The mass rapid transit that Dubai has built at a cost of US$7.6 billion (Dh27.91bn) is an engineering marvel.
It has cost more than was budgeted and the line does not extend to all parts of the city yet. No trouble has been spared to make the journey comfortable; for those who don't want to rub shoulders with masses, there are VIP cars.
The famously laissez-faire city decided to invest in a public service like mass transit because another difficult-to-measure public good, speed and efficiency, was hurting. Estimates suggest that traffic jams cost Dubai some $1.4bn a year.
So on one hand, the emirate is promoting itself as a delightful urban habitat, with state-of-the-art apartment blocks, townships, leisure, entertainment and retail choices.
On the other, its public bus system was not popular. Only 5 per cent of Dubai's residents used public transport, most preferring the seclusion, privacy and anonymity of private transport.
Result: gridlock on the roads. By building a world-class mass transit, Dubai hopes to get its residents to leave their cars at home, or at a car park near the station, and use the mass transit. To make this work, though, Dubai will have to consider taking another step, road pricing.
In the past two decades, I have lived in two cities that have implemented ambitious road pricing schemes, Singapore and London. And it is worth recounting what distinguishes those systems and why Singapore's system works, and London's, despite massive investment, continues to let down its residents.
To be sure, drivers are used to paying when they use the road. Toll plazas that charge commuters who use expressways and highways are a familiar feature in many parts of the world.
Ostensibly the money raised is used to maintain the roads, but money is fungible and can easily be shifted to other uses.
In 2007, Dubai introduced the Salik system in a congestion zone that stretched from Garhoud Bridge in the north of the city to Sheikh Zayed Road near the Mall of the Emirates in the south. Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) conducted studies that showed about 8,000 vehicles per hour crossed the bridge at peak hours and 130,000 vehicles used the Sheikh Zayed Road daily.
The expectation was the system would reduce use of the roads, and some of that happened. But to make the system work, it needs to be more widespread.
Consider Singapore, which figured out the logic of the cart and the horse - what goes first.
It figured out that however high a road tax it might impose, and however much it restricted the number of cars being sold in Singapore and auction entitlement certificates to own cars, Singaporeans still wanted to buy cars.
Elsewhere in South East Asia, traffic jams had converted Bangkok into the world's biggest car park; Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur were headed the same way.
If Singapore wanted to continue to be the region's business hub, as Dubai has aspired to be for West Asia, it would have to make driving less attractive. It did two things: it kept cab fares low and it built an excellent mass transit network.
The system reached distant parts of the city from where residents commuted to the business centres of Raffles Place and the shopping district of Orchard Road, making those distant homes attractive.
As a large part of Singapore's residential stock is state-subsidised and state-built, with buyers owning the flats on 99-year leases making it arguably state-owned, Singapore managed to decongest the city.
The transit, which opened in the early 1990s was squeaky clean, air-conditioned, and efficient, like Singapore itself.
It also introduced the Central Business District surcharges, as well as electronic road pricing, which made way for a more rational use of cars.
Banning cars outright was impossible; to make people realise that it made sense to keep cars at home, it was necessary to build a world-class mass transit, which is what Singapore did.
London did not have that luxury. The first section of its underground network started in 1863; road pricing was introduced early this century. In that time, the Tube, as the network is known, serviced some 270 stations carrying nearly three million people daily.
In spite of the network, people continued to drive into the city, leading to traffic jams in the city centre.
Ken Livingstone, a former mayor, decided to impose a tax, saying the money would be used to improve public transport infrastructure.
To be sure, more bus routes were added and some services were made more frequent but the chief reason people feel tempted to drive rather than take the Tube - that it takes several connections to go from point A to B and often some part of the network is not working properly - remained.
There was not an incentive, except a feel-good moment that you were doing something for the environment when you shifted from driving to using the Tube.
And at £8 (Dh46.87) a day, the cost was enough to force poorer car owners to switch and wealthy car owners to ignore its impact. The system cost a lot to maintain, which meant that a large chunk of the money raised through the system was used to maintain the bureaucracy managing it.
What can Dubai learn from these two experiments? It should capitalise on the goodwill towards mass transit by considering road pricing options.
These should be such that they make commuters feel they are better off using mass transit. The trains should run frequently and offer a pleasant experience. Heavily used roads which parallel the network should be the first to implement road pricing.
There should be visible improvement in public infrastructure once the road pricing system is in place, so that commuters have an incentive to continue using the network.
And stay one step ahead of demand - it is something the nimble city of Singapore understands; the ponderous megapolis London does not. And what is Dubai, if not nimble?
business@thenational.ae
Final scores
18 under: Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)
- 14: Jason Scrivener (AUS)
-13: Rory McIlroy (NIR)
-12: Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP)
-11: David Lipsky (USA), Marc Warren (SCO)
-10: Tommy Fleetwood (ENG), Chris Paisley (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR)
AS%20WE%20EXIST
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Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Where to buy
Limited-edition art prints of The Sofa Series: Sultani can be acquired from Reem El Mutwalli at www.reemelmutwalli.com
The%20specs
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Company%C2%A0profile
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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
The drill
Recharge as needed, says Mat Dryden: “We try to make it a rule that every two to three months, even if it’s for four days, we get away, get some time together, recharge, refresh.” The couple take an hour a day to check into their businesses and that’s it.
Stick to the schedule, says Mike Addo: “We have an entire wall known as ‘The Lab,’ covered with colour-coded Post-it notes dedicated to our joint weekly planner, content board, marketing strategy, trends, ideas and upcoming meetings.”
Be a team, suggests Addo: “When training together, you have to trust in each other’s abilities. Otherwise working out together very quickly becomes one person training the other.”
Pull your weight, says Thuymi Do: “To do what we do, there definitely can be no lazy member of the team.”
Community Shield info
Where, when and at what time Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday at 5pm (UAE time)
Arsenal line up (3-4-2-1) Petr Cech; Rob Holding, Per Mertesacker, Nacho Monreal; Hector Bellerin, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck; Alexandre Lacazette
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger
Chelsea line up (3-4-2-1) Thibaut Courtois; Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Gary Cahill; Victor Moses, Cesc Fabregas, N'Golo Kante, Marcos Alonso; Willian, Pedro; Michy Batshuayi
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte
Referee Bobby Madley
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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.”
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Kerala Knights 103-7 (10 ov)
Parnell 59 not out; Tambe 5-15
Sindhis 104-1 (7.4 ov)
Watson 50 not out, Devcich 49
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,200m
Winner: Ferdous, Szczepan Mazur (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer)
5.30pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-3 Group 3 (PA) Dh300,000 2,400m
Winner: Basmah, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
6pm: UAE Arabian Derby Prestige (PA) Dh150,000 2,200m
Winner: Ihtesham, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
6.30pm: Emirates Championship Group 1 (PA) Dh1,000,000 2,200m
Winner: Somoud, Patrick Cosgrave, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
7pm: Abu Dhabi Championship Group 3 (TB) Dh380,000 2,200m
Winner: GM Hopkins, Patrick Cosgrave, Jaber Ramadhan
7.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Conditions (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m
Winner: AF Al Bairaq, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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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
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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