Companies
The world’s first refugee camp powered by renewable energy
The plant, funded by the Ikea Foundation, is the first in the world to be built in a refugee camp and will supply residents free of charge.

With only sporadic access to electricity, cooking and washing was a daily challenge for thousands of refugees living in Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp.
Managing the desert extremes of heat and cold was a constant problem, even getting to the washroom at night was a safety concern for women and children.
Now, a solar power plant is bringing reliable and free electricity to 20,000 refugees living in 5,000 of Arzaq’s shelters.
The two megawatt plant means thousands of families displaced by the Syrian war will now be able to power a fridge, fan, television and easily charge their phones to stay in contact with family and friends.
The plant, funded by the Ikea Foundation, is the first in the world to be built in a refugee camp and will supply residents free of charge. Until this year, the camp had no electricity, leaving households reliant on solar lanterns given to them on arrival and street lighting installed in one of the two camp villages.

Affordable and sustainable
With electricity in Jordan an expensive commodity, by going green the UN Refugee Agency will make immediate savings of $1.5 million per year. It plans to plough these savings back into other areas where help is needed.
With plans to upgrade the photovoltaic plant from two to five megawatts further down the line, it will soon cover all of Azraq’s energy needs for its 36,000 residents.

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Alongside a green power source, the plant has also created income for 50 of the refugees, who helped build the solar farm alongside Jordanian solar company Mustakbal. Some of these refugees will also be in charge of maintenance work in the future.
Since 2011, 5 million people have fled Syria for Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan. There are estimated to be 6.3m million internally displaced Syrians.
Bright idea
At a cost of €8.75m, the solar farm has been entirely funded by the Ikea Foundation’s ‘Brighter lives for refugees’ campaign, that has raised €30.8m for UNHCR projects across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The Ikea Foundation donated €1 to UNHCR for every LED light-bulb sold during the campaign period with the aim of bringing renewable energy and education to refugees.
Other projects funded by the Foundation include 22 biogas plants in Bangladesh, which process 15% of human waste to generate green fuel for cooking. It has also helped to train 740 teachers in Bangladesh, Chad and Ethiopia, enrolling 37,000 refugee children in primary school.
Banking
APAC corporates likely to improve in 2021
Moody’s Investors Service says in a new report that credit conditions in APAC will improve in 2021, supported by the gradual recovery of economic activity given the early containment of the pandemic in several Asian economies.

Ongoing fiscal and monetary support in both advanced and emerging markets will also aid improving conditions, but renewed lockdowns in parts of the world have stalled the nascent global economic recovery and create uncertainty around improving credit conditions.
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Thai Firm to produce 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine
Thai Firm Siam Bioscience Joins with AstraZeneca to Make COVID-19 Vaccine for Southeast Asia and says it will produce 200 million doses of its anti-coronavirus vaccine in Thailand next year.
Business
Great Wall Motor (China) takes over GM factory in Thailand
The Thai production hub will become operational in the first quarter of 2021 with automobile production capacity of 80,000 units per annum.

Chinese carmaker Great Wall Motor (GWM) hosted a ceremony on November 2nd to celebrate the latest milestone in taking full ownership of Rayong Manufacturing Facility in Thailand.
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