UAE

Volunteer Campaign launches

The Dubai Cares charity launches a series of initiatives encouraging people to volunteer to help children across the globe.

Praveen Menon

November 02, 2008

The Dubai Cares charity yesterday launched a series of initiatives encouraging people to volunteer to help children across the globe. The Volunteer Campaign was launched in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai at the Al Maktoum School for Boys yesterday. The Dubai Cares team said this year's campaign focused on the benefits of volunteering to help children around the world.

Dubai Cares said that with the help of donations the charity was building 2,072 schools and training more than 22,370 teachers across the globe. The charity also helped establish 3,157 parent-teacher associations. However, the officials said they want to urge the community to go beyond donations and become volunteers. Reem al Hashimy, chairman of the Dubai Cares board, said: "Dubai Cares calls upon all individuals and sectors of the UAE to participate in this year's campaign through which we can achieve a sense of fulfilment only attained by reaching out to those in need."

Children and adults were invited to join the Volunteer Emirates programme, which provides residents with an opportunity to volunteer at schools in the UAE. A Volunteer Globally programme was also launched to fill 10 volunteer missions in Cambodia, the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar and the Yemeni island of Socotra. A Volunteer Virtually programme would offer individuals and companies the chance to help through the internet.

In the campaign's first initiative, school children in Dubai were given an opportunity to donate one million books to other youngsters around the world. The Million Book Challenge calls on Emirates-based pupils to try to read a collective total of one million books in a period of two weeks. For each book read, Dubai Cares will buy a book and donate it to children in need. The distribution of books will be managed by the global organisation Room to Read and non-governmental organisations from the Arab region.

Sheikh Mohammed praised the Dubai Cares campaign and encouraged children to read and acquire knowledge that will benefit them in establishing a prosperous future. The ceremony was also attended by Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the chairman of the Events Management Corporation, and other senior officials. Dubai Cares is also offering residents and visitors an opportunity to strengthen literacy in developing countries by sponsoring a book for Dh10 through the Dubai Cares website, or at participating book stores.

The phase one grants of Dubai Cares benefited several countries including Bangladesh, Bosnia, Chad, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Maldives, Mauritania, Niger, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Sudan, Yemen and others. @Email:pmenon@thenational.ae

THE BIO

Ms Davison came to Dubai from Kerala after her marriage in 1996 when she was 21-years-old

Since 2001, Ms Davison has worked at many affordable schools such as Our Own English High School in Sharjah, and The Apple International School and Amled School in Dubai

Favourite Book: The Alchemist

Favourite quote: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail

Favourite place to Travel to: Vienna

Favourite cuisine: Italian food

Favourite Movie : Scent of a Woman

 

 

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

On Women's Day
Score

Third Test, Day 1

New Zealand 229-7 (90 ov)
Pakistan

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat

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.”