ABU DHABI // Abu Dhabi has been voted the safest emirate in which to live and work.
Respondents were asked to rank the emirates in order of safety. Overall, almost half (47 per cent) ranked Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s largest emirate, as the safest, closely followed by Dubai at 41 per cent.
“When you look at the difference among emirates, the safest emirate based on our feedback from our interviewers is Abu Dhabi,” said Lara Al Barazi, YouGov associate research director. “This was not really a surprise. Maybe because it is the capital, people feel more safe. It is the main city.
“When you are in Dubai it is not that different, but Abu Dhabi has that feeling it is the safest city or emirate in the UAE.”
Ms Al Barazi felt with Abu Dhabi being the capital of the UAE, it should be the safest emirate.
“It is more of a kind of regional perspective. People believe the capital has more attention or more police. It is about the perception.”
The majority of Arab expatriates (63 per cent) selected Abu Dhabi as the safest emirate, as did Emiratis and westerners (both 50 per cent of those asked). The majority of Asian expatriates (45 per cent), however, felt safer in Dubai than in the other emirates.
“I feel Abu Dhabi is the safest place to live in the UAE,” said Sajeev, 43, an Indian expatriate media sales executive in Dubai.
“But the whole of the UAE is safe. It is a nice place overall, so any part, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, feels safe. I don’t know much about the other emirates, but Dubai and Abu Dhabi definitely.
“Overall, I would feel much safer in this part of the world, in the UAE, than in other parts of the world.”
He generally felt safer in the UAE than in his home country, for example.
“It is safer here than back home,” he said. “That is not a personal view but a general view.”
Researchers surveyed respondents in each of the seven emirates: 260 from Abu Dhabi, 461 in Dubai, 161 in Sharjah and 126 from the Northern Emirates of Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.
In his 12 years in the UAE, Souvik Guha, 47, an Indian expatriate who works in Dubai as a general manager, has lived in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah, his present home.
He believed there was a general feeling of being safer in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“People are more aware and the police are at hand,” he said. There was more of a feeling of a police presence in the two emirates.
“I lived in Abu Dhabi about seven to eight years ago and even then I felt it safer. While I have not lived in Dubai, I do work there and you know that if you call, the cops will come.”
He sais that while generally the UAE was a safe place to live, he thought the Northern Emirates needed to improve some measures to feel as safe as in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“I had an experience in Sharjah: I had a minor car accident. I had to wait three hours and nobody turned up. But that was about three years ago and things have improved in Sharjah, but there is still a long way to go.
“But generally in Dubai if you call they are there within 30 minutes. Police are approachable. Approachability is not the issue. The problem is when you do call the 999 number, it is the time they take to really get to you.”
Mr Guha believed there needed to be more awareness and more personnel but said, generally, the UAE felt a very safe place to live and work.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
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.”
SCHEDULE
Saturday, April 20: 11am to 7pm - Abu Dhabi World Jiu-Jitsu Festival and Para jiu-jitsu.
Sunday, April 21: 11am to 6pm - Abu Dhabi World Youth (female) Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
Monday, April 22: 11am to 6pm - Abu Dhabi World Youth (male) Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
Tuesday, April 23: 11am-6pm Abu Dhabi World Masters Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
Wednesday, April 24: 11am-6pm Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
Thursday, April 25: 11am-5pm Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
Friday, April 26: 3pm to 6pm Finals of the Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship.
Saturday, April 27: 4pm and 8pm awards ceremony.
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