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The Mediterranean island country of Malta is coming to Dubai to tap the Middle East market.

Google - one of the world's most popular Internet search engines - has launched four new country-specific domains - one of which is the 'ae' domain of the UAE. The three others include Singapore, Greece and Finland.

Anticipating heavy demand in the next few months, major shipping lines serving the Far East to the Middle East sea trade route, have jacked up freight rates by up to $100 per 20-foot container from today.

The UAE mobile phone market is growing but that growth is now fuelled mainly by the demand for replacements rather than by new subscribers, according to Abdul Jabar Al Sayegh, chairman of Al Sayegh Brothers Trading.

Two Abu Dhabi banks - Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (Nbad) - have sped away in 2001 results, each announcing net profit of more than Dh600 million.

Computer Shopper to feature 108 firms

The gloomy performance by U.S. markets, not politics or fear, led to the much-publicised withdrawal of some Arab funds from the U.S., according to a senior HSBC Investment Bank plc official.

The last quarter of 2001 emerged as the most eventful one for the UAE financial sector with events related to terrorism and money laundering barrelling along on parallel tracks.

Air India, the Indian national flag carrier, has added extra flying time between Delhi and Gulf destinations, but has not passed on the higher fuel consumption and time costs to passengers, airline sources said yesterday.

The GCC countries remain a lucrative market for Boeing, which hopes to get more than 10 new orders from the Gulf this year against the backdrop of the global slowdown.

Despite all measures by carriers, including rate restorations and reduction in capacity, it was external factors that arrested a free fall in freight rates and brought in a measure of firmness, said industry experts.

The latest "entrepreneurs" to hit the streets of Dubai are citizens of communist China.