General view of the Kuwaiti capital (Archive)

Thursday 21 September 2023 / 19:19

The Supreme Committee for Sovereign Credit Rating Administration says all rating agencies expect Kuwait to adopt financing mechanisms other than withdrawal from the public reserve fund, according to the finance minister’s response to a parliamentary question.
The panel added in its response, “The agencies indicated the possibility of downgrading the sovereign debt rating of the State of Kuwait as the pace of implementing structural financial and economic reforms to diversify the state’s sources of income and rationalize public spending slows.”
In the first year of the plan, which will extend from 2023, the government said in a work plan submitted to parliament in July that it wants to approve a public debt law and its regulatory framework that links to projects of added economic value. 2027.

#Kuwait.. The new law prohibits election invalidation

https://t.co/6S1GPww1fC pic.twitter.com/BHA2lcx84j

— 24.ae (@20fourMedia) July 26, 2023

But the law ran into initial opposition from representatives, as key members of Kuwait’s National Assembly sharply criticized the government’s proposal to approve a long-awaited public debt law, an early sign that the new government may face old, familiar challenges. May be a hindrance to economic reforms.

Perpetual bickering between successive governments and parliaments in Kuwait in recent years has hampered economic reforms, including blocking a public debt law that, if passed, would have allowed Kuwait to benefit from international credit markets and hedge against risks to the country’s public budget. Dependent heavily on oil.

The government panel pointed out the importance of linking credit rating agencies to laws authorizing laws to provide liquidity to state public exchequers, such as the Public Debt Act and the Financial and Economic Reforms Act.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday that some Chinese companies have received export licenses for the elements gallium and germanium used in chipmaking, after Beijing imposed new conditions on exports from August 1.

Ministry of Commerce spokesman He Yadong said at a regular press conference that the ministry has approved the applications of some companies that meet the relevant requirements and is still reviewing others.

The comments came after China’s exports of germanium and gallium elements fell in August, the first month of export restrictions, customs data showed on Wednesday.

This followed a surge in exports of specialty chip miners in July, with foreign buyers rushing to secure supplies before the restrictions came into effect.

That month, China announced export restrictions on eight gallium products and six German products starting in August. It’s the latest episode in an escalating battle between Beijing and Washington over access to materials used to make high-tech microchips.

According to the new rules, exporters of germanium and gallium products must obtain an export license for dual-use materials and technologies, or those capable of military and civilian use.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said it received some applications for export licenses in mid-August.

China’s germanium exports in the first eight months of 2023 reached 36.48 metric tons, up 58 percent from the same period last year, while gallium exports fell 58 percent year-on-year to 22.72 tons. August.

Agence France-Presse told Agence France-Presse that Germany is considering banning components made by Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE in its fifth-generation communications networks starting in 2026, in exchange for Chinese moves to control markets related to the chip industry. On Wednesday.

According to the government’s proposals, Chinese elements will be excluded from the “core network” of communications in the country from January 1, 2026, the sources said.

The ban is understood to affect not only new components but also established ones. Sources indicate that the German government wants to start phasing out Huawei and ZTE components from its networks.

There are changes to Germany’s fifth-generation mobile phone networks, which are operated by Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica, that are “of great importance to the German government with regard to security policies,” according to a draft document from the interior ministry. Agence France-Presse.

The document said Germany has “major structural dependencies” on Huawei and ZTE, which in its view require urgent action.

The government’s plan is part of Germany’s strategy to “de-risk” its relations with China, announced by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in July, the document says. Last July, Germany published a 64-page document outlining a new strategy for dealing with China, its largest trading partner.

The document sought to renew Germany’s stance towards China as a “partner and competitor” while seeking to strike a balance between China and the largest economy in the EU. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said when presenting the strategy: “We want to reduce sensitivity bias in the future,” adding that Berlin is thus “responding to China, which is becoming more assertive.”

The family of a North Carolina man who died after driving a car on a collapsed bridge while he was following Google Maps directions wants to sue the giant for negligence and says the company was notified of the bridge’s collapse. But it doesn’t improve its navigation system.

Phillip Paxson, a sales representative and father of two daughters, drowned after his car plunged into Snow Creek in the Hickory area on Sept. 30, 2022, according to a family lawsuit filed Tuesday in Wake County Superior Court.

Paxon was returning home from his daughter’s ninth birthday party when Google Maps told him to cross a bridge that collapsed nine years ago and has not been repaired to this day.

For his part, his wife, Alicia Paxson, said in a press release, “Our two daughters ask how and why their father died, and I don’t know what to answer to make them understand, because as an adult I haven’t yet. Knowing how to understand who is responsible for underestimating the directions of the global navigation system and the bridge to human life.

State police officials who found Paxon’s body in his semi-submerged car said there were no barricades or warning signs on the flooded road.

The bridge is not maintained by local or state officials, and the development company that originally built it has gone out of business, the State Patrol said.

The lawsuit names several private property management companies responsible for the bridge and adjacent land.

In the years before Paxon’s death, several people reported the bridge collapse to Google Maps and urged the company to update the route information, the suit said.