Business

AMMAN — The 2021 Arab Aviation Summit (AAS), which will be held in the UAE this month will examine the impact of COVID-19 health crisis on the industry, its aftermath, and recovery path, according to a statement of the organisers.

The summit, the region’s leading aviation industry event, will be held in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) between March 22 and 23, said the statement. 

The summit ‘eighth edition’ will bring together experts to discuss current challenges resulting from the pandemic and ways to create a stronger future. 

It is held under the theme, “Arab Aviation in the New Normal”.

Endorsed by Arab governments and previously held in many Arab counties, the Arab Aviation Summit 2021 will be hosted in cooperation with Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority and is supported by global industry partners such as Airbus, CFM, Air Arabia, Alpha Aviation Academy and others. 

Industry experts will look into the role that aviation and tourism is expected to play in the post-pandemic economic recovery, their contribution to domestic economies.

 They will evaluate the challenges and opportunities faced by the aviation sector in the new normal phase and share ideas and strategies to address them in the coming months as the industry is set to gain traction with the availability of the vaccine, according to the statement. 

A white paper, based on participants’ deliberations, will be presented at the closing ceremony of the summit.

By Rob Lever
Agence France-Presse

BALTIMORE — After years of staff cuts, shrinking budgets and declining readership, the Baltimore Sun finally has some good news to report about itself: A deal for a new non-profit group to take over, and potentially revive the struggling newspaper.

The plan unveiled in February comes in response to an extraordinary movement — supported by civic and business leaders, sports figures, journalists and others — to rescue the 184-year-old newspaper and bring it back to local ownership.

The nonprofit Sunlight for All Institute, led by businessman Stewart Bainum, struck the tentative deal to acquire the Sun and affiliated newspapers for $65 million as part of the sale of parent firm Tribune Publishing to Alden Global Capital.

The agreement represents a major new test for the non-profit model which has gained momentum in recent years in response to the deepening crisis in the sector. 

Newsroom employment at newspapers fell by half between 2008 and 2019, according to Pew Research Centre, with more cuts reported during the pandemic.

The idea had been circulating in Baltimore for years but gained steam with the "Save Our Sun" campaign launched last year by journalists, union and civic leaders and others.

"There was a huge amount of community support," said Sun journalist Liz Bowie, one of those behind the campaign.

Bowie said Baltimoreans appeared to understand the value of the longtime news organisation and what might happen if it failed or was hollowed out.

"That void can't be filled by a digital startup," she said.

Ted Venetoulis, a former county executive and gubernatorial candidate who joined the campaign, said the initiative drove home the notion that the newspaper was the "soul" and "conscience" of the community.

"They're watchdogs, they keep people honest, but they also are cheerleaders. They magnify the good things about our society," Venetoulis said.

The "Save our Sun" campaign got more than 7,000 signatures and was endorsed by prominent locals including baseball icon Cal Ripken, TV producer David Simon and film director John Waters.

The deal for Bainum's group to buy Sun Media Group would depend on Alden's acquisition of the rest of Tribune Publishing, including the Chicago Tribune, Hartford Courant and other regional dailies.

Going non-profit 

The non-profit model has been growing in recent years in the United States, and now includes some 300 news outlets, according to University of Illinois professor Brant Houston, a founder of the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Non-profits have made inroads during a crisis that has seen many local newspapers disappear and others consolidated by big chains and hedge fund owners, most of which have cut staff and coverage.

"The business model for newspapers was just not working," Houston said.

"If you have an organisation beholden to stockholders, you end up with a business model of laying people off and cutting coverage," Houston said. "That's not a strategic plan."

The Sun has won 16 Pulitzer prizes including one last year for a story on a corruption scandal which led to the resignation and prosecution of mayor Catherine Pugh.

But it has been reeling like many of its peers, with print circulation has fallen to just 43,000 on weekdays and 125,00 on Sunday, a fraction of the level from its peak years. Newsroom staff has been slashed over the years, and is now less than 100.

