Humaid Al Qattami, the Minister of Education, will face questions about his plans to boost Emirati employment prospects.
Humaid Al Qattami, the Minister of Education, will face questions about his plans to boost Emirati employment prospects.

Ministers face questions over Emirati unemployment



ABU DHABI // Emirati employment levels will be the topic of debate at today's Federal National Council session.

The Minister of Education, Humaid Al Qattami and the Minister of Labour, Saqr Ghobash, will both take questions from council members about what plans they have to increase jobs for Emiratis.

Unemployment among nationals reached 15 per cent last year, according to the FNC member Musabah Al Ketbi (Sharjah), and the figure is expected to increase if no solutions are found.

Mr Al Ketbi said he plans to ask Mr Al Qattami, who is also chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources, what supervision has been placed over career fairs to ensure they are of service to Emirati jobseekers and not just marketing events.

"They are completely for advertising purposes, even though we spend about Dh100 million on them," he said. "This makes it important to put requirements in place to regulate work in these exhibitions."

Ali Al Nuaimi (Ajman) said he would ask Mr Ghobash what labour ministry has done to increase employment among nationals.

"If you open the [ministry's] websites, there are eight objectives. One is to support and encourage Emiratis to obtain jobs, so we want to know what projects the Ministry of Labour have taken on to accomplish this goal," he said.

Among other ministers scheduled to respond to questions are Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the Minister of Higher Education, on the subject of accrediting degrees for Emiratis studying abroad, and Obaid Al Tayer, the Minister of State for Financial Affairs, on the topic of increasing pensions for retired Emirates Post employees.

"We want Emiratis enrolled in higher education in Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, and other countries suffering from political instability to be exempted from the current requirement that they be in those countries for 30 per cent of the year to have their certificates accredited in the UAE," Mr Al Ketbi said, adding that many student were suffering as a result of this requirement.

Mohammed Al Gergawi, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, will also be asked by Ahmed Al Shamsi (Ajman) about the possibility forming a federal authority to monitor medications and food.

The session will be open to the public from 9am.

The final FNC session until October will be held next Tuesday.

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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.”

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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

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  • Demonstrators responded to online petitions and flooded squares to block traffic
  • At its height there were almost 300,000 on the streets in support
  • Named after the high visibility jackets that drivers must keep in cars 
  • Clashes soon turned violent as thousands fought with police at cordons
  • An estimated two dozen people lost eyes and many others were admitted to hospital 
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Favourite place in UAE: Marjan Island

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