mthuli Ncube (pictured) did not spell out how he would speed the clearance of $1.8bn in arrears - but said it would be a vital step in rebuilding investors’ confidence.

“It’s one building block,” he

told reporters after being sworn in as finance minister to watch over an economy struggling with a severe shortages of dollars, and with unemployment above 80 percent.

Economist have said the repayments would be a vital step towards Zimbabwe quali-fying for an International Mon-etary Fund (IMF) programme.

But such a programme could come with politically painful conditions, including a reduction of the huge civil service and a cut in the budget deficit from 16 percent to

single-digit levels, say analysts. Ncube said he would discuss the size of the civil service wage bill with new President Emmerson Mnangagwa, but did not go into further detail.

Previous efforts to cut public sector wages - responsible for 93 percent of the national budget - and civil service jobs were blocked by former pres-ident Robert Mugabe.

“Internally we need fiscal consolidation and making sure that on the expenditure side, we live within our means or move towards that. That is always a

process, always need a kind of three year process, fiscal con-solidation is not a big bang approach,” the minister said.

Ncube confirmed media reports he would look into removing the quasi currency bond note in a package of cur-rency reforms due to be announced at the end of Sep-tember, and said he eventually wanted to bring back Zimba-bwe’s own currency.

The southern African nation dumped its currency in favour of the US dollar in 2009 fol-lowing years of hyperinflation,

and introduced bond notes in November 2016 in a bid to ease acute shortages of cash.

The shortages have however worsened while a black market continues to thrive.

“Ultimately we would like to have a Zimbabwe dollar that is stable, that we have confi-dence in and we will start working towards that and you will hear in the monetary policy statement the first steps towards that,” Ncube said.

The 55-year-old Cambridge University graduate is a former chief economist and

vice president at the African Development Bank and is a vis-iting professor at Oxford University.

The investments are

part of Investcorp’s

broader pan-European

real estate strategy,

following its initial

focus on UK industrial

and logistics assets.

24 TUESDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2018BUSINESS

BREAK TIMEVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

Peppermint (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm The Nun (2D/Horror) 10:00am 12:00noon, 12:30, 2:00, 2:45, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, 7:15, 8:00, 9:30, 10:00, 11:45pm & 12:00midnight Alpha (2D/Drama) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight MEG (2D/Action) 11:00am, 3:30 & 8:30pm Luis And The Aliens (2D) 10:00am 1:30 & 5:00pmEnchanted Princess (2D/Animation) 11:45am, 3:15 & 6:45pm Al Khourouj An Al Nas (2D/Arabic) 8:30, 10:30pm & 12:00midnightThe Equalizer 2 (2D/Action) 1:00, 6:00 & 11:00pm Christopher Robin (2D/Animation) 10:15am, 2:30, 6:45 & 11:00pmMile 22 (2D/Action) 12:30, 4:45 & 9:00pm Reprisal 10:00am, 2:00, 6:00 & 10:00pm Slender Man 12:00noon, 4:00, 8:00pm & 12:00midnight Al Badlah (2D/Arabic) 10:00am, 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pmThe Nun(2D/Horror/IMAX)11:00am, 1:00, 3:00, 500, 7:00, 9:00&11:00pm

Maradona (2D/Malayalam) 2:00 & 11:30pm Stree (Hindi) 2:00pmHotel Transylvania 3 (Animation) 2:30 & 5:45pm Enchanted Princess (2D/Animation) 4:15pmAlpha (2D/Adventure) 4:45 & 6:45pmJawani Phir Nahi Ani 2 4:30 & 8:30pm The Nun (2D/Horror) 7:30, 9:30 & 11:30pm Miss Granny 7:30pm Peppermint (2D/Action) 9:30pmPaltan (2D/Hindi) 11:30pm

Hotel Transylvania 3 (Animation) 2:15 & 4:15pmEnchanted Princess (2D/Animation) 2:30pmAlpha (2D/Adventure) 3:00, 6:00 & 9:30pmJawani Phir Nahi Ani 2 4:00, 7:30 & 10:30pmPeppermint (2D/Action) 7:00pm The Nun (2D/Horror)9:00 & 11:15pm Paltan (2D/Hindi) 4:45pm Al Khourouj An Al Nas (Arabic) 9:00pm Maradona (2D/Malayalam) 10:45pm

