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UAE Unveils Energy, Infrastructure Roadmap

Men stand in front of solar panels at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, November 28, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer
Men stand in front of solar panels at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, November 28, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer
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UAE Unveils Energy, Infrastructure Roadmap

Men stand in front of solar panels at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, November 28, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer
Men stand in front of solar panels at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, November 28, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer

The UAE government has revealed the "Road Map for Leadership in the Energy, Infrastructure, Housing and Transport sectors to define the objectives for the next ten years.

This will be done in a way that implements the Fifty Years strategy, within a comprehensive vision based on enhancing international competitiveness globally, supporting infrastructure sustainability, and shaping and boosting development projects within the framework of a comprehensive approach.

This approach would lead to a brand new and qualitative stage in this sector to fulfill the government's aspirations.

The UAE has a logistical system that is the most sophisticated and efficient of its kind in the region, and it is not possible to maintain ''our logistical excellence without enhancing the quality of the infrastructure and developing the transport sector by achieving qualitative leaps that mirror our aspirations for the next stage,'' Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president, prime minister and ruler of Dubai stated.

"We want to achieve a qualitative leap in infrastructure, energy and transport fields as part of a vision that combines inclusiveness and integration and takes into account balance and sustainability and enhances our competitiveness regionally and globally," Sheikh Mohammed stated.

"The private sector is the engine of work in the future and we will work to develop its contribution to infrastructure, energy, transportation, and housing projects in the framework of an integrated partnership," he added.

Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei, minister of energy and infrastructure, presented the Road Map to Sheikh Mohammed.

Mazrouei said the ministry's vision is based on the inclusion of all energy, infrastructure, citizens' housing, and transportation sectors within an integrated system for asset management and was developed within the ministry's initiatives aimed at promoting and sustaining services.

Through this integrated asset management system, it is expected to reduce the cost of managing and maintaining government buildings and facilities by up to 20 percent, he added.

In a related context, Mazrouei spoke about the objectives of the Federal Centre for Road Network Operations Management, which the ministry is nearing completion.

He shed light on the achievements of the citizens' housing sector, its development initiatives, a mechanism for sustainability and meeting future needs, preserving the national gains in that area, and the mechanism that works accordingly.

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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank on Thursday, the Treasury Department said, as President Joe Biden steps up actions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine before he leaves office in January.
The move, which wields the department's most powerful sanctions tool, effectively kicks Gazprombank out of the US banking system, bans its trade with Americans and freezes its US assets, Reuters reported.
Gazprombank is one of Russia's largest banks and is partially owned by Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom. Since Russia's invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has been urging the US to impose more sanctions on the bank, which receives payments for natural gas from Gazprom's customers in Europe.
The fresh sanctions come days after the Biden administration allowed Kyiv to use US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory. On Tuesday, Ukraine fired the weapons, the longest range missiles Washington has supplied for such attacks on Russia, on the war's 1,000th day.
The Treasury also imposed sanctions on 50 small-to-medium Russian banks to curtail the country's connections to the international financial system and prevent it from abusing it to pay for technology and equipment needed for the war. It warned that foreign financial institutions that maintain correspondent relationships with the targeted banks "entails significant sanctions risk."
"This sweeping action will make it harder for the Kremlin to evade US sanctions and fund and equip its military," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. "We will continue to take decisive steps against any financial channels Russia uses to support its illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine."
Gazprombank said Washington's latest move would not affect its operations. The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Along with the sanctions, Treasury also issued two new general licenses authorizing US entities to wind down transactions involving Gazprombank, among other financial institutions, and to take steps to divest from debt or equity issued by Gazprombank.
Gazprombank is a conduit for Russia to purchase military materiel in its war against Ukraine, the Treasury said. The Russian government also uses the bank to pay its soldiers, including for combat bonuses, and to compensate the families of its soldiers killed in the war.
The administration believes the new sanctions improve Ukraine's position on the battlefield and ability to achieve a just peace, a source familiar with the matter said.
COLLATERAL IMPACT
While Gazprombank has been on the administration's radar for years, it has been seen as a last resort because of its focus on energy and the desire to avoid collateral impact on Europe, a Washington-based trade lawyer said.
"I think that the current administration is trying to put as much pressure and add as many sanctions as possible prior to January 20th to make it harder for the next administration to unwind," said the lawyer, Douglas Jacobson.
Officials in Slovakia and Hungary said they were studying the impacts of the new US sanctions.
Trump would have the power to remove the sanctions, which were imposed under an executive order by Biden, if he wants to take a different stance, Jacobson said.
After Russia's invasion in 2022, the Treasury placed debt and equity restrictions on 13 Russian firms, including Gazprombank, Sberbank and the Russian Agricultural Bank.
The US Treasury has also worked to provide Ukraine with funds from windfall proceeds of frozen Russian assets.