Sun journalists expressed hope the new model could help reverse the newspaper's decline.

"We were blown away and psyched by this," said reporter Colin Campbell.

Health reporter Meredith Cohn said she hopes the deal will lead "getting more reporters and covering the community", including areas neglected in recent years.

Philadelphia experiment 

One hopeful sign comes from Philadelphia, where the Inquirer newspaper has been under non-profit ownership since 2016 when owner Gerry Lenfest donated his stake to the Lenfest Institute along with a $20 million endowment.

Since then, "there has been an outpouring of community financial support" for the daily with some $7 million in grants in 2020 alone, said Jim Friedlich, chief executive of the nonprofit group.

The Inquirer has been able to maintain a newsroom staff of 200, far bigger than most of its peers, said Friedlich.

The Philadelphia group offered informal advice to Bainum, who has not publicly discussed his plans for the Baltimore Sun, he added.

Bainum, chairman of Choice Hotels, "has become something of a student of the news business and has been inspired by and is replicating the Lenfest nonprofit model", Friedlich said.

John Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild which represents newsroom staff and helped organise Save the Sun, is optimistic that the Sun can open the door to similar deals.

"I hope we can get back to publications which are accountable to the community, and not just interested in short-term profits."

Schleuss said he was disappointed that similar efforts failed at other Tribune dailies which will be taken over by a company "with a history of cutting a large number of jobs".

"It's good that people in Baltimore stepped up," Schleuss said. "We need that to happen all across the country."

PARIS — Bitcoin passed the $60,000 mark for the first time on Saturday, with analysts saying the giant US stimulus package helped boost the world's most popular virtual currency on its record-breaking run.

The cryptocurrency hit $60,197 at 12:34 GMT and continued to hover around $60,000, according to the website CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin has tripled in value over the last three months — it was worth $20,000 in December — bolstered by increasing backing from corporate heavyweights.

Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson said that in recent days "Bitcoin went up as investors looked to the imminent arrival of stimulus cheques".

Individuals in the US earning up to $75,000 will receive a cheque for $1,400 from this weekend, after President Joe Biden signed his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan into law this week.

Bitcoin has been on a meteoric rise since March last year, when it stood at $5,000, spurred by online payments giant PayPal saying it would allow account holders to use cryptocurrency.

Last month, Elon Musk's electric carmaker Tesla invested $1.5 billion in the virtual unit, while Twitter chief Jack Dorsey and rap mogul Jay-Z said they are creating a fund aimed at making Bitcoin "the internet's currency".

Others jumping on the bandwagon include Wall Street player BNY Mellon, investment fund giant BlackRock and credit card titan Mastercard.

Bitcoin, which was launched back in 2009, hit the headlines in 2017 after soaring from less than $1,000 in January to almost $20,000 in December of the same year.

The virtual bubble then burst in subsequent days, with bitcoin's value fluctuating wildly before sinking below $5,000 by October 2018.

However, the last year's rise has been more steady, with investors and Wall Street finance giants wooed by dizzying growth, the opportunity for profit and asset diversification, and a safe store of value to guard against inflation.

Bitcoins are traded via a decentralised registry system known as a blockchain.

The system requires massive computer processing power in order to manage and implement transactions.

That power is provided by "miners", who do so in the hope they will receive new bitcoins for validating transaction data.

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday unveiled a long-promised economic reform package that he hopes will boost the confidence of skittish foreign investors and temper inflation while boosting trade.

It included tax breaks for small business owners and a pledge to improve efficiency that could help export-driven growth.

But he made no mention of supporting the central bank's independence in future interest rate decisions — a key foreign investor demand.

He identified the fight against persistent inflation as "one of the main objectives" with the goal of quickly "bringing it down to single digits".

The Turkish lira lost more than half-a-per cent against the dollar in the course of Erdogan's hour-long address in Istanbul.

Erdogan has been promising to unveil a major reform package since overhauling his economic team in November.

