Good morning, friends. Today’s issue has a bit of everything, with a big focus on decarbonization in shipping, last-mile delivery and more.

THE BIG LOGISTICS STORY- Oman’s Khazaen Economic City is getting two freezones to support light and medium industries and trade.Meanwhile, Tehran is ramping up efforts to electrify its transport fleet, with plans to furnish its intra-city transport fleet with 50k electric cars and 200k e-bikes.

Indian refiners have started paying for some Russian oil imports in Chinese CNY, sources close to the matter told Reuters. The move comes as Western sanctions on Russia have left the country “frozen out” of USD and EUR-based financial systems. Sellers are now asking Indian refiners to settle their payments in alternatives to the greenback, which has so far been the default currency for global oil trade. Indian banks processing payments have also preferred to steer clear of the greenback so as not to come under the purview of Western sanctions. Non-USD payments by refiners have also been settled in Emirati AED, sources told the newswire.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS- The Enterprise Finance Forum is taking place on 18-19 September at the St. Regis Hotel in Cairo. This flagship forum is the latest in our must-attend series of invitation-only, C-suite-level gatherings that allow senior members of our community to openly and frankly discuss critical issues in key sectors of the economy.

Day one is our Banking Forum, where we’ll dive deep into topics of interest to commercial and investment bankers, from an outlook on the 12 months to come in M&A, IPO, and debt capital markets to the national, regional, and global trends that are (re)shaping our industry.

Day two is all about Fintech and Non-Banking Financial Services. We’ll take a deep dive into everything from the magic of client acquisition to the prospects of consolidation and the coming of challenger banks.

** NEW: MORE NETWORKING TIME- Our agenda includes expanded networking time, including an expanded coffee break and a post-event networking room for you to interact with your peers and speak one-on-one with the team at Enterprise.

TAP OR CLICK HERE if you want to express interest in attending. We’ll be sending out the first batch of invitations just after the 30 June holiday.

Do you want to become a commercial partner? Please click here.

STAY TUNED for more detail about our agenda in the weeks to come.

MISSED THE ENTERPRISE EXPORTS AND FDI FORUM? Tune in to the Enterprise Podcast to hear what went down: The Enterprise Podcast is back with another installment of our forum series, where we bring you audio recordings of what was said on stage at the Enterprise Exports and FDI Forum,which took place last May.

IN THIS WEEK’S EPISODE- We looked at how Egyptian companies can identify and pitch foreign partners and how they can identify them. We asked how do companies figure out what they’re looking for — and whether that dovetails with what they want or need. We were joined on that panel by Hossam Abou Moussa, partner at PE firm Apis, Cheick-Oumar Sylla, director for North Africa and Horn of Africa at the International Finance Corporation, and Hassan Massoud, associate director and head of private equity (Southern Mediterranean) at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Expect us to drop an episode every Sunday morning. You can listen to the Enterprise Podcast where ever you get your podcasts including: Apple Podcast | Spotify | Google Podcast | Anghami.

HAPPENING TODAY-

The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Marine Environment ProtectionCommittee session kicked off earlier this week and is running till Friday at the IMO HQ in London, with in person and hybrid participation. The session’s main agenda is to adopt an upgraded IMO greenhouse gas strategy and reduction targets for the marine sector. The session will also look at ballast water and biofouling management, marine litter, guidelines for underwater noise, and the environmental risks of ship-to-ship transfers.

ICYMI- A debate is rising over a proposed global levy on shipping emissions, with a draft document seen by Bloomberg on Friday seeing the shipping industry agreeing to attempt to hit net zero “around” 2050 with a contentious proposal to levy a tax on shipping emissions — and other proposals including introducing limits to the amount of greenhouse gas emissions relative to energy used on ships.

The proposed taxation has triggered a response from China, which has urged developing nations to oppose what it described as an “unrealistic” global levy on shipping emissions. China warned that “an overly ambitious emission reduction target will seriously impede the sustainable development of international shipping, significantly increase the cost of the supply chain and will adversely impede the recovery of the global economy.” Beijing also said that rich countries were pushing the IMO to “reach unrealistic visions and levels of ambition” through a levy that would lead to a significant spike in maritime transport costs.

WATCH THIS SPACE-Iran has outlined “eight basic principles” for transit along the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) during an Iran-Russia-India trilateral meeting to promote freight transport along the corridor, state aligned Tasnim News Agency reported yesterday. Iran’s roads minister Mehrdad Bazrpash outlined a new initiative dubbed “Iran-Rah” during the meeting, involving eight principles he believed should form the backbone of the new corridor: multilateralism, widened participation, “neighborhood” oriented and networked approaches to transit, facilitation, leveraging trade relations, technology, and flexibility and resilience.

About INSTC: The corridor is a 7.2km network of ship, rail, and road routes connecting South Asia to Europe. The final piece of the corridor — a EUR 1.6 bn in the Rasht-Astara railway — is set to be completed in four years.

ENTERPRISE IS LOOKING FOR SMART, TALENTED PEOPLE of all backgrounds to help us build some very cool new things. Enterprise — the essential morning read on all the important news shaping business and the economy in Egypt and the region — is looking for writers, reporters and editors to help us build out new publications. Today, we run four daily Egypt and MENA-focused publications, five weekly industry verticals, and a weekend lifestyle edition designed to make our readers feel just a bit smarter.

We have tons more in the pipeline — come help us build new publications. We offer the chance to work in a fast-paced newsroom on a broad range of topics and in a variety of formats. Our goal is simple: To create value for our growing community of >250k daily readers by telling stories that matter.

Journalists looking to explore business, finance and economic stories are welcome. So are recent journalism school graduates.

That said, we're looking for gifted story-tellers from all walks of life and across all professions, as long as they show a keen interest in learning to write about the stories, topics, businesses, and figures moving markets. Egyptian and foreign nationals alike are welcome to apply. So are job-switchers: If you’re an equities analyst tired of the rat race, we’re a great place to come work.

NEVER WORKED IN A NEWSROOM BEFORE? We have the Enterprise Business Writing Development Program. Whether you are a recent graduate, an industry vet, or looking to switch careers, the Enterprise Business Writing Development Program will give you the tools you need to tell the most important stories to our audience of C-suite officials, government ministers, diplomats, financiers, investors and entrepreneurs.

During the program you will learn:

• The key news stories and trends shaping business and the economy in Egypt and the region, across various sectors;
• Business and finance for non-finance people: Whether it's industry jargon or key concepts or simply how to read a balance sheet;
• How to construct an Enterprise story: From idea formulation down to the structure, style and tone of writing;
• How to develop sources that will give you the key insights needed to tell a complete story;
• How to communicate these stories with the confidence and language of an insider.

Not an internship program — a career: The three-month program will see full-time, paid participants take part in workshops and lectures from veteran business journalists, while also working on and filing stories that will run on any of our publications. Those who have successfully completed the program, will then be given long-term job offers.

Apply directly to jobs@enterprisemea.com and mention “writing development program” in your subject line.