SHAHAMA // The areas of Shahama and Bahia will be revitalised under a proposal by the Urban Planning Council to address a lack of community facilities, parks, shopping and housing and create a transport hub. Matthew Chung visited the area, where residents are welcoming the news Shahama // From behind the wheel of his black Lexus, Jumaa al Hosani points at a long stretch of barren land near the house in Shahama where he has lived for 25 years.
"In 20 years, nothing has happened at this one," he said. "You see Dubai, within six years, seven years, how it's grown. But Shahama, 20 years, it is nothing. "For children, there is nothing here. Only riding bicycles in the street. This is not good." Mr al Hosani, 39, who works for Al Ansari Exchange in Shahama, joined other residents of Shahama and Bahia in welcoming the news that the Urban Planning Council's "revitalisation plan" for the areas, about 30km outside Abu Dhabi, has been approved.
It aims to address a lack of community facilities, parks, shopping and housing while creating a new town centre. At present, a long strip of buildings, including groceries and restaurants, a private school and nursery, lines the service road off the E10 and E11 highways bordering part of Shahama, with convenience stores and small supermarkets sprinkled around homes. There are a few parks and other schools spread out around the community.
Ageing buses transport passengers to and from Abu Dhabi city. The UPC estimates that by 2030, the Shahama and Bahia communities will be home to 110,000 people. Residents of Shahama yesterday said they were happy with their quiet community, which is free from the traffic congestion and crowds of Abu Dhabi. But they missed having a large shopping centre, plentiful cafes, parks, a cinema and a reliable taxi service.
It is also difficult to find adequate accommodation, said Mr al Hosani and his co-worker, Nuaman Yousef. Mr al Hosani and his wife and two children share his villa with his mother, his brother and his brother's children. They have renovated and expanded the residence several times since the Government provided him with one of about 500 of the first villas in Shahama, but he wants to expand it further, as there is not enough room for his family.
Mr Yousef, from Pakistan, moved out recently from the city and found it difficult to find bachelor accommodation in Shahama. "Because there is not too much space, there are not many houses," he said. In Bahia, there is a lack of good grocers, said Rabie Jasim, 33, who often makes a 45-minute round trip to a vegetable market in neighbouring Shahama to buy fresh produce. "It's as if I am going to Dubai," joked the Abu Dhabi Police officer. "We only have small groceries in Bahia."
He said he travelled to Ibn Battuta Mall in Jebel Ali, about 40 minutes' drive from his home, to shop for clothes and other items, rather than make the trip to Abu Dhabi, which he said was too crowded. "It's better than going to Marina Mall, which would take one hour or more." Getting around the area without a car can be a challenge as well, residents say. The seven private taxi franchisees operating in the emirate provide a service in Shahama, according to the regulator, TransAD. However, most taxis on the roads yesterday were the older gold-and-white ones. Mohammed Muktar, 27, who works at the bus station, said there were rarely any taxis waiting to pick up passengers: "Taxi, problem."
Young people say there is not enough for them to do in the area. Hamed al Hajeri, a 22-year-old fireman who works in Abu Dhabi and lives in Shahama, said he goes to the city for entertainment, such as watching a film, bowling, or just hanging out. Mr al Hosani, who proudly says he has been living in Shahama "from the beginning", believes the area now deserves more. "Now is the time for the future," he said.
mchung@thenational.ae
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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
The story of Edge
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, established Edge in 2019.
It brought together 25 state-owned and independent companies specialising in weapons systems, cyber protection and electronic warfare.
Edge has an annual revenue of $5 billion and employs more than 12,000 people.
Some of the companies include Nimr, a maker of armoured vehicles, Caracal, which manufactures guns and ammunitions company, Lahab
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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Pakistan v New Zealand Test series
Pakistan: Sarfraz (c), Hafeez, Imam, Azhar, Sohail, Shafiq, Azam, Saad, Yasir, Asif, Abbas, Hassan, Afridi, Ashraf, Hamza
New Zealand: Williamson (c), Blundell, Boult, De Grandhomme, Henry, Latham, Nicholls, Ajaz, Raval, Sodhi, Somerville, Southee, Taylor, Wagner
Umpires: Bruce Oxerford (AUS) and Ian Gould (ENG); TV umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS); Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
Tickets and schedule: Entry is free for all spectators. Gates open at 9am. Play commences at 10am
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS
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- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
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- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
