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Tweets from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid state that there are around 6,800 investors eligible for the first batch of visas

The United Arab Emirates has launched the permanent residency system for investors and exceptionally skilled foreigners, the ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the UAE announced.

The permanent residency visa named the ‘Golden Card’ will be granted to investors and exceptionally competent individuals in the fields of medicine, engineering, science, and all arts, according to the official twitter of account of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The first batch of those eligible for permanent residency for a "Golden Card" in the UAE reached 6,800 investors, whose total investments reach 100 billion UAE dirhams ($273 million), according to one Arabic tweet by the ruler of Dubai.

Another tweet added that the permanent residency will be granted to those who contribute positively to the success story of the UAE.

”We want them to be permanent partners with us in our journey. All residents in the UAE are our brothers and part of our great family in the UAE,” the Arabic tweet said.

According to Anir Chatterji, Middle East immigration & employment leader at PwC Legal, the UAE has been at the forefront of driving change to the existing immigration structure (which is broadly the same across the GCC) and for opening opportunities for highly-skilled professionals to benefit from longer-term residency - thereby offering these individuals greater investment security and stability.

“This new development of permanent residency is an extension of this policy and it is likely to be viewed positively by the ‘in-scope’ individuals and business community at large as it will open the doors to more foreign direct investment and, in turn, sustained economic activity and development,” he said in emailed comments to Zawya.

“Many expatriates call the UAE home and this new development will allow individuals to stay in the UAE for a longer period, which is welcome news for investors, entrepreneurs, specialised talents, researchers, and outstanding students (and their dependents),” he added.

The announcement follows the approval of the Saudi Cabinet last week for granting ‘green card’-style visas for highly-skilled foreigners and owners of capital funds with other sets of benefits as part of a ‘Privileged Residence System.

“The recent announcement in Saudi didn’t necessarily have a direct impact on this. That being said, there has been a drive to standardise a number of initiatives in the immigration space in the GCC countries, and to continue to find innovative ways to attract sustained economic investment activity and prosperity,” Chatterji said.

“This means the opening up of the historically static immigration regime is a key enabler for facilitating such change, and we consider that the recent announcement in the UAE is a welcome step for the business community at large,” he added.

Source: ZAWYA

The risk of an entire investment portfolio is always less than the sum of the risks of its individual parts. Many investors lose sight of that fact when making investment decisions.

When adding an additional security to your portfolio, you might look at the risk of the additional security only, not at its ability to reduce risk overall.

In this article, we'll explain how you can make your portfolio safer by adding risky investments.

Reduce Risk By Incorporating Risky Strategies

Hedging Strategies
Shorting a stock is always considered a risky strategy. You can, at best, make a 100% return on the position if the stock declines to zero.

In theory, the losses are infinite if the stock continues to rise. For example, if you shorted a $10 stock and it climbed to $50 you would lose five times your original investment.

Similarly, buying a leveraged inverse ETF is also risky. For example, the ProShares UltraShort S&P 500 ETF aims to provide performance that is the inverse of, and double that of, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. So if the S&P 500 rises by 1%, the leveraged inverse ETF should fall by 2%; and if the S&P 500 falls by 1%, the inverse ETF should rise by 2%.

The above strategies would be considered risky, but if done properly in a portfolio context, you can reduce your risk instead of increasing it. For example, if you hold a large position in a stock that you cannot sell, by shorting the same stock in an equal amount, you have effectively sold the position and reduced your risk of the stock to zero. Similarly an investor with a portfolio of U.S. stocks can reduce their risk by buying the appropriate leveraged inverse ETF. A 100% hedge will insulate you from risk, but it will also effectively reduce your exposure to any upside.

Buying Insurance With Options
A put option is a risky investment that gives you the right to sell a stock or an index at a predetermined price by a specified time. Buying a put option is a bearish strategy because you believe the stock or the market will go down.

You make money on a decline, and the most you can lose is the price you paid for the option.

Given the leverage of an option, it would be considered a risky investment. However, when a put option is paired with a stock that you currently own, it provides protection against a lower stock price.

Unlike hedging, which limits your upside, buying a put would still provide you with unlimited upside. It is, in effect, like buying insurance on your stock, and the cost of your put option is the insurance premium.

Using Low-Correlation Assets
A portfolio consisting mostly of bank stocks and utilities is considered relatively safe, whereas gold and gold stocks are generally considered risky. However, buying gold stock rather than another financial stock might in fact lower the risk of the portfolio as a whole.

