Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan set to visit Egypt and Gulf, Cairo officials say

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Egypt "soon", Egyptian officials have said.

News of the visit comes a day after Egypt and Turkey agreed to immediately restore full diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors, formally bringing to an end a decade of tension between the two regional powers.

The Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr Erdogan's visit to Cairo would be part of a tour that would also include the Gulf region.

A meeting between the Turkish leader and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi would be their first since November, when they met on the sidelines of the World Cup in Qatar.

The decision to upgrade diplomatic relations and exchange ambassadors was made during a phone call between Mr El Sisi and Mr Erdogan on Monday night, an Egyptian presidency press statement said.

Egyptian officials said Mr El Sisi had instructed the Foreign Ministry to select a candidate for the ambassador's job in Ankara.

Exchanging ambassadors was initially agreed last month during talks in Cairo between the foreign ministers of the two countries.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said at the time he and his Turkish counterpart were co-operating to arrange a possible meeting between the two leaders.

Relations between the two nations became tense in 2013 when Egypt’s military, at the time led by Mr El Sisi, removed Mohamed Morsi as president. The move took place amid a wave of protests against Mr Morsi’s divisive one-year rule.

He was a member of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, which Ankara has close ties to.

The two countries withdrew their respective ambassadors soon after, with accusations from Cairo that Turkey was supporting extremist Islamic groups in the region and meddling in the domestic affairs of Arab nations.

Relations have also been tense over Libya, where Egypt and Turkey have supported rival factions in the energy-rich North African nation.

Libya has been ravaged by a civil war since a Nato-backed uprising in 2011 overthrew its long-time leader Muammar Qaddafi.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu last month said Ankara and Cairo would “work more closely” on Libya. At the time, Mr Shoukry said: “We are in agreement on the creation of a government [in Libya] that would reflect the will of the people and protect its territorial integrity.”

Men drinking tea in Istanbul the day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected. Getty Images

Egypt wants Turkey to stop what it sees as interference on plans by Cairo and its allies- especially Ankara’s rivals Cyprus and Greece- to turn the Eastern Mediterranean into a regional energy hub following the discovery of vast natural gas reserves in the area.

Despite tense relations, trade has been unaffected in the past decade between the two nations. It currently stands at $10 billion a year, a figure Mr Cavusoglu expects to soon reach $15 billion.

Turkey is also among the most popular destination for Egyptian holidaymakers.

Farage on Muslim Brotherhood

Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.

A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books

Who's who in Yemen conflict

Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government

Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council

Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south

Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory

The National Archives, Abu Dhabi

Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.

Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

The alternatives

• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.

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• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.

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.”