Business

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Roscosmos and US company Space Adventures have signed a new contract on the flight of two space tourists to the International Space Station until late 2021 onboard one spacecraft, the state corporation told TASS on Tuesday.

"The Roscosmos state corporation and US company Space Adventures have signed a contract on carrying out short-term space flights to the ISS by two non-professional astronauts onboard one spacecraft. The flight to the station will take place until the end of 2021," Roscosmos said.

MOSCOW, February 19. /TASS/. Various restrictions, including economic sanctions, introduced by other countries cost Russia $6.3bln by late 2018, according to the estimates of the Economic Development Ministry presented on Tuesday.

These restrictions include anti-dumping duties, licensing, quotas, technical barriers, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and also economic sanctions.

Islamabad, Feb 18 (PTI) Pakistan has the potential to become one the top 20 economies of the world, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said Monday as he concluded his two-day visit to Islamabad.

The Crown Prince briefly interacted with the media along with Prime Minister Imran Khan at Nur Khan air base at the conclusion of his first state visit to Pakistan.

New Delhi, Feb 18 (PTI) The Reserve Bank on Monday said it will give Rs 28,000 crore to the government as interim dividend.

The decision was taken at the meeting of the RBI's Central Board here.

"Based on a limited audit review and after applying the extant economic capital framework, the Board decided to transfer an interim surplus of Rs 280 billion to the central government for the half-year ended December 31, 2018," the central bank said in a statement.

This is the second successive year that the Reserve Bank will be transfering an interim surplus.

Kolkata, Feb 18 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to initiate a high-level probe into financial impropriety and possible misappropriation of savings of common people due to the debt crisis in Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) Ltd.

The crisis has put to peril "lakhs and lakhs of employees" of private and public sector enterprises who had put their hard-earned money into the company, she said.

SINGAPORE, Feb 19 (NNN-CNA) — The Singapore government will spend about S$22.7 billion, or 30 per cent of its total expenditure in Financial Year (FY) 2019, on defence, security and diplomacy, Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced in his Budget statement.

In FY2018, defence, security and diplomacy spending accounted for about 28 per cent of the total Government expenditure.

“Given its strategic significance, the Government will continue to invest a significant share of our resources … to support our defence, security and diplomacy efforts,” he told Parliament.

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US-China trade talks aimed at ending a damaging tariff war resumed from Tuesday (Feb 19) in Washington, the White House said.

The last set of talks ended Friday in Beijing with no deal, though US President Donald Trump said the discussions were going “extremely well” and suggested he could extend a March 1 truce deadline for an agreement to be reached.

The next round of negotiations will commence with deputy-level meetings before moving on to principal-level talks on Thursday, a White House statement said.

MEXICO CITY, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday stressed the economic and trade potential in the Asia-Pacific region, especially China, saying his government aims to bolster trade with countries in the region.

One of his government's strategic projects is to build a bicoastal corridor in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a narrow area of land in southern Mexico, between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, he said.

BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese authorities on Monday unveiled the outline development plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, aiming to develop the region into "a role model of high-quality development."

The plan was released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council.

Promoting the development of the Greater Bay Area is a major decision made by the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, said an official in charge of the office of the leading group for developing the area.

BEIJING, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- China will attract a large pour of foreign investment in 2019, as the country keeps widening foreign access to its capital market, China Securities News reported Monday.

In 2018, China's capital market welcomed a record-high overseas investment of 120 billion U.S. dollars, the newspaper said, citing a report released by the Citibank.

The bank also projects that foreign capital worth 200 billion U.S. dollars will flow to China's capital market this year.