Hong Kong will welcome more than 1.4 million mainland Chinese tourists over Lunar New Year, the city leader has predicted, saying the trend of having overseas visitors will be noticeable in the Year of the Snake. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Tuesday a 23-minute fireworks display and a parade featuring international performance groups would be among a string of celebratory events set for the holiday, which will run from January 28 and February 4 on the mainland. “[We] estimate that more than 1.4 million mainland tourists will visit Hong Kong via different borders during the eight-day holiday,” Lee said before his weekly meeting with the Executive Council, the city’s top decision-making body. He said the estimated number of daily visitors would represent 3 and 14 per cent increases
Category Archives: BUSINESS-FINANCE
Jan
Most Americans have bank accounts — reliable places to store money that are federally insured, carefully regulated, and generally better than coffee cans full of cash . But some 5 million households don’t have bank accounts. So every two years, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation conducts a survey to find out why. Is it a trust thing? A distance thing? A fees-and-service-charges thing? Last November, for the first time, the FDIC reported the results of a new question it added to the survey: Do you use a cryptocurrency like bitcoin instead of a bank? From the start, the dream for crypto has always been “be your own bank.” I’m being a little simplistic there, but bitcoin, ether, and their digital cousins were supposed to be a smarter flavor of money.
Jan
The delay by Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals to serve its amended originating summons on Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and six other defendants on Monday, stalled the hearing of its suit seeking to stop issuance of oil import licenses to some oil marketing companies. Dangote Refinery had sued NMDPRA, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), AYM Shafa Limited, A. A. Rano Limited, T. Time Petroleum Limited, 2015 Petroleum Limited, and Matrix Petroleum Services Limited as 1st to 7th defendants respectively in the originating summons, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1324/2024 dated September 6, 2024. The oil company, through its lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, SAN, prayed the court to nullify import licences issued by NMDPRA to the NNPCL and the five other companies to import refined petroleum products. The company (plaintiff) also
Jan
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its growth forecast for the UK economy this year, but has also warned about the possible impact of Donald Trump’s economic plans. The global institution upgraded its prediction for UK growth to 1.6% for this year from its previous estimate of 1.5%. But it said a threatened wave of tariffs by incoming US president Trump could make trade tensions worse, lower investment, and disrupt supply chains across the world. The IMF also said although tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation could boost the US economy in the short term, they could ultimately backfire.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its growth forecast for the UK economy this year, but has also warned about the possible impact of Donald Trump’s economic plans. The global institution
Participants at the end of the first day of the 76th Annual New Year Conference (ANYC) have called on telecommunication companies operating in the country to expand their network coverage to meet the growing demands of the population. According to them the persistent network challenges in the country remained a significant hindrance to the digital user experience, thereby hampering efforts to bridge the digital divide. They further argued that the expansion of the telecommunication network would enable more Ghanaians to access financial technologies such as mobile banking, mobile money, and online marketplaces. The ANYC, which commenced last Monday at the University of Ghana, Accra, concluded yesterday. Organised by the School of Continuing and Distance Education, it was themed “Attaining the 5-Ps of Sustainable Development for a Resilient Ghana: People, Planet
CMC Motors Group is renowned for its New Holland brands. Photo: CMC Motors Group. Source: Facebook
Jan
CMC Motors Group has quit the Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian markets, citing economic challenges, including high operating costs The company is one of the largest car assemblers in Kenya and has been offering agricultural and mechanical solutions to farmers It reaffirmed its dedication to helping staff members through the changeover and ensuring a smooth transition TUKO.co.ke journalist Japhet Ruto has over eight years of experience in financial, business, and technology reporting and offers profound insights into Kenyan and global economic trends. CMC Motors Group is closing its operations in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda after forty years in East Africa’s automotive and agricultural industries, leaving hundreds of its workers facing an uncertain future. CMC Motors Group is renowned for its New Holland brands. Photo: CMC Motors Group.Source: Facebook Why CMC Motors
Jan
If you have been to Manila lately, chances are you experienced its nightmarish traffic. The situation is expected to worsen unless the Philippine government takes bold and urgent actions to move away from car-centric policies and infrastructure projects. In 2023, it took an average of 25.5 minutes to travel 10km in Manila, the longest among 387 metropolitan areas worldwide, according to TomTom’s global traffic index. This was a 50-second increase from 2022, the largest rise in the index. Daily traffic costs – the lost economic opportunities as a result of the delay caused by traffic – in Metro Manila are estimated at 3.5 billion pesos (US$60 million), according to a 2018 study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The figure could rise to 5.4 billion pesos by 2035 if no
Jan
