DUBAI // The number of counterfeit products being shipped from the Emirates to the EU dropped to almost nil last year.
In 2010, fake goods that originated from the UAE made up only 0.66 per cent of all confiscated articles.
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By contrast, 15 per cent of all shipments seized the previous year arrived from the Emirates.
"Increased investment in border security and training is the main reason behind the significant drop," said Ahmed Butti, the director general of Dubai Customs.
More than €1 billion (Dh5.2bn) worth of goods were seized by authorities in Europe in 2010. Shipments from the UAE accounted for 1.79 per cent of the total, or Dh9.3m.
The biggest improvement was in counterfeit medical products.
The UAE was the last port of call before arriving in Europe for almost three-quarters of such items in 2009. The number of fake medical supplies arriving via the Emirates jumped from about 750,000 in 2008 to almost 5.5million in 2009.
Last year, India was the point of origin for 93 per cent of all fake medical items, followed by China and Hong Kong.
The European Commission's Taxation and Customs Union released the latest figures in the Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights 2010 report last month.
"Since 2008, a major shift in the approach to intellectual property rights violations has been conducted at Dubai Customs," Mr Butti said. An intelligence unit had worked more closely with foreign law enforcement to exchange information, he said.
Last year, the number of intellectual property rights cases in Dubai rose by 75 per cent, and 689 seizures were made at land, sea and air customs entries, according to Ahmed Mahboub Musabih, the executive director of the client management division at Dubai Customs.
In 2009, there were only 393 seizures.
"Dubai Customs combats counterfeiting and piracy by relying on a highly qualified national inspectors cadre. For the first quarter of 2011, 148 seizures were registered as compared with 151 seizures in the first quarter of 2010," Mr Musabih said.
Brig Gen Khalil Ibrahim Al Mansouri, the director of Dubai Police CID, said last week that since the beginning of 2011, 139 intellectual property rights violation cases were registered in Dubai, leading to the indictment of 187 people.
Items worth Dh72.3m have been seized, eclipsing 2010's Dh56m in seizures.
Products that do not originate in the UAE were harder to spot, officials said.
Most counterfeit goods transported via Dubai to Europe were not inspected because of international laws, Mr Butti explained.
"We cannot search any shipments that are not destined for the emirate unless we receive information that states the vessel is carrying counterfeit items," he said.
EU Customs seized more than 103 million products in 2010 suspected of violating intellectual property rights at the EU's external borders.
The number of shipments stopped nearly doubled compared with the previous year, rising from 43,500 in 2009 to almost 80,000 in 2010.
The top categories of articles stopped by customs were cigarettes, at 34 per cent; office supplies at 9 per cent; other tobacco products at 8 per cent; labels, tags and emblems at 8 per cent; clothing at 7 per cent; and toys, also at 7 per cent.
The UAE registered third in counterfeit clothing, after China and Turkey, with 3 three per cent of all clothing products originating here.
It also registered third behind China and Hong Kong, with 8.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively of all counterfeit mobile phones and mobile phone spare parts shipped into Europe.
amustafa@thenational.ae
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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- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
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Born: near Sialkot, Pakistan, 1981
Profession: Driver
Family: wife, son (11), daughter (8)
Favourite drink: chai karak
Favourite place in Dubai: The neighbourhood of Khawaneej. “When I see the old houses over there, near the date palms, I can be reminded of my old times. If I don’t go down I cannot recall my old times.”
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
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Watch the match on BeIN Sports
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Liverpool v Roma
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