That shakeup included installing market-friendly economist Naci Agbal as the new central bank chief and accepting his once-powerful son-in-law Berat Albayrak's resignation as finance minister.

Albayrak was widely credited with overseeing a failed policy that focused on supporting growth by keeping interests rates low despite soaring inflation.

The central bank burned through most of its reserves in the meantime while trying to support the lira.

Agbal's hike of the main interest rate to 17 per cent in the past four months has helped stabilise the currency.

But Erdogan's unorthodox belief that high interest rates cause inflation — instead of slowing it down — and past pressure on the central bank to keep rates low have drained investor confidence in the Turkish market.

Erdogan's pledges on Friday included an income tax break for 850,000 small businesses and improved transparency in public tenders. 

He also vowed to replace imports with domestic products to help local producers and to limit the spending of Turkey's sprawling government administration.

Other pledges included a plan to help banks deal with bad loans and improve their asset quality.

Erdogan set no deadlines for his proposals.

The government's ultimate goal is to bring the annual inflation rate down to 5 per cent by the time Erdogan faces a new election in 2023.

HONG KONG — Asian and European markets ticked higher on Thursday as inflation concerns eased, allowing investors to focus on the global recovery and progress in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

Investors were given a positive lead from Wall Street, where the Dow ended at a new record, helped by news that Joe Biden's stimulus had cleared its last hurdle in Congress, as expected, meaning he can sign it into law before the weekend, pumping almost $2 trillion into the economy.

Hopes for an improvement in China-US relations were also given a lift by news that top Washington and Beijing officials will meet for their first talks next week.

Fears that a strong rebound in world growth this year will cause a surge in inflation that forces the Federal Reserve and other central banks to wind back their ultra-loose monetary policies -- including record-low interest rates -- have fuelled a sell-off across risk assets in recent months.

But data on Wednesday showing US prices rose slightly less than expected in February soothed those concerns, with the main diver of the increases being food and energy costs.

That came as a closely watched auction of benchmark US 10-year Treasuries went off without any problems with the notes selling at a yield broadly in line with expectations.

Worries about a surge in inflation have lifted US yields to around one-year highs, while a weak sale of seven-year bonds sparked a stock market sell-off. Yields rise as prices fall.

"For now there is nothing for the inflation …as to ring the alarm, while at the same time it provides the Fed plenty of breathing space" ahead of its meeting next week, said National Australia Bank's Rodrigo Catril.

The inflation data "suggests the music will keep playing for some time, with the Fed not even close to pondering the option of watering down the punchbowl".

He said the consumer price index will naturally jump next month owing to the low base effect from last year.

 Fresh China-US hopes 

Asian markets were positive on Thursday, taking their lead from Wall Street, as well as a third straight record in Frankfurt and a one-year high for Paris.

Hong Kong rose more than one per cent with Taipei, Shanghai jumped more than two per cent and Seoul 1.9 per cent. Tokyo, Singapore, Wellington and Bangkok also rose, while Sydney was barely moved and Manila fell.

London, Paris and Frankfurt all rose at the open.

The healthy US data came as the House of Representatives passed Biden's economic rescue package, which will plant up to $1,400 into struggling Americans' pockets, expend unemployment benefits, boost healthcare funding and ramp up vaccine distribution.

The get-together between key Chinese and US aides in Alaska also provided an optimistic tone Thursday, after four years of Donald Trump's sledgehammer diplomacy with Beijing that rattled world markets.

"Regional markets have seized on hopes that Sino-US relations could be about to improve, which will be bullish for trade and, by default, positive for Asia," said OANDA's Jeffrey Halley.

"Those hopes may be premature, but that hasn't stopped animal spirits from being released across mainland China equity markets, and their equally FOMO (fear of missing out) neighbours in Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea."

Eyes were still wide open on the European Central Bank's policy meeting that was due to be held later in the day, which will be followed for its outlook on interest rates and its vast bond-buying programme as the world economy recovers from last year's collapse.

