aka White collar workers, it represents all sorts of office employees whose job it is to extract information and keep it flowing. I suppose that it is by opposition to those who actually produce tangible goods.
Your first interpretation is correct.
Holidays in the US is what you call Banking holidays, 1 day at a time.
Your suggested translation would mean how many days for celebrations of this or that.
If they are talking about the length of a vacation, you ...
Christine, after reading the page that Laurent found on investments in Iran, I must agree. There is no comma after transports, but it is obvious that they use "filière" as a synonym of "secteur", and that "aval" applies strictly to "les industries ...
Yes, Alison and Laurent, "downstream oil and gas industries" is the most likely, but Catherine should confirm that this is the "filière" they're talking about.
"aval" in this case is obviously "downstream", but there is no way to translate "filière" without knowing which filière they're talking about. It could be "network", as suggested by Mishel, but it could be something else.
Tell us what they are referring ...
Question closed