Gulf nations need to strengthen protections offered to investors and offer greater transparency as they look to ramp up efforts to attract investment and diversify economies, a new study argues.
The 2020 Global Opportunity Index produced by the Miliken Institute, considers the economic and financial factors that influence foreign investment activities, as well as legal and regulatory policies governments use to attract external funds.
The report highlighted 2020 as an important year for Gulf economies given Dubai's Expo 2020 and Saudi Arabia's presidency of the G20. It also said significant progress has been made in terms of recent reforms, highlighting the inclusion of Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in leading emerging market indices.
“This trend will help spotlight the region to global investors and funds,” the report's authors, Claude Lopez and Joseph Bendix, said.
“However, the inclusion in these global indices means extra scrutiny from investors and new challenges … especially information disclosure. The delays in Aramco’s IPO illustrate the importance of these components when dealing with international investors.”
The study ranked the UAE as the most-investor friendly of the six Gulf nations, and the 26th most attractive out of 146 countries globally. Saudi Arabia was ranked as the least investor-friendly of the six Gulf states but was still 66th overall globally.
It argued that Gulf nations rank alongside upper-middle income countries in terms of factors such as the cost of starting a business, labour and tax regulation, the efficiency of the legal system and access to financial services, but highlights several areas that need strengthening.
Investor protection is one of the most important of these, it said, particularly the "recovery and resolution process", which covers factors such as the cost and time involved in enforcing contracts and in resolving the insolvency process.
Many Gulf states have only recently established bankruptcy laws, and these remain largely untested in terms of working through major bankruptcies.
The UAE's bankruptcy law was introduced in 2016 and a personal insolvency law passed late last year is set to come into force this month.
Transparency was the other major area where improvement is required in areas such as budget transparency, the depth of credit information, conflict of interest rules and reported incidences of corruption.
Other areas that could help to sway investment include the development of workforce talent, including the level of qualifications and diversity of the workforce, and general economic openness, measured through factors such as bilateral trade agreements, general tariff rates and treaties with investment provisions.
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MATCH INFO
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Company%20Profile
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The%20specs
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Other simple ideas for sushi rice dishes
Cheat’s nigiri
This is easier to make than sushi rolls. With damp hands, form the cooled rice into small tablet shapes. Place slices of fresh, raw salmon, mackerel or trout (or smoked salmon) lightly touched with wasabi, then press, wasabi side-down, onto the rice. Serve with soy sauce and pickled ginger.
Easy omurice
This fusion dish combines Asian fried rice with a western omelette. To make, fry cooked and cooled sushi rice with chopped vegetables such as carrot and onion and lashings of sweet-tangy ketchup, then wrap in a soft egg omelette.
Deconstructed sushi salad platter
This makes a great, fuss-free sharing meal. Arrange sushi rice on a platter or board, then fill the space with all your favourite sushi ingredients (edamame beans, cooked prawns or tuna, tempura veggies, pickled ginger and chilli tofu), with a dressing or dipping sauce on the side.
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Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
UAE Falcons
Carly Lewis (captain), Emily Fensome, Kelly Loy, Isabel Affley, Jessica Cronin, Jemma Eley, Jenna Guy, Kate Lewis, Megan Polley, Charlie Preston, Becki Quigley and Sophie Siffre. Deb Jones and Lucia Sdao – coach and assistant coach.