PARIS // The words, "Ladies and gentlemen, Dubai wins" launched victory celebrations in Paris among the successful UAE bid, on the announcement of the host city for the World Expo 2020.
The UAE national anthem rang out in Paris minutes after the announcement was made.
Supporters and members of the UAE bid team gathered together waving UAE flags and celebrated with hugs, cheers and tears of joy.
They were on their feet each time the results of the three rounds of voting were announced.
After the third and final round, when the large screens showed the UAE had won by a thumping 70 per cent, whoops of excitement filled the observation room at the general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, promised the city would deliver in 2020.
“I am proud of our teams who earned this victory for Dubai with two years of hard work, dedication and commitment,” Sheikh Mohammed said. “We renew our promise to astonish the world in 2020.”
He also announced a holiday on Thursday for all educational institutions across the country to celebrate the win.
Dubai won by a resounding majority with 116 votes, leaving Yekaterinburg, Russia, with only 47.
The President, Sheikh Khalifa, sent his congratulations.
“Our joy in the UAE was double by the win as it coincides with the celebrations of the 42nd National Day,” Sheikh Khalifa said.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, sent his congratulations to the President, Vice President, and Rulers and people of the UAE.
“What has been achieved today is a great work that made us all happy ahead of our National Day celebrations,” he said.
“Year after year, the UAE proves its ability to achieve its aims and visions, thanks to the strength of the nation built by our founding fathers and the wisdom of our leadership.”
The rulers of all the emirates have congratulated the UAE and its people on winning the World Expo 2020 bid.
The voting took place on the second day of the general assembly of the BIE, the international organisation responsible for overseeing, regulating and selecting the candidate for the world fair. At the BIE, 164 nation members were entitled to vote.
The excitement, suspense and tension mounted as the rounds progressed with several UAE members saying silent prayers as they were seated.
The second round put Dubai ahead with 53 per cent of the votes.
The emirate swept aside the competition with 87 votes, followed by Yekaterinburg, Russia with 41 votes, Izmir, Turkey with 36 votes. Brazil was knocked out in the first round.
The numbers were resoundingly clear in Dubai’s favour from the first round when the emirate beat back the opposition by raking up 47 per cent of the votes.
Dubai with 77 votes was way ahead of Yekaterinburg, Russia with 39 votes, Izmir, Turkey with 33 votes and Sao Paulo, Brazil with 13 votes.
Jubilation marked each announcement in the observation room.
Outside the hall, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Emirates Group and of Dubai Expo 2020, expressed the team’s elation.
“It is a great achievement,” Sheikh Ahmed said. “We’re so pleased.
“For this we give thanks to Allah and thanks to our leaders Sheikh Khalifa and Sheikh Mohammed, and this is also thanks to all the people, to the whole of the UAE, for everyone who helped the Emirates win.”
Reem Al Hashemi, Minister of State and managing director of the Dubai World Expo 2020 bid committee, delivered an emotional speech at the opening of the session yesterday morning.
Ms Al Hashemi opened her speech in French, then switched to English when addressing more than 200 delegates.
The 20-minute presentation, for which she received resounding applause, was interspersed with videos focused on the UAE’s hopes as a young country and Dubai’s strengths of diversity, strong infrastructure and stability.
The videos also showed clips of the British prime minister, David Cameron, who had officially backed Dubai’s bid, along with footage of UAE teams supporting community projects in the developing world.
Urging delegates to share the nation’s dream, Ms Al Hashemi said: “The Dubai Expo has rapidly become the dream of an entire nation, and dare I say of the entire nation.
BIE delegates had in June unanimously approved to further the bids of Turkey, Russia, Brazil and the UAE for the Expo 2020.
“My generation has been inspired by our forefathers, by their courage to take the road less travelled, to open our communities to the world, to focus on education and human development,” Ms Al Hashemi said.
“They have entrusted us with a city that is capable of working with the world and hosting the world, with a country that is recognised as a model of openness and stability, a place that millions of young people in our neighbourhood and beyond see as a beacon of hope and opportunity.
“It is now our turn to hand over this legacy and these values to the next generation …we pledge our assets, skills and expertise to give Expo 2020 the weight and recognition it deserves.”
rtalwar@thenational.ae
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Director: Khalid Fahad
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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MATCH INFO
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- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
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Company Profile
Name: Direct Debit System
Started: Sept 2017
Based: UAE with a subsidiary in the UK
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Number of employees: 8
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Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
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Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
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Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
57 Seconds
Director: Rusty Cundieff
Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Morgan Freeman, Greg Germann, Lovie Simone
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More from Neighbourhood Watch:
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.”
Tightening the screw on rogue recruiters
The UAE overhauled the procedure to recruit housemaids and domestic workers with a law in 2017 to protect low-income labour from being exploited.
Only recruitment companies authorised by the government are permitted as part of Tadbeer, a network of labour ministry-regulated centres.
A contract must be drawn up for domestic workers, the wages and job offer clearly stating the nature of work.
The contract stating the wages, work entailed and accommodation must be sent to the employee in their home country before they depart for the UAE.
The contract will be signed by the employer and employee when the domestic worker arrives in the UAE.
Only recruitment agencies registered with the ministry can undertake recruitment and employment applications for domestic workers.
Penalties for illegal recruitment in the UAE include fines of up to Dh100,000 and imprisonment
But agents not authorised by the government sidestep the law by illegally getting women into the country on visit visas.
RESULT
Al Hilal 4 Persepolis 0
Khribin (31', 54', 89'), Al Shahrani 40'
Red card: Otayf (Al Hilal, 49')
RESULTS
Women:
55kg brown-black belt: Amal Amjahid (BEL) bt Amanda Monteiro (BRA) via choke
62kg brown-black belt: Bianca Basilio (BRA) bt Ffion Davies (GBR) via referee’s decision (0-0, 2-2 adv)
70kg brown-black belt: Ana Carolina Vieira (BRA) bt Jessica Swanson (USA), 9-0
90kg brown-black belt: Angelica Galvao (USA) bt Marta Szarecka (POL) 8-2
Men:
62kg black belt: Joao Miyao (BRA) bt Wan Ki-chae (KOR), 7-2
69kg black belt: Paulo Miyao (BRA) bt Gianni Grippo (USA), 2-2 (1-0 adv)
77kg black belt: Espen Mathiesen (NOR) bt Jake Mackenzie (CAN)
85kg black belt: Isaque Braz (BRA) bt Faisal Al Ketbi (UAE), 2-0
94kg black belt: Felipe Pena (BRA) bt Adam Wardzinski (POL), 4-0
110kg black belt final: Erberth Santos (BRA) bt Lucio Rodrigues (GBR) via rear naked choke
Company profile
Company: Zywa
Started: 2021
Founders: Nuha Hashem and Alok Kumar
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Industry: FinTech
Funding size: $3m
Company valuation: $30m
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Jack Butland, Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope
Defenders: John Stones, Harry Maguire, Phil Jones, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Gary Cahill, Ashley Young, Danny Rose, Trent Alexander-Arnold
Midfielders: Eric Dier, Jordan Henderson, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard, Raheem Sterling, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fabian Delph
Forwards: Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Marcus Rashford, Danny Welbeck
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
