Competitiveness can be a difficult concept to grasp.
The word itself doesn't really help.
It's the "titive" bit in the middle that titypically titends to be titricky.
People either say it twice or just vault over it entirely and hope for the best.
In the new abbreviated global economy of Twitter and text, "competitiveness" has lost its competitiveness.
We may have to replace it with just a lower case "c" and a smiley face.
If it is difficult to say, it can be even more difficult to achieve. At least three major conferences in Dubai last week are all competing to attract the leading names in global competitiveness.
It was a perfect storm of mispronunciation.
The competitiveness industry has never been more prosperous and it is no coincidence that this is occurring at such a poverty-stricken time for the global economy.
Even the Chinese are struggling with competitiveness these days.
Along with kung fu and the production of synthetic eggs, the Chinese are generally reckoned to be pretty darn good at competitiveness.
China's Olympic gymnast of an economy has pivoted, cartwheeled and back flipped its way to double-digit growth over the past decade while America waddled hopelessly behind in elasticated jeans.
But wage inflation in the world's most populous nation has led to what was until recently unthinkable - America winning back jobs, albeit in relatively small numbers. Now it is the kung fu panda economy that could do with losing a few pounds.
Competitiveness is often discussed as if it were an absolute when it is really a relative condition. It relies on others being uncompetitive to flourish.
For hundreds of years the cavalry was a really competitive way for small numbers of posh chaps on horses to trample over large numbers of infantry. But somewhere between 1914 and 1918, it too lost its competitiveness.
For a long time the cavalry was morose and didn't go out very much until someone suggested beefing it up with some tanks and overnight it was back in business, happily trampling over all comers.
The British Empire had an awesome cavalry that was often used to explain to countries that were not in the British Empire that they actually now were in the British Empire and that they should jolly well get used to it.
Then the British Empire became uncompetitive and created the Commonwealth Games where it could again become competitive by avoiding Cuban boxers and American sprinters.
Which brings us to today and the increasing urgency of Arabian Gulf states to achieve competitiveness in a world where old assumptions are being increasingly challenged.
Chief among these is the question of how long oil will power the world's economic engine, where most of it will come from and who will be in charge of filling its tank. This is why we see so much competitiveness-inspired introspection in this part of the world.
According to World Economic Forum rankings, most Gulf states have either maintained or in the case of the UAE, improved their competitiveness over the past year.
The gold stars dished out by the Davos mob tend to relate to such things as boosting transparency, making it easier to start a company and improving internet connectivity.
But what competitiveness is really about is jobs and creating as many high-value ones as possible. This is where policy can find itself pulling in different directions.
Regional governments are under pressure to create more jobs for their citizens and it is far easier to do this in the public rather than the private sector.
That makes the work of incentivising school leavers into technical degrees that are aligned with economic diversification agendas all the more challenging.
It's a difficult nettle to grasp but sooner or later policymakers across the region will need to decide what kind of jobs are needed to make the leap from the repetitive to the competitive. The rest is window dressing.
scronin@thenational.ae
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh1,100,000 (est)
Engine 5.2-litre V10
Gearbox seven-speed dual clutch
Power 630bhp @ 8,000rpm
Torque 600Nm @ 6,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 15.7L / 100km (est)
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Company Profile
Company name: Fine Diner
Started: March, 2020
Co-founders: Sami Elayan, Saed Elayan and Zaid Azzouka
Based: Dubai
Industry: Technology and food delivery
Initial investment: Dh75,000
Investor: Dtec Startupbootcamp
Future plan: Looking to raise $400,000
Total sales: Over 1,000 deliveries in three months
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Match info
Deccan Gladiators 87-8
Asif Khan 25, Dwayne Bravo 2-16
Maratha Arabians 89-2
Chadwick Walton 51 not out
Arabians won the final by eight wickets
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
Ain Issa camp:
- Established in 2016
- Houses 13,309 people, 2,092 families, 62 per cent children
- Of the adult population, 49 per cent men, 51 per cent women (not including foreigners annexe)
- Most from Deir Ezzor and Raqqa
- 950 foreigners linked to ISIS and their families
- NGO Blumont runs camp management for the UN
- One of the nine official (UN recognised) camps in the region
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UAE - India ties
The UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner after the US and China
Annual bilateral trade between India and the UAE has crossed US$ 60 billion
The UAE is the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil for India
Indians comprise the largest community with 3.3 million residents in the UAE
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the UAE in August 2015
His visit on August 23-24 will be the third in four years
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited India in February 2016
Sheikh Mohamed was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2017
Modi will visit Bahrain on August 24-25
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