Enchanted Princess (2D/Animation) 5:30pmHotel Transylvania 3 (Animation) 3:30pm Maradona (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 10:45pm Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2 2:30 & 7:45pmPaltan (2D/Hindi) 2:30pm Stree (2D/Hindi) 5:15 & 10:45pm Alpha (2D/Adventure) 5:30, 7:15 & 10:45pmThe Nun (2D/Horror) 7:00, 9:15 & 11:15pm The Mercy (2D/Drama) 8:45pm

Maradona (2D/Malayalam) 5:45, 6:30, 8:30, 9:30, 10:30 & 11:15pm Imaikka Nodigal (2D/Tamil) 7:30pm Paltan (Hindi) 5:45pm Laila Majnu (Hindi) 8:30pmStree (Hindi) 11:15pm

The Nun (Horror) 10:30am, 3:00, 7:30pm & 12:00midnightAlpha (Adventure) 10:45am, 4:00 & 9:15pm Enchanted Princess

(Animation) 11:00am, 1:00 & 3:00pm Peppermint (Action) 12:45, 5:15 & 9:45pm Maradona (2D/Malayalam) 1:00, 6:15 & 11:30pmPaltan (2D/Hindi) 5:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm

Alpha (2D/Drama) 10:30am, 3:20 & 11:00pm Enchanted Princess (Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30, 6:30 & 11:45pm Peppermint (Action) 11:00am, 8:30 & 10:50pm Maradona (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 & 10:30pmStree (Hindi) 12:30, 5:40 & 8:10pm The Nun (2D/Horror) 10:30am, 12:40, 1:10, 2:50, 5:00, 5:30, 7:10, 7:40, 9:10, 9:50, 11:10, 11:55pm

Taking the leap out of the classic folklore, the story is set in today’s time in Kashmir where Laila Majnu have problems relevant to the youth of today. While dealing with their feuding families a passionate love story unravels.

LAILA MAJNU

ROYAL PLAZANOVO Pearl Qatar

MALL

CROSSWORD

LANDMARK

FLIK Mirqab

AL KHOR

ROXY

ASIAN TOWN

Al Khourouj An Al Anas 7:00, 8:50 & 11:30pm Alpha 11:40, 11:00am, 1:40, 3:40, 5:40, 7:40, 9:40, 11:15pm & 12:00midnight Charming 10:35am & 1:30pm Christopher Robin 12:05pm Crazy Rich Asian 11:30am, 1:55, 4:20 & 6:45pm Enchanted Princess 12:35, 3:15, 4:15pmMaradona 2:15, 3;25, 7:50 & 11:00pm Reprisal (2D/Action) 10:45pmMiss Granny 2:15, 6:40 & 9:00pm Peppermint 10:25, 12:35, 4:35, 5:45, 7:45, 9:50 & 11:40pm Ploey 11:45am, 2:30, 5:15, 6:00pm The Nun 11:55am, 1:05, 2:00, 3:15, 4:05, 5:20, 6:20, 7:25, 8:25, 9:30, 10:30, 11:35 & 12:35am

Alibaba’s Jack Ma to step down next year; pledges ‘smooth transition’AFP

SHANGHAI: Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma yesterday announced he would step down as head of the pioneering Chinese e-commerce giant in one year, a departure already drawing comparisons to the retirement of late Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Analysts said the early with-drawal of the 54-year-old Ma, who became the charismatic face of a company that has revolu-tionised how and what China’s people consume, will test the company’s ability to carry on Ma’s vision amid rising competition.

But like Apple’s transition to current boss Tim Cook, Alibaba CEO and anointed successor Daniel Zhang may be less mag-netic than his predecessor but has proven an able steward since effectively taking the operational reins years ago, they said.

“Day-to-day operations-wise Alibaba will not be affected that much. But since he’s (Ma) the face of the company, people may lose a little bit of faith,” said Jackson Wong, associate director with Huarong Securities in Hong Kong.

“But where Jobs died, Ma is expected to stay on in an advisory role, so there shouldn’t be too much impact.”

Ma said in a statement that he will stay on as executive chairman until his 55th birthday before handing over that role to Zhang.

“While remaining as exec-utive chairman in the next 12 months, I will work closely with Daniel to ensure a smooth and successful transition,” Ma said.

Ma, who has expressed a desire to follow in the philan-thropy footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, said he would remain on Alibaba’s board until

2020. “The one thing I can promise everyone is this: Alibaba was never about Jack Ma, but Jack Ma will forever belong to Alibaba,” he said.

