Saudi, Dutch officials hold talks on logistics at Port of Rotterdam
RIYADH: The Kingdom’s Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Bandar Ibrahim AlKhorayef has held talks with officials at the Dutch Port of Rotterdam on ways to enhance cooperation in logistics, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.
They discussed the role of the Kingdom, as a supplier of vital minerals, in the global supply chain, and investment cooperation with Dutch companies in metal processing and recycling.
AlKhorayef reviewed the objectives of the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, under Saudi Vision 2030, which focuses on developing this sector of the Kingdom’s economy.
The minister also toured the port’s FutureLand area where he was briefed on the services provided to shipping companies which includes towing, docking, repairs, building and supply.
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Syrians in Lebanon fear unprecedented restrictions, deportations
BEKAA VALLEY: The soldiers came before daybreak, singling out the Syrian men without residence permits from the tattered camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
As toddlers wailed around them, Mona, a Syrian refugee in Lebanon for a decade, watched Lebanese troops shuffle her brother onto a truck headed for the Syrian border.
Thirteen years since Syria’s conflict broke out, Lebanon remains home to the largest refugee population per capita in the world: roughly 1.5 million Syrians — half of whom are refugees formally registered with the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR — in a country of approximately 4 million Lebanese.
They are among some five million Syrian refugees who spilled out of Syria into neighboring countries, while millions more are displaced within Syria.
Donor countries in Brussels this week pledged fewer funds in Syria aid than last year.
With Lebanon struggling to cope with an economic meltdown that has crushed livelihoods and most public services, its chronically underfunded security forces and typically divided politicians now agree on one thing: Syrians must be sent home.
Employers have been urged to stop hiring Syrians for menial jobs.
Municipalities have issued new curfews and have even evicted Syrian tenants, two humanitarian sources told Reuters.
At least one township in northern Lebanon has shuttered an informal camp, sending Syrians scattering, the sources said.
Lebanese security forces issued a new directive this month shrinking the number of categories through which Syrians can apply for residency — frightening many who would no longer qualify for legal status and now face possible deportation.
Lebanon has organized voluntary returns for Syrians, through which 300 traveled home in May. But more than 400 have also been summarily deported by the Lebanese army, two humanitarian sources told Reuters, caught in camp raids or at checkpoints set up to identify Syrians without legal residency. They are automatically driven across the border, refugees and humanitarian workers say, fueling concerns about rights violations, forced military conscription or arbitrary detention.
Mona, who asked to change her name in fear of Lebanese authorities, said her brother was told to register with Syria’s army reserves upon his entry.
Fearing a similar fate, the rest of the camp’s men no longer venture out. “None of the men can pick up their kids from school, or go to the market to get things for the house. They can’t go to any government institutions, or hospital, or court,” Mona said. She must now care for her brother’s children, who were not deported, through an informal job she has at a nearby factory. She works at night to evade checkpoints along her commute.
’Wrong $ not sustainable’
Lebanon has deported refugees in the past, and political parties have long insisted parts of Syria are safe enough for large-scale refugee returns.
But in April, the killing of a local Lebanese party official blamed on Syrians touched off a concentrated campaign of anti-refugee sentiment.
Hate speech flourished online, with more than 50 percent of the online conversation about refugees in Lebanon focused on deporting them and another 20 percent referring to Syrians as an “existential threat,” said Lebanese research firm InflueAnswers.
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The tensions have extended to international institutions.
Lebanon’s foreign minister has pressured UNHCR’s representative to rescind a request to halt the new restrictions and lawmakers slammed a one billion euro aid package from the European Union as a “bribe” to keep hosting refugees.
“This money that the EU is sending to the Syrians, let them send it to Syria,” said Roy Hadchiti, a media representative for the Free Patriotic Movement, speaking at an anti-refugee rally organized by the conservative Christian party.
He, like a growing number of Lebanese, complained that Syrian refugees received more aid than desperate Lebanese. “Go see them in the camps — they have solar panels, while Lebanese can’t even afford a private generator subscription,” he said.
The UN still considers Syria unsafe for large-scale returns and said rising anti-refugee rhetoric is alarming. “I am very concerned because it can result in... forced returns, which are both wrong and not sustainable,” UNHCR head Filippo Grandi told Reuters. “I understand the frustrations in host countries — but please don’t fuel it further.”
Zeina, a Syrian refugee who also asked her name be changed, said her husband’s deportation last month left her with no work or legal status in an increasingly hostile Lebanese town.
Returning has its own dangers: her children were born in Lebanon and do not have Syrian ID cards, and her home in Homs province remains in ruins since a 2012 government strike that forced her to flee. “Even now, when I think of those days, and I think of my parents or anyone else going back, they can’t. The house is flattened. What kind of return is that?” she said.
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Egypt-China trade drops to $13.9bn in 2023: official data
RIYADH: Trade exchange between Egypt and China dropped to $13.9 billion in 2023, compared to $16.6 billion the year before, according to official data.?
Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics stated that value of the country’s exports to China reached $909 million during 2023, down from $1.9 billion in 2022, while Egyptian imports from China amounted to $12.9 billion in 2023, a decrease from $14.8 billion in 2022.?
Among the most significant commodity groups exported to China in 2023 were fuels, mineral oils, and their distillation products valued at $414 million, stone and cement products worth $116 million, fruits worth $78 million, machinery and electrical appliances worth $31 million, and copper and its products worth $27 million.?
On the import side, the leading commodities imported from China included machinery and electrical appliances worth $4.3 billion, iron and steel worth $1.2 billion, synthetic textile fibers worth $1.1 billion, organic chemical products worth $790 million, and plastics and their products worth $773 million.?
Chinese investments in Egypt reached $956.7 million during 2022-2023, a significant rise from $563.4 million during the fiscal year 2021-2022. ?
Conversely, Egyptian investments in China rose to $208.4 million during the fiscal year 2022-2023, compared to $126.5 million the year before.?
Additionally, remittances from Egyptians working in China amounted to $19.5 million during the fiscal year 2022-2023, up from $13.2 million the previous year. ?
In contrast, remittances from Chinese workers in Egypt totaled $3.5 million during the fiscal year 2022-2023, a slight decrease from $4.1 million a year earlier.?
Furthermore, CAPMAS released Egypt’s foreign trade data for March 2024, revealing a trade balance deficit of $2.37 billion, compared to $3.09 billion for the same month of the previous year, marking a decrease of 23.2 percent.??
Key indicators showed that the value of exports decreased by 10.9 percent, amounting to $3.57 billion during March 2024, compared to $4 billion for the same month of the previous year.?
This decline is attributed to the decrease in the value of exports of certain goods, most notably plastics in primary forms by 6.7 percent, fertilizers by 57.4 percent, iron bars, rods, angles, and wires by 1.1percent, and crude oil by 49.9 percent. ?
Conversely, the value of some exported goods increased during March 2024 compared to the same month of the previous year, most notably petroleum products by 130.3 percent, fresh fruits by 7.2 percent, ready-made garments by 14.2 percent, and pasta and various food preparations by 26.8 percent.?
Additionally, the value of imports decreased by 16.2 percent, amounting to $5.94 billion during March 2024, compared to $7.09 billion for the same month of the previous year. ?
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