Canoo files for bankruptcy after dismissing the remainder of its workforce in the last two months. It was founded in 2017 and, at its peak, employed 800 people, but it lived off loans and never turned a profit. The company will liquidate all its assets to pay off its debts and creditors. Canoo was one of those EV startups that seemed to have a future with a cool product that showed plenty of promise. However, after failing to secure the necessary capital to stay afloat, the company announced yesterday that it’s filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. We knew Canoo, founded in 2017 and initially called Evelozcity, was in serious trouble when, in November, it cut almost a quarter of its workforce (around 30 employees)—it employed around 800 people in 2021
Jan
Government will continue importing electricity and speed up the completion of electricity power generation projects that were planned to be established countrywide. Chief Government Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says the government is also closely monitoring the water levels for hydropower generation at all power stations following the improved rains in some parts of the country. Speaking when he delivered cabinet resolutions during a press briefing today, Mr. Mweetwa said the government is working to address all logistical challenges and ensure a constant supply of fuel across the country and at filling stations. And Mr. Mweetwa said to address cholera, measures have been taken, which include pre-positioning medical and non-medical logistics and stocks to all cholera high-risk districts and at all the provincial capitals. The Minister also disclosed the approval by Cabinet
Jan
The UK economy grew for the first time in three months, driven in part by a boost in trade for pubs and restaurants. Official figures showed an expansion 0.1% after the economy shrank in each of the two previous months. The return to growth will be a welcome sign for the government after recent turbulence in financial markets sent its borrowing costs to the highest level for several years and the value of the pound fell. But the figure was lower than economists had expected, with declines in manufacturing and business rentals and leasing. Chancellor Rachel Reeves reiterated her pledge to go “further and faster” to improve economic growth in order to boost living standards, declaring it was the “number one priority” for the government. “That means generating investment, driving
Jan
A sweeping 2022 law, touted by President Joe Biden as a way to revive US manufacturing of semiconductors and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign-made computer chips, will “sharply increase production” of semiconductors in the United States . But it will do so at a high cost and might not deliver the best bang for the buck, concludes a report out on Wednesday by an economic think tank in Washington. Researchers at the Peterson Institute for International Economics calculated that the US$280 billion Chips and Science Act will create about 93,000 construction jobs as chip factories go up in the United States and 43,000 permanent jobs once they are in operation. But the government subsidies behind the expected chip manufacturing boom mean that each job created will cost taxpayers about
Jan
Spain is planning to impose a tax of up to 100% on the value of properties bought by non-residents from countries outside the EU, such as the UK. Announcing the move, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the “unprecedented” measure was necessary to meet the country’s housing emergency. “The West faces a decisive challenge: To not become a society divided into two classes, the rich landlords and poor tenants,” he said. Non-EU residents bought 27,000 properties in Spain in 2023, he told an economic forum in Madrid, “not to live in” but “to make money from them”. “Which, in the context of shortage that we are in, [we] obviously cannot allow,” he added. The move was designed to prioritise available homes for residents, the Spanish prime minister said. Sánchez did not
To enhance domestic revenue mobilisation in 2025, Government has re-introduced a 15 percent export duty on precious gemstones. This follows the revocation of 2019 suspension of a 15 percent export duty on precious gemstones new statutory instrument dated December 30, 2024 (a (S.I. No. 88 of 2024, the Customs and Excise (Precious Stones) (Export Duty) (Suspension) (Revocation) Order, 2024)) and came into effect on January 1, 2025. And Gemfields, which owns 75 percent of the Zambian emeralds mined by Kagem Mining Limited and 25 percent by the Zambian Government’s Industrial Development Corporation, says it faces an effective tax on revenues of 21 percent (in addition to corporation tax of 30 percent). Gemfields says in 2023 when no export duty was in place, Kagem paid an effective 31 percent of its
Jan
Experts and lawmakers have urged airlines operating in Hong Kong to ensure in-flight meals are safely prepared in accordance with industry standards, after two food poisoning incidents affected dozens of Cathay Pacific Airways passengers. They also appealed to travellers to be more watchful of the meals they were served during flights and to check the temperature, freshness and smell of the food items before eating them. Health authorities earlier this week launched an investigation into the two cases involving 36 passengers on two separate flights going from Nepal’s Kathmandu to Hong Kong. The Centre for Health Protection said on Friday that it believed the two food poisoning clusters were epidemiologically linked. The latest cluster involved 20 people who arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday on flight CX640, while the other
Jan
Decades after the liberalisation of Vietnam ’s banking sector, private banks remain tightly controlled by a handful of owners, many of whom use their banks to funnel cheap loans into their other businesses. This practice, which dates back to the early 1990s, was laid bare by the case of Truong My Lan, who became the first private businessperson in Vietnam to face capital punishment for embezzlement after she was convicted of siphoning billions from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and leaving it – and Vietnam’s financial system – in a precarious position. On December 3, an appeal court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld a death sentence for Lan, the majority owner of SCB and former chairwoman of the property developer Van Thinh Phat Group. For almost a decade, Lan treated