Muslim travel industry could generate USD 36 billion and have a positive impact in the Middle East’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) until 2020. If confirmed, the forecast would represent a surge of 21% over the USD 29.7 billion registered in 2017, according to a study by Salam Standard, the online halal hospitality rating system, that is, Muslim-friendly. The Islamic tourism industry should create 1.2 million jobs in the region until 2020, more than twice of the current 528,000 jobs. The information was published by the website of Dubai-based magazine Arabian Business.

The UAE has expedited its march towards making the economy more attractive for foreign investment and easier to do business as the latest World Bank report ranked the nation among the world's top 20 countries for the ease of doing business.

 

According to the Ease of Doing Business 2019 report released on Wednesday by the World Bank, the UAE ranked 11th globally, jumping 10 places from last year's ranking of 21. The UAE also maintained its highest ranking in the Middle East and North Africa region, with reforms captured in four areas.

Saudi Arabia expects to attract investments of more than 1.6 trillion riyals ($427 billion) by 2030 in its push to boost industry, Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said on Thursday, according to state TV al-Ekhbariya. 

 

“The program to develop national industries and logistics services (is) the largest and most important, and has a huge impact on the Saudi economy,” Al-Falih said. 

 

The minister estimated that the country’s mineral wealth was worth more than 1.3 trillion riyals.

Head of Iran’s Sericulture Center Adil Sarvi said the country is ranked 8th in the world in silk production, putting the annual production volume of silk at 120 tons.

 

According to him, 90% of the world’s silk is produced by Asian countries, with China in the first place with an annual production of 142,000 tons and India in the second place with production of 32,000 tons of silk.

 

Nearly three weeks after making the leap to the 8th most powerful in the world, the UAE passport has risen yet again in the ranks to the 7th place.

 

Citizens of the UAE can now enter 159 countries worldwide without a visa or with visa on arrival.

 

The UAE's passport ranking score is 159 in the Passport Index, with UAE's citizens allowed to travel to 112 countries without a visa, and to 47 countries with visa on arrival.

 

Moscow and Minsk can bring mutual trade to $50 billion, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

 

"We are able to bring mutual trade to the $50 billion level. To compare, I just visited India with population of 1.1 billion people, whose trade turnover with Russia is roughly $10 billion," TASS cited the Russian leader as saying.

 

Georgia has reached a historic high in terms of effectiveness of corruption control and governance, according to the World Bank report 'Worldwide Governance Indicators'.

 

Georgia scored 77.40% on Control of Corruption 100% scale, which is a historic high, Agenda.ge reported.

 

old, known as a "safe haven," has come to be preferred by central banks as well as individual investors since the outbreak of the global financial crisis. Central banks in the first half of this year added 193.3 tons of gold to their reserves, the highest level since 2015. With 125.8 tons of gold, Turkey was named the second country achieving the highest increase in gold reserves since early 2017.

 

 Libya is eager to buy 1 million tonnes of wheat and animal feed from Russia for around $700 million, Libyan Government of National Accord Economy and Industry Minister Nasir Shaglan said in an interview published Sunday.