I refer to the business article Red tape means small companies prefer to recruit staff from abroad (October 8). I believe that UAE Government should follow only a one-year visa system that would give the employer and employee the same power and freedom to switch jobs or employees.
This would have a lot of advantages. The system would be efficient with highly improved performance because of job satisfaction, higher salaries and freedom. It would also create more competition in the market to retain good talent by the companies while they would be forced to maintain good salaries as per market requirements.
The new system would also produce revenues instead of following and implementing an identity card sort of system. The same security and monitoring requirements can be applied to the person as soon as he or she lands in the UAE. Otherwise, the UAE Government could adopt systems followed by other Gulf nations like Bahrain or Kuwait where they have abolished the sponsorship system altogether.
Kunal Panchigar, Abu Dhabi
A loyalty oath that does not belong
In reference to the article Netanyahu's approvement of forced allegiance (October 8), how insecure is the Israeli government that now they have to introduce a forced loyalty law? How many years has this country been in existence and now they come up with this? And how foolish is the Israeli government to think that Arabs who are continuously abused in Palestine will accept this loyalty law with wholeheartedness?
The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not wake up thinking that the Palestinians or Arabs living in Israel were going to accept this. Or did he think he could force them to accept it in a democratic and free country? Some people are equating this to loyalty declarations in other countries such as the US. But the US or other free and democratic countries that have loyalty declarations do not support a particular ethnicity. Jews are not just followers of Judaism but also a people who guard their lineage.
This law is another one of Israel's problematic perspectives. It does not belong in the Middle East.
Irfan Syed, Abu Dhabi
Doubts about religious tourism
In reference to the article Catering for religious tourists (September 13), maybe I come from a different school of thought. I understand that commerce is built into a human system and one cannot do without it. But what I am trying to understand is to what extent should trade entities do business in religious tourism. Should their activities include serving luxurious facilities and amenities to those who can afford more than the average person can?
I thought there is more meaning in exerting one's self and toiling hard to go and visit the places of God. I was taught so. That way one really feels that he has done his bit in life. I mean no offence to those who can afford it, though.
Amit Bhattacharjie, Dubai
Blow for general practitioners
The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has made some surprising rules for general practitioners (GPs), wherein a GP can only work in a polyclinic which has three specialities or in hospitals or in industrial areas. There is no logic behind the decision. Everywhere in the world GPs are the first line of contact with patients and if required, they are referred to specialists, but what the DHA wants to achieve is surprising.
Do they think that a GP can't handle patients with simple medical problems and do they mean that labourers and other poor people deserve a small GP and not big specialist, and that only the rich and influential deserve specialists?
Dr Mohammad Ahmed, Dubai
Examples of simple solutions
In response to Peter Hellyer's opinion article Grand schemes are not needed to solve great traffic woes (September 21), I agree with his simple but sound solutions to some of our most basic traffic problems. At the traffic light at City Terminal and Salam Street, only three to four cars make it across before the light starts blinking. There is so much stress because the line backs up during rush hours that people run the red light routinely.
Isn't there a department that surveys the traffic to see if the light sequencing is allowing ample numbers of cars through? Apparently not - or not frequently enough to know where there are trouble spots that could be easily corrected. The other solution has to do with left turns. The police have turned a blind eye to motorists turning left from the second lane for so long now that people are turning from the third and even fourth lanes at some intersections, endangering the lives of others for their own convenience.
Simple solutions with continued enforcement will solve not all, but some of our traffic woes.
Cora Yanacek, Abu Dhabi
The specs
Engine: 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 540hp at 6,500rpm
Torque: 600Nm at 2,500rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Kerb weight: 1580kg
Price: From Dh750k
On sale: via special order
Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Lee%20Sang-yong%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Don%20Lee%2C%20Lee%20Jun-hyuk%2C%20Munetaka%20Aoki%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3%2F5%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
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.
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.”