The Fed holds its gathering next week, which Axi's Stephen Innes said "could provide a trigger for a renewed selloff in US rates" if policymakers continue to brush off the rise in bond yields.

BERLIN — US tech giant Apple said on Wednesday it planned to invest more than one billion euros ($1.2 billion) in Germany and open Europe's biggest research facility on mobile wireless semiconductors and software. 

Apple said it would make Munich its "European Silicon Design Centre", creating hundreds of new jobs at a facility for 5G and wireless technologies. 

"I couldn't be more excited for everything our Munich engineering teams will discover — from exploring the new frontiers of 5G technology, to a new generation of technologies," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.

"Munich has been a home to Apple for four decades," he added.

Apple has had a base in Munich since 1981 and now has hundreds of engineers developing microchips at its centres in southern Germany.

The latest investment in the region would "exceed one billion euros in the next three years alone", the company said. 

It added that the planned new facility in Munich, slated to open in 2022, would host "Apple's growing cellular unit, and Europe's largest R&D site for mobile wireless semiconductors and software". 

The announcement comes a day after the EU said it aims to capture 20 per cent of the world's semiconductor market by 2030 as Europe looks to become a tech power to rival the US and China.

Under a new roadmap, the European Commission also wants the EU to develop its first quantum computer before the end of the decade in order to be ready for a new era in fast computing.

A key component in everyday products such as cars and mobile phones, semiconductors are currently in short supply worldwide and Europe is dependent on Chinese and American imports in a market estimated at 440 billion euros ($523 billion) a year.

Shortages, caused by changes in supply chains because of the coronavirus pandemic, have forced some major German manufacturers including Volkswagen to suspend production lines.

LONDON — European and US equities mostly pushed higher, striking records on both sides of the Atlantic, as US inflation remained muted and the massive $1.9 trillion stimulus programme neared the legislative finish line on Wednesday.

This year's global equities rally on stimulus and the vaccine-driven reopening of the global economy has recently hit an air pocket over fears over the prospect of soaring inflation and rising interest rates.

As approval of US President Joe Biden's vast COVID-19 stimulus nears, investor focus has been on the impact of an expected post-lockdown spending splurge by the government and Americans.

Thus, markets were paying keen attention to US consumer price inflation data for February, which in the event rose only by 0.1 per cent over the month excluding volatile food and energy prices.

Annual "core" inflation, actually dipped a tenth of a percentage point to 1.3 per cent.

"Wednesday's data does suggest that, for now at least, the fears over inflationary pressures have been overstated," said market analyst Connor Campbell at Spreadex.

"Quick to express their relief, investors poured into a pricey Dow Jones, sending it more than 300 points higher" to strike an intra-day record peak of 32,200.

In Europe, Frankfurt's DAX also set records for a third day in a row, closing above 14,500 for the first time. Paris set a one-year high, nearing the record it set just before the pandemic, but London dipped.

Inflation concerns had recently pushed investors to sell their holdings of government bonds, as they worried that inflation would eat into their returns.

The markets will be watching an auction of 10-year US government bonds closely.

Fears that inflation would force the Federal Reserve to begin winding back ultra-loose monetary policies — including record low interest rates — that have been a key driver of the year-long equities rally, saw investors sell off equities last week.

Tech stocks, which are particularly sensitive to interest rates, were hit the hardest with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite actually falling into correction territory — a drop of more than 10 per cent from its record high set last month.

But the Nasdaq bounded higher on Tuesday, soaring 3.7 per cent, and was up 0.5 per cent in late morning trading on Wednesday.

The House of Representatives was expected to give final approval to the package later Wednesday, the final step before it is sent to Biden for signature into law.

In addition to $1,400 checks for most Americans, the package also extends supplemental unemployment insurance and provides money for state and local governments, many of which have seen their finances eroded by the pandemic.

"While traders have been looking for this package as means to turbocharge the US economic recovery, there are plenty of questions over the impact it could have upon inflation," said IG analyst Joshua Mahony.