• Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
    Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
  • Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
    Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
  • Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
    Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
  • Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
    Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
  • Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
    Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
  • Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
    Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, Oman's Foreign Minister met Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. Oman New Agency
  • Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for Relations and International Cooperation and Special Representative of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, receives Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Oman News Agency
    Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for Relations and International Cooperation and Special Representative of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, receives Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Oman News Agency
  • Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for Relations and International Cooperation and Special Representative of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, receives Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Oman News Agency
    Sayyid Asaad bin Tariq Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for Relations and International Cooperation and Special Representative of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, receives Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Oman News Agency
  • Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
    Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
  • Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
    Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
  • Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
    Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
  • Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
    Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
  • Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
    Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
  • Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency
    Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visits National Museum in Muscat. Oman News Agency

Syria and Oman sign visa-free travel deal for diplomats and special passport holders


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  • Arabic

Oman and Syria agreed on Sunday to offer reciprocal visa-free entry to people with diplomatic, special and service passports.

The agreement came a day after Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad arrived in Muscat for talks with his Omani counterpart, Sayyid Al Busaidi.

“The good bilateral relations between the sultanate and Syria were reviewed, and aspects of existing co-operation between them were discussed in a way that serves the common interests of the two brotherly countries and people,” a statement released by Oman News Agency said.

In line with its foreign policy model of co-operation and neutrality, the sultanate normalised ties with Syria last year, becoming the first Gulf nation to do so.

In October, Oman sent Turki Al Busaidi, its newly appointed ambassador to Syria, to Damascus. Muscat withdrew his predecessor in 2012.

From the start of Syria’s conflict, Oman has taken few diplomatic actions against Damascus. It has preferring to work towards ending the war with negotiation, a trend other Arab nations have started to follow.

Last week, the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed called for Syria to be readmitted to the Arab League a decade after the country’s expulsion. This call was echoed by Iraqi Foreign Minster Fuad Hussein and his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry.

The pan-Arab body resumed some of its activities in Syria last month.

Mr Mekdad is meeting several ministers on his trip to the sultanate.

On Saturday he visited the National Museum, where he viewed a book on seamanship by Omani navigator Ahmad bin Majid Al Saadi. It was lent to Oman for restoration by Al Assad National Library in Damascus, the Syrian state news agency Sana reported.

Bert van Marwijk factfile

Born: May 19 1952
Place of birth: Deventer, Netherlands
Playing position: Midfielder

Teams managed:
1998-2000 Fortuna Sittard
2000-2004 Feyenoord
2004-2006 Borussia Dortmund
2007-2008 Feyenoord
2008-2012 Netherlands
2013-2014 Hamburg
2015-2017 Saudi Arabia
2018 Australia

Major honours (manager):
2001/02 Uefa Cup, Feyenoord
2007/08 KNVB Cup, Feyenoord
World Cup runner-up, Netherlands

TO A LAND UNKNOWN

Director: Mahdi Fleifel

Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa

Rating: 4.5/5

Dhadak

Director: Shashank Khaitan

Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana

Stars: 3

COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEjari%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERiyadh%2C%20Saudi%20Arabia%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EYazeed%20Al%20Shamsi%2C%20Fahad%20Albedah%2C%20Mohammed%20Alkhelewy%20and%20Khalid%20Almunif%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPropTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20funding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%241%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESanabil%20500%20Mena%2C%20Hambro%20Perks'%20Oryx%20Fund%20and%20angel%20investors%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E8%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MATCH INFO

Leeds United 0

Brighton 1 (Maupay 17')

Man of the match: Ben White (Brighton)

The Vile

Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah

Director: Majid Al Ansari

Rating: 4/5

Libya's Gold

UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves. 

The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.

Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.

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.”

FIRST TEST SCORES

England 458
South Africa 361 & 119 (36.4 overs)

England won by 211 runs and lead series 1-0

Player of the match: Moeen Ali (England)

 

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is an ETF?

An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.

There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.

The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.

There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.

While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.