ABU DHABI // Emirates Red Crescent has joined the battle against the deadly cholera outbreak sweeping Yemen.
The charity, in coordination with the World Health Organisation, has provided Dh33 million to vaccinate as many patients as possible, with 2,000 new cases reported each day.
“We need to organise the cholera vaccination campaign to limit the spread,” said Dr Malik Rahman of the WHO.
“We carried out a similar campaign in Somalia and the results were phenomenal. We want to replicate the same efforts with same results, with the support of the Emirates Red Crescent.
“We are working hand in hand with the Emirates Red Crescent to tackle the outbreak.”
About three million people are at severe risk of the disease because of a lack of clean drinking water and proper health care.
Mr Rahman said that despite security problems in Yemen from the country’s continuing war, UAE charity staff are enlisting the help of communities to find and treat cholera patients.
Fahad bin Sultan, deputy secretary general for international aid at the charity, has seen the ravages of the cholera outbreak first-hand. He said the situation “is very bad and cholera is spreading very fast”.
“Last month Dh33 million was approved for the treatment of cholera and to support hospitals in Yemen,” Mr bin Sultan said.
“In the past two years, the UAE supported Yemen with Dh7 billion in different humanitarian projects, in which Dh500m was given by the Red Crescent.
“Now with the support of the WHO, we are dispatching from the UAE to Yemen special medicine to fight cholera.”
Aid funds have been spent on health programmes, buying equipment and medicine for hospitals, and feeding and clothing the population.
As health workers battle to keep cholera under control, the WHO has warned there is also a risk of measles and other diseases as health services struggle to cope. Half of all health centres are out of operation.
More outbreaks could be prevented through nationwide immunisation.
Dr Mohammed Al Falahi, secretary general of the Emirates Red Crescent, said health, social and humanitarian programmes have been launched during Ramadan to cater to the basic needs of Yemenis.
“We hope that about three million people will benefit from this drive to prevent the epidemic,” Dr Al Falahi said.
About seven million people are also in danger of starvation as Yemen faces the world’s worst food crisis, he said. Up to 50 per cent of children in Yemen under 5 years of age are malnourished.
A UAE ship landed on Thursday night in Aden, carrying 16,000 food packages for people in liberated areas. They will be distributed to families of martyrs and vulnerable people during Ramadan.
Another ship is due to deliver 40,000 more food packages in the holy month.
anwar@thenational.ae
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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.
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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