Marhaba folks! 🌟

Hope you're having a great day! In today's edition, we're covering:

• 🌏🌟 UAE & New Zealand Seal Trade Deal to Boost Economic Ties 🚢💼

• 🌍💼 Middle Eastern Investors Pump $9 Billion Into China While Others Retreat 🚀🧳

• 🔮👓 Meta Unveils Orion AR Glasses as the Future of Augmented Reality 🌍

Let's dive in! 👇

🌏🌟 UAE & New Zealand Seal Trade Deal to Boost Economic Ties 🚢💼

📰 What is it about?

• UAE and New Zealand finalized a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa).

• 98.5% of New Zealand’s exports to the UAE will have duties removed immediately.

• 99% of New Zealand exports will be duty-free within 3 years.

• The agreement was reached after 4 months of negotiations.

💡 Why it matters?

• The deal aims to increase bilateral trade and boost ties with the Asia-Pacific region.

• UAE's non-oil trade with New Zealand in 2023 was valued at $460.3 million, up 11.5%.

• New Zealand is the UAE's largest trading partner in the Middle East, accounting for 50% of its trade with the MENA region.

• New Zealand’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors offer significant potential for the UAE.

• The deal will boost investments between the two countries.

🔜 What’s next?

• New Zealand exports dairy, meat, and industrial products; UAE exports plastics, carpets, and more.

• The UAE is signing multiple Cepas, with similar agreements in place with India, Australia, and Israel.

• The Cepa includes sections on sustainable development, labour, and climate.

• UAE aims for Dh4 trillion in foreign trade by 2031, with a 4% economic growth projected this year.

📈 Markets

🌍💼 Middle Eastern Investors Pump $9 Billion Into China While Others Retreat 🚀🧳

📰 What is it about?

• Middle Eastern investors, led by ADIA and Mubadala, are investing record capital into China.

• Notable deals include ADIA's stake in Midea Group’s $4 billion listing and involvement in an $8.3 billion deal with Dalian Wanda Group.

• Saudi Arabia's PIF bought $2 billion worth of bonds from Lenovo as part of a strategic partnership.

• $9 billion in deals have been made this year, a record for Middle Eastern firms in Greater China.

💡 Why it matters?

• Middle East investors find Chinese assets undervalued, taking advantage of limited competition.

• They are key players globally, backing deals worth $55 billion in 2024.

• China’s geopolitical tensions and slower economy haven’t deterred Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, unlike other global investors.

• The collaboration spans sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and energy, offering growth opportunities in key Chinese industries.

🔜 What’s next?

• Saudi Aramco plans further investment in chemical plants and is exploring deals with Hengli Petrochemical and other firms.

• Middle Eastern funds continue diversifying into tech, clean energy, and industrial sectors.

• The focus is expanding beyond China, with ADIA and Mubadala also investing in Southeast Asia, India, and Japan.

• Investors are exploring chipmaking, AI, and electric vehicle batteries, with long-term ambitions to reshape their economies.

Quote of the day
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.” - Pablo Picasso

🔮👓 Meta Unveils Orion AR Glasses as the Future of Augmented Reality 🌍

📰 What is it about?

• Meta introduced Orion AR glasses at its Meta Connect event, described by CEO Mark Zuckerberg as "the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen."

• Orion glasses feature tiny projectors that create a heads-up display for true augmented reality (AR), positioning the glasses as an eventual smartphone alternative.

• The glasses will include a neural interface powered by Meta’s 2019 acquisition of CTRL-labs, offering wristband control for users.

• Initially available for developers, Orion is seen as a successor to Meta's Ray-Ban Meta glasses and aims to combine holographic displays and personalized AI in an all-day wearable.

💡 Why it matters?

• Orion represents a major step in making AR mainstream, allowing users to interact with the digital world through immersive displays and AI features like translation and navigation.

• Meta’s significant investment, estimated at over $50 billion, shows their commitment to augmented reality and the metaverse.

• By competing with products like Apple’s Vision Pro and Snap Spectacles, Orion could reshape the way people engage with both the digital and physical worlds, unlocking a wide range of multitasking and entertainment possibilities.

🔜 What’s next?

• Developers will have early access to Orion to start building apps, with Meta refining the glasses for a consumer release in the coming years.

• The glasses will focus on creating a seamless blend of digital content and the physical environment, with future updates likely to introduce new use cases like life-size holograms.

• Meta will continue its R&D efforts, including a smaller HUD version, and release new devices leading up to Orion’s official launch, pushing AR into everyday wearables.

In other news…

1. Microsoft to open first-ever engineering development center in the Arab world, and that will be in Abu Dhabi.

2. Customers are telling Israel’s three largest banks to transfer their money to other countries.

3. UAE-based Climate-tech startup Coral raises $3 million in seed funding.

4. UAE’s Masdar has expanded its European energy portfolio, splurging $1.4 Billion on Saeta acquisition.

5. ITP Media Group apologises to Emirati girl Maryam and the UAE community after the on-show bullying episode.

The Latest from the Smashi Business Studio

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