Gold and gold stocks typically have a low correlation with interest-sensitive stocks and, at times, the correlation is even negative. Buying riskier assets with a low correlation with each other is the classic diversification strategy.

Reducing Benchmark or Active Risk
Which is considered the riskier portfolio: one that contains 100% U.S. Treasury bills or one that has 80% equity and 20% bonds? In absolute terms, T-bills are the definition of risk-free investment. However, an investor might have a long-term asset mix of 60% equity and 40% bonds as their benchmark. In that case, compared to their benchmark, a portfolio containing 80% equity will have less risk than one with 100% U.S. Treasury bills. For the investor who has all cash, they can reduce their risk relative to their long-term benchmark by purchasing the risky equity.

The risk that your investment will not match that of your benchmark is called tracking error or active risk. The greater the difference in performance between the two, the greater the active risk or tracking error.

One of the attractive features of index funds and ETFs is that they are meant to replicate benchmarks, thus reducing the tracking error to almost zero. Buying an ETF that matches your benchmark is always considered a safer investment than an actively managed mutual fund, from the perspective of benchmark or active risk.

Understanding Your Real Risks

Many investors consider doing nothing a less-risky strategy than making a decision. However, as John F. Kennedy said, "There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction." A safe investment portfolio of all cash will allow you to sleep at night, but can be considered a risky strategy if it falls short of meeting your objective.

In the long run, safe investments like bonds and cash will never protect an investor against the risk of inflation. Only by purchasing riskier investments like equities, commodities or real estate can an investor provide the protection they need against losing the purchasing power of their assets. In the long run, a portfolio of all safe investments will turn out to be too risky for protection against inflation.

Consider an American couple who lived in the U.S. all their lives, and then moved to Canada to retire. All the investments were left to be managed in a diversified portfolio of U.S. securities. Currently, all their expenses are in Canadian dollars.

They now have exposure to a weak U.S. dollar. By investing some of their assets in "riskier" Canadian securities, or by hedging the U.S. dollar with currency futures, they are providing protection against a weak dollar and making their portfolio safer.

The Bottom Line

Many investors look only at the risk of their individual securities, not at the combined effect on their portfolio. In fact, portfolios can be made safer by investment strategies that by themselves might be risky, but that in the context of the entire portfolio can make it safer.

This is especially true when confronted with the "real" risks that investors face long-term, such as inflation.

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Source: investopedia

Over the years, I have become a “data hound” looking for every morsel of wisdom I can ge to help me make smarter decisions. The good news here: accurate data is king.

 You can’t effectively manage your business without accurate data. Getting it is not always easy but without it you risk making the wrong business decisions -- hurting your business when you thought you were helping it. Allow me to explain.

Managing a sales pipeline.

In B2B businesses with long sales cycle the only way to assess the effectiveness of your sales team and predict future revenue is based on data your sales team enters into your CRM. 

Watch if a salesperson’s number of accounts is growing, how those leads are working their way through the sales funnel and total dollar value of the pipeline being managed.

But, think about what I just said: you are evaluating the success of your sales team based on the data they are entering (or not entering) in the CRM system. That creates multiple problems.

I have seen situations where salespeople enter false information to look more successful to save their jobs.

More generally, there is plenty of room for error any time you rely on humans for data.

For example, did the salesperson remember to enter a new lead into the CRM? Did they remember to update the status of a lead (e.g., from active to dead)? Did they update the dollar value of that lead from $20,000 to $10,000 after they learned the client didn’t need as many products as they first thought? Did they update the expected close date from April to June, after they learned the project has been delayed?

You get the point. Most businesses are making mission critical decisions based on future expected revenues from this data. More often than not, the data is not very accurate, updated or reliable.

If your CRM suggests you are working with more than $1,000,000 of potential leads, and your normal conversion rate is 20 percent, you would think there is a reasonable chance to close $200,000 in sales. That's money you count on to run the business, pay your bills and meet payroll. 

Bad data could put you in an illiquid position, unless you have a cash reserve cover the $200,000 that didn’t show up as predicted.

You need to scrub the data when managing a sales pipelines. Every week, remind your salespeople to update their data. In your one-on-one meetings with the team, talk through their list, line by line, to ensure what the system data is telling you is reality. Where you can, build automated systems that update data for any actions made (e.g., as new email leads come into business, they automatically get entered in CRM). 

This includes building in automated tasks and reminders to make sure the leads are moving forward and the salespeople are getting system-triggered actions they need to take for each lead.

Managing marketing spend.

The quality of your marketing efforts depends on the quality of the data being managed and studied. Typically, there are two problems. First, is your marketing team managing towards the right data metrics in the first place.

