Saudi Arabia launches counter-terrorism summit

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Arabian crown prince, launches the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) summit on Sunday.

The gathering of defence ministers and leading security officials from the 41-countries in the coalition in Saudi Arabia will focus attention on counter-terrorism cooperation through the new Riyadh-based operations centre.

The inaugural meeting of the IMCTC Ministers of Defence Council has the theme “Allied Against Terrorism. Participation of ministers of defence from the coalition member countries will be supplemented by delegates from diplomatic missions and international organisations in Saudi Arabia.

The meeting marks the official launch of the IMCTC and is expected to strengthen the cooperation and integration between the member countries.

“The meeting marks the official launch of the IMCTC’s operations at our centre in Riyadh,” said Lt Gen Abdulelah Al-Saleh, the IMCTC acting secretary-general. “The centre provides an open platform for willing IMCTC member countries to exchange best practices and coordinate their counterterrorism efforts, enabling culturally appropriate regional and local solutions to counter terrorism.”

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“The biggest challenge in the 21st century, especially in the Muslim world, is confronting the dangerous phenomenon of terrorism,” said Gen Rahil Sharif, the body’s military commander. “The IMCTC encompasses an integrated approach to coordinate and unite on the four key domains of ideology, communications, counter-terrorism financing, and military, in order to fight all forms of terrorism and extremism and to effectively join other international security and peacekeeping efforts.”

The pan-Islamic coalition of 41 countries is tasked with coordination of the multitude of individual efforts to fight terrorism and extremism. A Counter Terrorism Centre has been established as its operational arm.

The agenda of the inaugural meeting focuses on how states can best adopt global best practices through specific IMCTC initiatives. It also aims to create coordinated efforts across the four IMCTC domains, ideology, communications, counter terrorist financing, and military.

A new website, www.imctc.org, has been set up as a hub for the coalition. It provides a platform for official information and data in the four areas.

The intellectual aspect seeks to preserve the universal message of Islam, promoting the values of moderation, tolerance and the preparation of targeted messages to counter radical ideology.

The media initiative involves creation of digital content to refute the rhetoric and claims of terrorist organisations and extremists.

The third aspect focuses on combatting financing of terrorism by developing new legal, regulatory and operational frameworks.

In the military sphere, the coalition will see pooling of resources and better planning. The centre will also facilitate personnel exchanges, and build capabilities of member states to fight terrorism.

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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