Ma was an English teacher before starting Alibaba in his

apartment in the eastern city of Hangzhou in 1999, where its headquarters remain to this day, building it into an e-commerce colossus and becoming one of the world’s richest men and most recognisable figures in China.

He has a net worth of more than $40bn according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and Alibaba, which has shares listed in New York, was valued at $420.8bn as of last Friday.

But while Alibaba may lose the company’s face, analysts said the business brains remain with Zhang.

With his impish grin, Ma in recent years has largely assumed a role as a globe-hopping ambas-sador, marked by playful antics such as dressing up as Michael Jackson for a dance routine at a company gathering last year.

But it has been largely under the more reserved Zhang’s stew-ardship that Alibaba’s two main e-commerce platforms, Taobao and Tmall, have turned into richly profitable cash cows and other arms such as digital payments have flourished. The company has wowed investors year after

year with sterling revenue growth with Zhang at the helm.

But Alibaba faces intense competition in China from the likes of rivals Tencent, JD.com, and other rising upstarts.

Alibaba still dominates Chinese e-commerce, however, and is pouring investment into new initiatives to broaden its eco-system and stake out position in fast-growing future arms.

These include bricks-and-mortar retail, cloud computing, digital media, movies, the grocery sector, meal deliveries and advertising.

It also has upped investments in overseas ventures and in 2015 bought the South China Morning Post newspaper.

Alibaba did not specify exactly what Ma has planned post-retirement, but the former teacher has in recent years taken on edu-cation initiatives as pet projects.

Alibaba’s Founder and Chairman Jack Ma (left) with CEO Daniel Zhang.

Aston Martin names new chairman ahead of IPOREUTERS

LONDON: Aston Martin has lined up experienced FTSE executives to boost its board as the 105-year-old luxury carmaker presses ahead with plans to list on the London Stock Exchange, it said yesterday.

The company, famed for making the sports car driven by fictional secret agent James Bond, said last month it was pursuing an initial public offering (IPO), the first British carmaker to do so for decades.

Penny Hughes, who has pre-viously worked at FTSE com-panies Vodafone and super-market WM Morrison, will

become Aston’s non-executive chair of the board when the flo-tation takes place, Aston Martin said.

Richard Solomons, who was chief executive of InterConti-nental Hotels from 2011 to 2017, will become a senior independent director and chair of the board’s audit and risk committee.

Chief Executive Andy Palmer said the appointments would help avoid a repeat of some of the pre-vious mistakes made by the firm, which has gone bankrupt seven times in its history.

“If one looks at the lessons from the past where we’ve had millionaires and billionaires buying us, investing in one car

and then walking away and that’s created the problems,” he said.

“We need to be in good gov-ernance for the next 100 years and... having an independent board, selecting that independent board because of their deep expe-rience in running the boards of huge public companies I think is absolutely key.”

Imelda Walsh, who is chair of the remuneration committee at transport firm FirstGroup, and Peter Espenhahn, who has audit and tax experience with accountancy firm Deloitte, will also join Aston.

The news came as China’s Geely delayed the planned listing of its Volvo Cars business, citing

valuation concerns amid a global trade war.

The indicative price range for Aston’s IPO and the maximum number of shares to be sold will be detailed in the firm’s pro-spectus which is due to be pub-lished on or around September 20, the company added.

The carmaker will then detail the final offer price this month ahead of admission to the FTSE, with at least 25 percent of the stock to be floated.

Aston, which has long said it could IPO, has undergone a turn-around plan since Palmer took over as CEO in 2014 as it boosts its volumes and builds a second factory.

Japan’s second quarter growth revised upAFP

TOKYO: Japan’s economy grew faster than initially thought in the April-June quarter thanks to strong corporate investment, official figures showed yesterday.

The world’s third-biggest economy grew 0.7 percent q-o-q, up from the preliminary figure of 0.5 percent, the cabinet office said. The latest figure, an annualised 3 percent, was in line with market expectations, con-firming that Japan has bounced back to growth following its first

contraction in two years.The data represented a quick turna-round after a series of eight con-secutive quarters of growth ended in January-March, inter-rupting a winning streak not seen since the heady days of Japan’s “miracle” boom of the 1980s. But analysts have warned US-led trade wars could be a major risk factor for an economy still struggling to win a long battle against deflation.

The upward revision was chiefly due to stronger-than-previously-estimated corporate capital investment, Tokyo said.