Second, is credit being given to the marketing channel that actually drove the lead? In a multi-device world it's not easy to get proper attribution.

Recently we hired an ad agency to manage our paid search campaign. We told them the key metric to drive was immediate return on ad spend (ROAS), defined as clearly attributed revenues from the campaign divided by marketing cost of campaign. 

A strange thing started to happen in our business: our low ticket, online ecommerce transactions started to take off, but our desired high ticket, offline B2B transactions were not growing at all.

 By telling our agency to focus on “immediate” ROAS, the only way they could hit the desired target was by focusing on smaller orders that were immediately ready to book online. 

That excluded the desired longer sales cycle leads we really wanted to be growing.

So, after six months of these learnings, we switched directions. We told the agency immediate ROAS was no longer the goal. We would be happy waiting until the end of our three-month sales cycle before studying our ROAS.

We switched the key metric to immediate B2B leads from the marketing effort. As soon as we made that change our quick, low ticket sales fell back to normal levels but our desired B2B leads rose to record highs. 

We were thrilled, thinking we had finally “cracked the code” to scaling our business.

But, did we? We did a retroactive cohort analysis of all B2B leads that came into the business over our normal three month booking window. What we learned was concerning: the B2B leads were coming into the business in record numbers, but were converting into sales at levels far lower than our typical conversion rates.

 After researching this further with our sales team we learned the leads coming in were very price sensitive.

They were shopping many websites for the lowest price and often needed last-minute deliveries that were impossible to fulfill in time.

So, now we are back to the drawing board, trying to figure out the right metric to find leads we can actually work with and properly attribute the leads so we are not missing anything important. 

We also want to be careful not to “throw the baby out with the bath water”. Maybe the marketing agency is actually doing a great job and something operational is getting in the way of sales converting. Time will tell.

These are examples in sales and marketing but I easily could have given you data-driven examples from operations, finance, human resources or technology.

 You are living in a world where accurate data is king. Be sure your business is driven by the metrics that are the most important and reliable for predicting and driving desired outcomes. The data is only as good as the effort you put into it.

Source: Entrepreneur

Card payments in the UAE in 2018 were recorded at 70% compared to 68% in 2017.

The e-commerce sector in the UAE is all set to record a strong performance over the next few years, driven by an ever growing number of online shoppers, who are confident about making various purchases online.

Experts have noted that shoppers across the UAE and the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region are enjoying the many benefits that come with using cards over cash for their transactions. The popularity of cards will only continue to grow as retailers in the region look to capitalise on their popularity with shoppers.

"With the world becoming more connected and consumers' trust on online shopping evolving, we believe that consumer spend via online retail platforms will see significant growth in the coming years," said Shahebaz Khan, general manager for the UAE at Visa.

"The UAE's e-commerce market is estimated to be worth $27.1 billion in 2022. The possibilities for merchants, financial institutions and consumers are enormous, and it is vital, therefore, that we continue to build consumers' trust and improve the infrastructure of online payments so that consumers can benefit from more seamless, rewarding and secure shopping experiences."

"We're seeing positive trends in terms of UAE consumers' attitudes towards e-commerce," he added. "As part of Visa's annual Security Week, we conducted a survey that examined how they perceive online shopping, with the findings revealing that 66 per cent of consumers in the UAE trust online shopping and that 70 per cent trust online payments."

Similarly, Girish Nanda, general manager, UAE & Oman at Mastercard, noted that transactions in the e-commerce space are growing at a much faster rate than transactions at Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals. "We expect this trend to continue in 2019 and 2020; there are two key factors driving this trend: first, the growth of online or e-commerce merchants with business models that can be scaled up faster than traditional brick and mortar models, and second, a growing number of retail, F&B and travel businesses going online with their operations.

Consumers across the globe now expect their cards to work across all popular platforms, whether it is for e-commerce, mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay or contactless payments.

The UAE is no different, given consumers' increasing demand for safe, secure and seamless payment experiences."

"We've seen a six-fold increase in contactless transactions in the UAE since 2017," he added. "In fact, one in every four transactions in the UAE is now contactless, highlighting two key trends: first, the country's gradual transition into a cashless economy, and second, growing confidence in card payments, mobile wallets and new payment technologies."

According to data published by Visa, cards are continuing to gain popularity over cash. When it came to digital transactions, card payments in the UAE in 2018 were recorded at 70 per cent, compared to 68 per cent in 2017.

