News

Wisdom Motor Brings First Zero-Emission Bus To GCC

The company is supporting the Abu Dhabi International Transport Centre’s Green Bus Assessment program that forms part of the UAE’s sustainability agenda.

Published

3 years ago

November 30, 2023

Nour Nasir

Wisdom Motor

Wisdom Motor, a Chinese technology company that designs zero-emission commercial vehicles, has announced a cooperation with the Integrated Transport Centre (ITC) in Abu Dhabi.

The partnership aims to provide new green mobility solutions, the first of which, a 12-meter Hydrogen City Bus, uses fuel cells to achieve a range of 500 km, while reducing CO2 by 105 kg per 100 km of travel.

Mr. Cliff Zhang, Chairman of the board of directors of Wisdom Motor, commented: “We are proud to partner with the ITC to bring our cutting-edge technology and customized hydrogen-powered vehicles to Abu Dhabi. This cooperation not only reinforces the quality and competitiveness of Wisdom Motor but is also a significant milestone for our company in entering the GCC market”.

So far, Wisdom Motor’s zero-emission commercial vehicles have achieved several milestones and continue to expand globally. The company builds its highly customizable vehicles at a production hub of over 480,000 sq m in Fujian, China.

Wisdom Motor aims to disrupt the competitive commercial sector with short turnarounds and custom engineering, including state-of-the-art monocoque structures and in-house-made composite materials. So far, the company has won contracts in the UK, Germany, France, the Nordics, Australia, Japan and Korea.

Also Read: Big Tech Knows Too Much. More Regulation Is The Answer

Near its headquarters in Hong Kong, a fleet of Wisdom Motor tri-axle, hydrogen-powered double-decker buses are already in service, acting as proof-of-concept for long-distance commercial transportation using hydrogen.

Hydrogen offers several advantages over conventional fuels: It is lightweight, nearly three times the energy density of diesel per unit of mass, and produces zero emissions. In each operating market, Wisdom Motor works with partners to develop the infrastructure needed to make hydrogen fuel a viable solution.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 days ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.