Latest: Middle East megaprojects to usher in new era of public transport
The Dutch eco-traveller who travelled to Dubai from Amsterdam on public transport said there is an emerging trend of people seeking alternatives to planes for travel.
Wiebe Wakker, 35, who delivered a speech at the International Association of Public Transport regional congress in Dubai on Sunday, travelled to the UAE by rail, bus, and car to highlight sustainability issues.
Mr Wakker used the platform to urge more people to consider alternatives to travelling by plane.
"People want to ditch the plane as more are becoming interested in taking trains and other forms of public transport," Mr Wakker said.
It’s important to live a life with a low-carbon footprint
Wiebe Wakker
“If you travel by plane it changes your day; if you travel by train it changes your life.
“It’s important to live a life with a low-carbon footprint.”
He praised Etihad Rail’s passenger train project that will transport passengers across the Emirates, and eventually connect with other countries in the region.
“It’s great news for everyone as it will connect people in countries all across the GCC,” said Mr Wakker.
“It will also reduce the need for people to use cars, which is, in turn, good news for sustainability.”
The Dutchman made headlines in 2019 when he completed a 100,000-kilometre journey from his home country to New Zealand, making the entire three-year trip in his electric car.
He was originally invited to speak at the Dutch pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai on the back of his globetrotting exploits and decided to make a similar eco-journey from the Netherlands to the Emirates.
The event at Expo was cancelled at the last minute due to the rise in Covid-19 cases brought about by the Omicron variant, but he did get to speak at the World Future Energy Summit, as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
“It didn’t make sense to take a plane to travel halfway around the world to talk about the value of sustainable travel,” he said.
“I couldn’t take my car again because it’s now a museum piece after the first journey.
“The only logical option was to take the train.”
However, his plan to complete the journey using public ground transport alone was hit by problems at the Iranian border, which was closed at the time to all but cargo transport.
Mr Wakker was forced to rethink his plan and took a flight from Erbil to Amman instead.
He completed his journey to Abu Dhabi by taking a 856-km bus journey from Amman to Hail, following by a train from Hail to Riyadh. The final leg was a 906-km bus trip to the UAE capital.
Despite the flight, his carbon dioxide footprint was 60 per cent less than travelling direct from Amsterdam to Dubai.
He said the decision to travel mostly by land was one of the best he has ever made.
“I wasn’t sure because I thought it might be boring sitting on a train for days on end,” he said.
“I was wrong because it was an amazing experience to see the changes in the scenery.
“I went from travelling through big cities in the Netherlands and Germany to going through snow in Austria and then being in the desert. It was surreal to do all that in one journey — it never would have happened if I just took a plane.”
Mr Wakker was grateful to be able to address the audience at the conference, especially because of the challenges he had faced along the way.
“I was really sad when I got the call the event at Expo was cancelled because that’s why I was travelling,” he said.
“I was delighted that my story had been noticed by the organisers of the transport congress who invited me to speak at the event today.”
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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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What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
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