Cash on delivery, during the same period, fell from 22 per cent in 2017 to 15 per cent last year. Visa's research also indicated that once shoppers have found new ways of payment, they are going to continue using them. Looking at contactless cards, 52 per cent of non-users said that they are likely to start using them in the near future.

Similarly, 46 per cent of non-users say that they are likely to start using digital wallets in near future.

Offering a review of the UAE's spend trends in 2018, Pankaj Kundra, SVP, head of Payments at Mashreq Bank, said that consumer card spends experienced a six per cent growth in 2018, compared to 2017. The biggest winner, he said, was e-commerce, which saw spending increase by 48 per cent as opposed to 2017. In terms of sector wise performance, growth was driven by food and beverage, which increased by 20 per cent, followed by a 16 per cent growth in supermarket spends. Hospitality continued growing with a modest increase of two per cent.

"While brick-and-mortar merchants have already expanded their product offering into the e-commerce space, this expansion may be at the cost of the cannibalisation of their traditional business, through the equivalent growth in their e-commerce channel," he said. "However, merchants who have been unable to expand their offering into the e-commerce space can expect to lose business to innovative and multi-channel competitors. The growth of e-commerce marketplaces, such as Souq and Noon, is encouraging increased confidence in buying online, which in turn is driving this growth. The UAE is also seeing a rapid rise in the use of e-commerce service providers like ride aggregators, who have delivered growth of 12 per cent, and food delivery services have seen a growth of over 100 per cent."

"For 2019, as we gear up towards Expo 2020, we are very optimistic about sustained growth in payments volume in the UAE," he added.

"We have identified four key trends that we anticipate will drive transaction volumes: continued e-commerce growth, contactless gaining more traction via increased usage of digital wallets, cash-to-card conversion in segments like B2B payments, education, government, real estate and sustained increase in international spends."

Sanjit Gill, general manager, Middle East at Collinson, revealed that the evolving world of loyalty means that brands must continuously adapt and look for ways to meet their customers' needs.

"Consumers shop through a mixture of in-store and online, providing data at every touchpoint in their browsing and purchasing journey.

This data is there for retailers to respond to, providing it is collated into a single customer view.

If used effectively, this single view can tell you who your customers are and what they want. If brands choose to ignore this data, however, they stand to lose out.

Our research found that 81 per cent of UAE consumers feel frustrated when promotions aren't aligned in-store and online. Not using available data effectively can leave customers feeling uncherished and as though their custom isn't a priority."

In addition, 78 per cent of UAE consumers would be unhappy if retail brands they were loyal to had poor communication around the latest promotions and discounts.

"Brands have a duty of service to offer better, more personalised communication experiences with the customer data they accrue, otherwise they risk people opting out of consent and losing their initial attention, and perhaps in the long term, their loyalty," he said.

Source: khaleejtimes

People can do more than just chat on messaging app, as first 'chat bank' service rolls out.

Dubai: So much has changed in the way people communicate and share updates since the introduction of social media and instant messaging apps. Now, the way people bank is changing, too.

One of the leading financial institutions in UAE has rolled out for the first time a chat banking solution, enabling savers and banking customers in the country to execute financial transactions on WhatsApp.

Emirates NBD confirmed on Sunday that its customers can now “chat bank” via the instant messaging app, said to be a first in the Middle East region.

The new service seeks to tap the growing population of consumers who bank via the internet on a regular basis.

The bank said it has seen a rapid increase in digital transactions, with over half of its customers actively using mobile and online banking The latest innovative solution is made possible through Infobip, an easy-to-use secure channel that lets people do banking transactions without having to log in to their online accounts or walk into a physical branch.

With the “chat bank” service, customers, particularly those who are constantly on their mobile phones, can now check via WhatsApp their account balances, the last five transactions of their accounts or credit cards and last credit-card mini statements.

They can also temporarily block or unblock cards and request for new chequebooks or the latest foreign exchange rates.

Lest users are afraid the transaction can easily get hacked into by fraudsters, the bank assured that all messages on its “WhatsApp Business” account are encrypted.

To ensure the communication is secure and official, customers only need to watch out for the green badge next to the bank’s name in the chat window.

And what’s more, customers can bank via WhatsApp anytime, as it’s available 24/7.

“We believe the new offering will complement our existing ddigital banking channels and offer security along with the simplicity and convenience of instant responses, 24/7,” said Abdulla Qassem, group chief operating officer of Emirates NBD.

“WhatsApp is a simple, reliable and private way to talk to anyone in the world, which will lend further convenience to banking with Emirates NBD," added Suvo Sarkar, senior vice president, head of retail banking and wealth management at Emirates NBD.

