Fifteen years ago, Etihad Airways began operations with a ceremonial flight from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain. That short hop was the prelude to the airline's great leap into the global market. Today, Etihad operates a fleet of 110 planes to more than 90 destinations and carries millions of passengers.
Back in 2003, those figures might have seemed a remote prospect, although it was clear from the start that the airline’s management was ambitious and in a hurry. In hindsight, it is easy to now see two complementary big ideas working in tandem with the establishment of the airline.
The first and most obvious was the idea of economic expansion. By opening up shop, Etihad encouraged trade in its home port of Abu Dhabi, and the more it expanded its network of routes, the more attractive the city became to commercial entities to build businesses and trade here.
The second idea was a broader opening up of the city itself, as tourism and travel became part of a bigger plan to help diversify Abu Dhabi’s economy away from the traditional reliance on oil revenues. To this day, one of the airline’s core responsibilities is to support the emirate’s Economic Vision 2030, which seeks to build an “open, efficient, effective and globally integrated business environment”. It could be argued that few decisions have been more central to the modern development of Abu Dhabi than the establishment of the airline.
In this context, all of the many attractions on our doorsteps today, the theme parks such as Ferrari World, Warner Bros and Yas Waterworld, the universal museum that is Louvre Abu Dhabi, which celebrates its first anniversary this week, the staging of Formula 1 races since 2009 and even the establishment of further education institutions such as New York University and the Sorbonne in Abu Dhabi are all pieces of the same puzzle.
It is no surprise that the agreements to establish these entities were all signed during the same years. If the airline’s beginning was emblematic of the city’s push to open up to the world, then these deals confirmed the symbolism of that narrative. More recent figures underscore that trend. According to government data, more than 4.44 million guests stayed in hotels in the emirate in 2016 and the travel and tourism sector accounted for 12.1 per cent of GDP nationwide. That figure was just 2.1 per cent of GDP when Etihad was first reaching for the skies
The “Etihad effect” was almost instant in Abu Dhabi. The international airport experienced 28 per cent growth in passenger traffic in the first quarter of 2004 and, before the year was out, the emirate had introduced the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority as it sought to build a visitor plan.
In many ways, the city then was much as it is now for those who did make the journey. Capital cities in Europe may have iconic sites, but Abu Dhabi has always thrived on a series of imponderables: people enjoy the city because it is safe and secure – it has been recognised as the safest city in the world for the past two years – and because of its well-earned reputation for Emirati hospitality. It is a place that rewards time spent, as visitors become increasingly aware of its mix of cultures and nationalities and its many layers.
While it is not always productive to wallow in nostalgia, as Peter Hellyer noted on these pages last month, it is worth thinking about what was here for visitors in those initial years of Abu Dhabi's new airline.
The United Arab Emitrates Yearbook 2005 notes the addition of the new Emirates Palace Hotel as being part of a "steadily improving tourism profile" for the emirate. It also said that the city had "magnificent golf courses, many international-brand hotels with beach and resort facilities, new shopping malls, heritage centres and the benefit of an island location with acres of beach." There was also Qasr Al Hosn, but much of the rest of the visitor experience sat somewhere between the distant past and the far-off future.
The Grand Mosque was under construction. The expansion of the Corniche was on course for completion. Land reclamation had allowed for the development of the Breakwater and Marina Mall. Work would soon be finished on Khalifa Park. Plans, never realised, were afoot for Lulu Island. A project was under way to replace the “atmospheric but rundown” old souq in the city centre, which had been partially destroyed by fire. The third crossing project, which was opened in 2010 as the Zaha Hadid-designed Sheikh Zayed Bridge, was making tentative progress.
But the masterplans for Yas and Saadiyat islands had not yet been made public and the eyecatching architecture of Capital Gate’s leaning tower as well as the futuristic design of Aldar HQ were all to come.
In other words, the impact of that first flight to Al Ain still reverberates any time a new attraction or landmark opens.
Nick March is an assistant editor-in-chief at The National
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
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Rating: 3/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
McLaren GT specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
THE BIO
Favourite holiday destination: Whenever I have any free time I always go back to see my family in Caltra, Galway, it’s the only place I can properly relax.
Favourite film: The Way, starring Martin Sheen. It’s about the Camino de Santiago walk from France to Spain.
Personal motto: If something’s meant for you it won’t pass you by.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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THE SPECS
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
RoboCop%3A%20Rogue%20City
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