SHARJAH // // Junk food is being expelled from schools as part of a push to reduce childhood obesity.
Nearly 13,000 pupils at primary and secondary schools will be served more fruit, vegetables and healthy meals at lunchtimes.
The sale of sweets, chocolate and soft drinks will be phased out and replaced by healthier snacks.
The move is part of a Government plan to make sure all public-school canteens meet strict new rules on food safety, hygiene and health.
“Our teams overseeing the programme ensure that all school canteens are clean and that the food being sold to students is healthy and not junk food,” said Aisha Saif Al Ameen, secretary general of Sharjah Education Council.
“They also make sure prices are fixed, affordable and uniform in all schools.”
Students pay about Dh2.5 for snacks, with meals costing between Dh5 and Dh7.
Maysoon Al Shaali, the head of nutrition and continuous medical education at Sharjah Education Zone, said providing healthy meals to students was important to school chiefs and parents.
“The most concern for parents these days is unhealthy food that increases obesity among their children,” Ms Al Shaali said.
Obese children can develop high blood pressure and high cholesterol and are more prone to conditions such as cardiovascular disease, kidney problems and type 2 diabetes in adulthood.
The new school year starts tomorrow. Meals prepared in 104 canteens for 12,800 students will be monitored on the orders of the Ruler of Sharjah, Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, said Ms Al Shaali.
The education council has asked each school to supervise standards in canteens and the quality of food served to pupils, and to report all breaches of the rules.
“School administrations have to actively participate in these endeavours to secure the lives of their students and prevent the risks of obesity, diabetes and food poisoning happening in schools,” Ms Al Ameen said.
Schoolchildren in the UAE are 1.8 times more obese than children in the US, according to studies conducted by the cardiology department at Saif bin Ghubash Hospital in Ras Al Khaimah.
The latest statistics from the Health Authority Abu Dhabi found that 30 per cent of youngsters between the ages of 6 and 18 in the emirate were either obese or overweight.
Ms Al Ameen said canteen staff had also been instructed to store milk and dairy products and fruit juices in refrigerators. The number of refrigerators in each canteen is to be increased.
The authorities have promised to be strict should their rules be broken, from hygiene-related issues to the late delivery of food, Ms Al Shaali said.
“Late deliveries could make the school administration buy food outside from uninspected shops, which could be dangerous,” she said. Health breaches would be referred to the municipality.
A spokesman said regular inspections were carried out at restaurants, bakeries and other food shops licensed to supply schools.
Those who break the rules receive a warning but repeated offences could result in their contract being cancelled, the spokesman said.
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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
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What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
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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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.