How to subscribe?

Customers are requested to SMS ‘WhatsApp’ to 4456 using their registered mobile number, or alternatively, they can subscribe through mobile or online banking, to start banking via WhatsApp.

Source: gulfnews

من المتوقع أن ينخفض معدل النمو الاقتصادي في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا انخفاضا طفيفا إلى 1.5% عام 2019 من 1.6% عام 2018، وفقا لتقرير جديد صادر عن البنك الدولي. وعلى الرغم من انخفاض النمو هذا العام، من المتوقع أن يشهد معدل النمو الإقليمي زيادة معتدلة إلى 3.4% في 2020 و2.7% في 2021.

يشير التقرير، والذي صدر اليوم، إلى أن النمو المتوقع في المنطقة تتصدره البلدان النامية المستوردة للنفط مثل مصر، التي تشكل نحو 8% من إجمالي الناتج المحلي للمنطقة، والتي من المتوقع أن تحقق نموا بنسبة 5.5% في عام 2019، وبمعدلات أعلى في 2020-2021. ومن المتوقع أن يصل النمو في دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي إلى 2.1% في 2019. إن انتعاش النمو في مصر ودول مجلس التعاون هو نتيجة جزئية وغير مباشرة لسياسات الإصلاح المحلية. وفي الوقت نفسه، فإن تراجع النمو المتوقع في أكبر أسواق صادرات المنطقة وهي الاتحاد الأوروبي والولايات المتحدة والصين، سيكون له تأثير سلبي عليها.

وقال فريد بلحاج نائب رئيس البنك الدولي لمنطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا: "إننا نحث المنطقة على تبني إصلاحات طموحة". "هناك حاجة ملحة اليوم للنهوض بإصلاحات لتحسين الإنتاجية وتشجيع الابتكار والمنافسة. سيكون هناك 300 مليون شاب في الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا يتطلعون لدخول سوق العمل بحلول عام 2050. ولا يمكن للمنطقة أن تنجح إلا إذا عالجت العوائق الهيكلية أمام النمو. ونلاحظ اليوم أن البلدان التي تبنت إجراءات صعبة لتنفيذ إصلاحات تتعلق بالسياسات هي المحرك للنمو الاقتصادي في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا. "

ولا يغير الانتعاش الطفيف المتوقع في النمو في السنوات المقبلة الصورة طويلة الأجل للنمو الباهت لنصيب الفرد من إجمالي الناتج المحلي والعجز المستمر في المعاملات الجارية في عدة بلدان نامية في المنطقة.  يشهد الكثير من البلدان المستوردة للنفط عجزا كبيرا ومستمرا في التجارة والمعاملات الجارية منذ أكثر من عقد. وعلى النقيض من ذلك، تمتعت البلدان المصدرة للنفط في المنطقة تاريخيا بفوائض كبيرة في المعاملات الجارية، لكن هذا الوضع تغير في السنوات القليلة الماضية. وحد التدهور في الأرصدة الخارجية من قدرة المنطقة على إعادة توزيع الوفورات من البلدان المصدرة للنفط مرتفعة الدخل إلى البلدان النامية التي تعاني من عجز مستمر في المعاملات الجارية، وخاصة منذ إعادة الهيكلة العالمية لسوق النفط في عام 2014.

يبرز التقرير الجديد وعنوانه "الإصلاحات والاختلالات الخارجية: الصلة بين العمالة والإنتاجية في منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا" الحاجة الملحة إلى المزيد من الإصلاحات الهيكلية التي يمكن أن ترفع إجمالي إنتاجية العمالة من أجل زيادة النمو وتقليل الاختلالات الخارجية في المنطقة في آن واحد.

وذكر رباح أرزقي، رئيس الخبراء الاقتصاديين لمنطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا في البنك الدولي والمؤلف الرئيسي للتقرير: "ينبغي أن تحقق بلدان منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا ضعف معدلاتها الحالية من النمو على الأقل. ولإفساح الطريق للاستفادة من إمكاناتها غير المستغلة، يتعين على المنطقة تحويل اقتصادها، وتعزيز روح التنافس في السوق، واعتماد نهج لانطلاقة كبرى في الاقتصاد الرقمي".

ويدفع التقرير بأن العجز الزائد الحالي في المعاملات الجارية يجب أن يتقلص تدريجيا، بدلا من الانتظار حتى تفرض التراجعات في تدفقات رؤوس الأموال تغييرا في اتجاه العجز في المعاملات الجارية على بلدان المنطقة.

