ABU DHABI // The Federal National Council (FNC) yesterday approved a Government budget proposal for 2009 that came in 21 per cent higher than the budget for 2008.
The Government said it was important for the FNC to sign off the Federal Budget, to send a message to the markets that the impact of the financial crisis on the UAE was minimal.
The 2009 budget has been set at Dh42.2 billion (US$11.5bn), a marked increase for the second year in a row. The actual budget for 2008, which ended with a surplus, was Dh34.9 billion, up 24 per cent from 2007.
"We know about the global economic crisis today, but we hope to overcome challenges and keep an eye on the crisis in several ways," said Obeid Humaid al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, during the morning FNC session.
"For this reason we hope you'll approve the budget so that we can send a message to the markets that we will continue our spending and not freeze any projects."
Under the budget, Abu Dhabi Police has been allocated Dh644 million; the Emirates Identity Authority Dh236m and the Ministry of Social Affairs Dh2.5bn. Higher education was allotted Dh2.6bn, which falls under the entire education umbrella of about Dh10bn. More than half of the education budget covers salaries. Dr Vincent Ferrandino, policy and planning director at the Ministry of Education, said: "The budget we have in place is the budget around which we've made our plans for the new year.
"The projects and initiatives are based upon the budget provided."
Initiatives include new professional development programmes for teachers, curriculum standards for Government schools and student assessment methods.
He added: "At the moment we feel the allocation is adequate but there's a realisation that as we move forward and make progress there needs to be an increase in the allocation."
Dr Clifton Chadwick, a senior lecturer in international education management and policy development at the British University in Dubai, said a lack of funds was not the critical issue in state schools, which are acknowledged to be underperforming.
"They probably put enough money into education," he said. "The critical issue is how they use it and changing embedded ways of doing things."
The Ministry of Health, which does not oversee health services in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, was granted Dh2.6bn.
One healthcare professional, Mohamed Rashid, deputy director of Ibrahim Obaidullah Saig Ghubash Hospital in Ras al Khaimah, said more manpower was needed.
"You cannot have the services without the manpower," he said. "They allocate where the need is: in hospitals, manpower, infrastructure. The distribution of the budget is according to need."
The Government, meanwhile, suggested several steps to minimise the impact of the financial crisis on the UAE, including increasing revenue from services and asking emirates to contribute more to the federal fund.
"Well, the Government is looking to increase revenues [from service] so as to balance between income and spending," said Mr al Tayer. "The budget has been discussed since the beginning of April, so we've taken into account the economic crisis? and the problems that nationals face like housing, health care."
The Government did not provide detailed budget statements for 2008, or a breakdown of what each ministry was allocated. But it did give information on how much revenue was generated by services offered by each department.
According to the report, the Ministry of Health generated Dh422 million, and is forecast to generate almost twice that much in 2009, an estimated Dh768 million.
It was not clear where this increase would come from, although one suggestion was that the cost of providing some services that have been paid for by the federal Government could be downloaded on to local emirates.
So far, only two emirates contribute to the federal budget: Abu Dhabi, with the lion's share at Dh17 billion, and Dubai, with Dh1 billion.
"We hope to see contributions from everyone," said Ali al Jasim, the FNC's second vice president. "There are services and projects that should be the responsibility of the local government, not the federal government, which always picks up the tab.
"So we're hoping for shared responsibility."
Some FNC members expressed concern over what they said was a lack of accountability for ministries that did not deliver on promised projects, yet still managed to get the same or larger budgets.
"If a ministry doesn't implement its programmes, then it comes to the Finance Ministry and requests the same amount for the following year," Mohammed al Zoabi, of Sharjah.
"How come the Finance Ministry doesn't say, 'We won't give you what you ask because you failed to implement your programmes'?".
One of the main complaints is the ongoing lack of electricity and water services in many parts of the country.
"The promised housing project has been delivered and completed, yet it has had no electricity for two years," said FNC member Fatima al Murri, of Dubai.
Another FNC member said: "This year's budget talks about electricity to certain areas, including the northern emirates and RAK. Yet none of the projects came to fruition, which was also the case with the Sheikh Zayed Housing project. I wish the ministers would attend our meetings to answer these concerns."
relass@thenational.ae
* Additional reporting Alison McMeans and Daniel Bardsley
The Bio
Ram Buxani earned a salary of 125 rupees per month in 1959
Indian currency was then legal tender in the Trucial States.
He received the wages plus food, accommodation, a haircut and cinema ticket twice a month and actuals for shaving and laundry expenses
Buxani followed in his father’s footsteps when he applied for a job overseas
His father Jivat Ram worked in general merchandize store in Gibraltar and the Canary Islands in the early 1930s
Buxani grew the UAE business over several sectors from retail to financial services but is attached to the original textile business
He talks in detail about natural fibres, the texture of cloth, mirrorwork and embroidery
Buxani lives by a simple philosophy – do good to all
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
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Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
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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
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
BULKWHIZ PROFILE
Date started: February 2017
Founders: Amira Rashad (CEO), Yusuf Saber (CTO), Mahmoud Sayedahmed (adviser), Reda Bouraoui (adviser)
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce
Size: 50 employees
Funding: approximately $6m
Investors: Beco Capital, Enabling Future and Wain in the UAE; China's MSA Capital; 500 Startups; Faith Capital and Savour Ventures in Kuwait
Company%20profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The Written World: How Literature Shaped History
Martin Puchner
Granta
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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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.”
Hot%20Seat
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MATCH INFO
CAF Champions League semi-finals first-leg fixtures
Tuesday:
Primeiro Agosto (ANG) v Esperance (TUN) (8pm UAE)
Al Ahly (EGY) v Entente Setif (ALG) (11PM)
Second legs:
October 23
Four-day collections of TOH
Day Indian Rs (Dh)
Thursday 500.75 million (25.23m)
Friday 280.25m (14.12m)
Saturday 220.75m (11.21m)
Sunday 170.25m (8.58m)
Total 1.19bn (59.15m)
(Figures in millions, approximate)
The 10 Questions
- Is there a God?
- How did it all begin?
- What is inside a black hole?
- Can we predict the future?
- Is time travel possible?
- Will we survive on Earth?
- Is there other intelligent life in the universe?
- Should we colonise space?
- Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?
- How do we shape the future?
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
UAE - India ties
The UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner after the US and China
Annual bilateral trade between India and the UAE has crossed US$ 60 billion
The UAE is the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil for India
Indians comprise the largest community with 3.3 million residents in the UAE
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the UAE in August 2015
His visit on August 23-24 will be the third in four years
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited India in February 2016
Sheikh Mohamed was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2017
Modi will visit Bahrain on August 24-25