ويؤكد التقرير أن كلا من التغيرات السكانية وإجمالي إنتاجية العمالة هي المحركات الأساسية لرصيد المعاملات الجارية في أي اقتصاد. وهناك حاجة ماسة لتنفيذ إصلاحات هيكلية من أجل تحقيق زيادة في إجمالي إنتاجية العمالة. وتشمل هذه الإصلاحات: إصلاح مصروفات الموازنة التي يمكن أن تساعد من خلال زيادة وفورات المالية العامة، وتعزيز إنتاجية العمالة عندما يعرقل الدعم المنافسة في السوق، والإصلاحات التجارية التي تهدف إلى خفض تكاليف التجارة بما يتجاوز التعريفات الجمركية للمساعدة في دمج المنطقة في سلاسل القيمة العالمية، وإصلاحات سوق العمل لتعزيز إنتاجية العمالة مع توفير شبكة ضمان للعمال الذين فقدوا وظائفهم، والإصلاحات الذكية في الشركات المملوكة للدولة في صناعات الشبكات، مثل الطاقة والاتصالات، وذلك للمساعدة في تحسين كفاءة الشركات وكذلك زيادة إجمالي إنتاجية العمالة.

المصدر: البنك الدولي

اللغة العربية)

Economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is set to drop slightly to 1.5 percent in 2019 from 1.6 percent in 2018, according to a new World Bank report. Despite the fall in growth this year, regional growth is expected to see a modest uptick to 3.4 percent in 2020 and 2.7 percent in 2021.

The World Bank’s latest bi-annual MENA Economic Update, launched today, says the expected growth in the region is led by developing oil importers, such as Egypt, which accounts for roughly 8 percent of MENA’s GDP, with a forecast at 5.5 percent in 2019, and higher in 2020-2021 Growth in GCC economies is expected to reach 2.1 percent in 2019.

The revival of growth in Egypt and the GCC is partly and indirectly the result of domestic reform policies. Meanwhile, the expected growth slowdown of MENA’s largest export markets, namely, the EU, US and China, will have a negative effect on the region.

“We’re challenging the region to embrace ambitious reforms,” said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Region. “There’s an urgency today for reforms to improve productivity and encourage innovation and competition.

The Middle East and North Africa will have 300 million young people looking to enter the job market by 2050.

The region can only succeed if it addresses the structural impediments to growth. We see that the countries that have taken difficult measures to implement policy reforms are the drivers of economic growth in MENA today.”

The modest expected pickup in growth in the upcoming years does not change the long-term picture of lackluster growth of GDP per capita and persistent current account deficits in several developing economies of MENA. Many oil-importing countries have been running large and persistent trade and current account deficits for more than a decade. In contrast, MENA’s oil exporters have historically had large current account surpluses, but that has changed in recent years. The deterioration in external balances has limited the ability of the region to recirculate savings from high-income oil exporters to developing economies with persistent current account deficits, most notably since the global restructuring of the oil market in 2014.

The new Bank report, entitled Reforms and External Imbalances: The Labor-Productivity Connection in the Middle East and North Africa, lays out the urgent need for more structural reforms that can raise aggregate labor productivity to simultaneously raise growth and reduce external imbalances in the region.

MENA countries should be growing at least at twice the rates they currently do,” said Rabah Arezki, World Bank Chief Economist for the Middle East and North Africa Region and lead author of the report.

“To awaken its untapped potential, the region must transform its economies, strengthen market contestability, and adopt a moonshot approach to the digital economy.”

Existing excess current account deficits must shrink gradually, the report argues, rather than wait until souring capital flows force current account deficit reversals upon MENA economies.

The report affirms that both demographic changes and aggregate labor productivity are fundamental drivers of an economy’s current account balance. Structural reforms are urgently needed to raise aggregate labor productivity. These reforms include: fiscal-expenditure reforms that can help by both increasing fiscal savings and enhancing labor productivity when subsidies prevent market contestability; trade reforms aimed at lowering trade costs beyond tariffs to help integrate MENA in global value chains; labor market reforms to enhance labor productivity while also providing a safety net for displaced workers; and smart reforms in State Owned Enterprises in network industries, such as energy and telecoms to help improve the efficiency of the firms as well as raise aggregate labor productivity.

Source: worldbank

61 percent of high-profile digital companies worldwide are investing in blockchain, according to a report by identity management firm Okta shared with Cointelegraph on April 2.

San Francisco-based enterprise identity provider Okta has released a survey on new trends in technological developments and business opportunities of the world’s largest companies.

In its first “Digital Enterprise Report,” Okta surveyed 1,050 IT, security and engineering decision makers from global companies with at least $1 billion in revenue. Okta explained that decision makers were defined as someone at the company who is “responsible for making technology purchasing decisions.”

The company collected survey responses in January and February 2019 in order to find out how businesses are applying emerging technologies.

According to the report, most decision makers have preferred to invest in the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, as 72 percent of survey respondents said they invested in IoT, and 68 percent claimed that they invested in AI.

With that, 61 percent of respondents revealed that they invested in blockchain, while 58 percent said they invested in augmented reality technology.

Percentage of investment in various emerging technologies by large companies. Source: Okta Digital Enterprise Report

Out of total 1,050 decision makers, 90 percent claimed that their companies are working on formal digital transformation and investing in at least one of the aforementioned technologies.

Recently, United States-based market research firm International Data Corporation predicted that global blockchain spending will account for almost $2.9 billion in 2019, which is an 88.7 percent increase from 2018.

Source: cointelegraph

Siemens scores six major cities, including Dubai, on their readiness for digitisation and their potential to become smart cities

Dubai is making excellent progress in its drive to become a smart city which embraces digitalisation and develops new ways of living, working and interacting, according to Siemens.

Its Atlas of Digitalisation report is based around the interconnected themes of Expo 2020 Dubai – mobility, sustainability and opportunity – and assesses how the fourth industrial revolution has already impacted urban life around the world, and the potential it could have in the future.

Data from 21 indicators has been analyzed by Siemens together with Signal Noise, part of the Economist Group, in Dubai, Los Angeles, London, Buenos Aires, Taipei and Johannesburg to produce a digital readiness score.

Dubai gained scores of six out of 10 for both readiness and potential. This compared to London which scored eight for readiness but only three for potential while Los Angeles scored seven and three respectively, Taipei scored six and three, Buenos Aires scored four and four and Johannesburg scored two and six.

The analysis recognises Dubai’s advanced implementation of digital technologies in areas such as smart metering, online connectivity, mobility and smart government, and initiatives such as Smart Dubai which are supporting its ambition to be the happiest city on Earth.

It also identifies potential for digitalisation to positively impact areas such as renewable energy, which Dubai is already addressing via its clean energy strategy.

The analysis considers areas such as smart electricity and transport systems, internet connections and digital governance services.

The score reveals the current level of maturity of each city’s digital infrastructure, and its preparedness for a connected future.

“Each city must address its own unique mix of challenges and opportunities by embracing digitalization; the key to sustainable, livable future cities,” said Dietmar Siersdorfer, CEO, Siemens Middle East and UAE.

“The Atlas of Digitalization gives us an all-important understanding of the current status of digitalization in cities around the world, and the data tells us Dubai has already made excellent progress in key areas. Dubai is on a successful path thanks to strong ambition and visionary leadership, and we hope the Atlas will inspire new ways of thinking to shape the smart cities of tomorrow, and realize the global potential of City 4.0.”

The analysis also takes into account areas such as innovation, greenhouse gas emissions and time spent in traffic to give the cities a Digital Potential Score, indicating where there is opportunity to grow digital capabilities to transform society and economy.

While each city is unique, they all share one characteristic - their ingenuity in using digital technologies to make infrastructure more efficient and productive, and to address challenges such as air pollution, congestion, population growth and natural hazards, Siemens said.

Source: arabianbusiness

Investors can get a five-year residence visa when they invest in a property worth at least $1.36mln.

The UAE offers plenty of opportunities to foreigners who are willing to invest in real estate sector to secure a long-term visa following a reform process initiated by the government last year.

Property investors can invest in more than 40 communities across the UAE, mainly in Dubai, to secure a long-term visa and better returns on their investment.

Majority of foreigners prefer to invest their money in residential properties, but real estate experts suggest that commercial properties can also offer strong returns.

As per the new UAE regulations, property investors can get a five-year residence visa when they invest in a property worth at least Dh5 million. The ruling applies both to secondary and new properties above Dh5 million and Dh10 million.

Manika Dhama, head of Strategic Consulting and Research at Cavendish Maxwell, said residential properties in Dubai, particularly in branded or serviced apartment categories, above Dh5 million offer investment opportunities for those seeking a long-term visa under new regulations.

"Certain villa or townhouse communities in Abu Dhabi and Northern Emirates like Ras Al Khaimah also offer such investment opportunities," she added.

Dhama said requirements for these new long-term visa currently state cash-only investments. Therefore, more clarity is required on how this is applicable to single units or entire buildings, land, etc, she said.

"Bulk residential units in higher yield areas like International City may prove to be a better investment option in the Dh5 million and above category, particularly for those with a higher risk appetite, than a single villa where yields tend to hover around 4-5 per cent," said Dhama.

"Indians, Pakistanis and Britons will remain top 3 investors seeking long-term visa through property investment," she said while referring to majority of investment in Dubai's property sector coming from India, Pakistan, Britain and Saudi Arabia.

Leading communities

There are 31 communities across the emirate of Dubai where Dh5 million worth of investment can get a 5-year visas, according to data provided by Cavendish Maxwell. 

Al Barari, Al Furjan, Arabian Ranches, Arabian Ranches 2, Bluewaters Island, Business Bay, City Walk, Culture Village, Damac Hills, Downtown Burj Khalifa, Dubai Harbour, Dubai Marina and Dubai Science Park (DuBiotech), are included among those communities.

Other areas where investors can invest for long-term visas are: Dubai Sports City, Emirates Living, Jumeirah Beach Residence, Jumeirah Gold Estates, Jumeirah Islands, JLT, Jumeirah Park, Living Legends, Meydan City, Mohammed bin Rashid City, Motor City, Palm Jumeirah, Pearl Jumeirah, Dubai Creek Harbour, The Villa, Zabeel (WTC Residence), World Islands and Jumeirah Bay Island.

While the eight communities in Abu Dhabi for long-term visa are Saadiyat Island, Nurai Island, Al Reem Island, Marina Village, Al Raha Gold Gardens and other communities in Al Raha area including Al Zeina, Al Manara and Al Bandar.

Taimur Khan, head of research for Middle East at Knight Frank, said majority of the properties above Dh5 million price range are villa properties in locations such as Emirates Hills, The Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Living among others.

In addition, there are also a number of luxury apartments which are available in Dubai's established prime area such as Downtown Dubai and Palm Jumeirah. "We are also seeing new offerings come to the market in Dubai Marina, Bluewaters, Jumeirah and City Walk."

In Abu Dhabi, majority of residential properties above Dh5 million are villas on Saadiyat Island while some prime apartments are available above this price point on Saadiyat Island, Yas Island and Al Raha Beach.

"Whilst there are other locations where properties above this value are available, the aforementioned locations are where non-GCC national are able to buy property," he said.

He noted that investors' focus will be on properties which are not only of great quality but are also part of a community.

Restoring confidence

Fadi Nwilati, CEO, Kaizen Asset Management Services, stated that the UAE's long-term visa strategy has reinforced confidence among expatriates and given a greater feeling of permanence in the UAE.

"We have seen a direct impact on foreign investment increase outside of the GCC, especially from India and Pakistan. As an organisation, we have in particular discussed this topic with business owners, since business owners have started expressing interest to buy rather than rent properties. There is a lot of excitement in the market, but it is far too early to see tangible results. We are looking forward to seeing the tangible impact in the next three years," Nwilati said.

"There are currently around 5,500 properties valued at over Dh5 million on the listing portals. Residential investors can look at areas like Arabian Ranches 2, Dubai Hills, District One, Tilal Al Ghaf, Al Barari and Palm Jumeirah. On the higher end, investors can look at Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Royal Atlantis residences and Opera District to name a few," Nwilati added.

Jake Wright, investment director, Smart Crowd, believes that the long-term visas will provide individuals greater comfort around their mid- to long-term future, allowing them to better plan their lives within the emirate.

"Working on a two- to three-year visa may deter people from making key life decisions i.e. shall I buy a property to live in, shall I invest some of my savings or even smaller purchases such as furniture etc. All of which a key factors in creating a thriving economy," said Wright.

Commenting on commercial properties, Andrew Love, partner and head of Commercial and Investment Agency at Cavendish Maxwell, said prime office assets in areas of Dubai like Downtown, Internet City or JLT, with good tenants and long-term leases, may generate a yield of up to seven per cent. Certain multi-let industrial and logistics assets in areas like DIP might provide 10-11 per cent in returns.

"Often, these investments start at Dh12 million, with typical transaction values between Dh50 million and Dh100 million," Love said.

He said other commercial assets like retail community malls may generate 8-12 per cent, with investments ranging from Dh15 million to Dh200 million. Labour accommodations often offer the best returns, more than 15 per cent, but also carry the most investor risk due to high tenant turnover and cyclical rents.

Source: zawya

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