Egypt’s high birth rate and its population, the largest in the Arab world, was described as the biggest obstacle to the country’s economic prosperity by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
Mr El Sisi, who spoke on Tuesday during the launch of the 1st Global Congress on Population, Health and Development (PHDC’23) at Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, warned that Egypt’s resources are not enough to handle a population of 105 million in addition to a “guest” population of 9 million.
This is not the first time the president has cited the country’s population growth as one of the most challenging obstacles facing Egypt. It's an issue that has been repeatedly blamed for the country's economic woes, going back as far as the rule of former president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
During the address, Mr El Sisi, who is largely expected to seek a third term in office during the upcoming presidential elections, focused on the education and healthcare sectors, blaming their bad state on the lack of resources to develop them - due to the nation's large population growth rate.
Mr El Sisi and his Cabinet have been repeatedly criticised for spending more on large construction projects and not enough on the education and healthcare sector.
Egyptian Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar mirrored the views of president El Sisi when he spoke in Tuesday's conference.
“It is the biggest obstacle to economic growth as it devours all the outcomes of the country’s development efforts which in turn affects the quality of services provided to the populace and therefore their quality of life,” Mr Abdel Ghaffar continued, “The main result of a large population is the absence of a balance between population growth and economic growth.”
A high population growth rate makes controlling poverty, fighting hunger and malnutrition, and providing adequate education and healthcare very difficult for the state, Mr Abdel Ghaffar added.
Earlier this year, Housing Minister Asem El Gazzar said Egypt needs to build 600,000 homes every year to keep up with the population growth. The government has spent around 1.1 trillion Egyptian pounds (about $56 billion) on housing projects over the past 10 years.
In Tuesday's comments, Mr El Sisi tried to deflect some of the blame pointed towards his government and defended its decision to build the New Administrative Capital, the desert east of Cairo.
He described the project, which is still under construction, in addition to the 24 other megacities built during his two terms in office as part of a larger plan to absorb the growing population and exit the Nile Delta region where most of the country’s population currently lives.
The New Administrative Capital has been a largely controversial project since it was announced back in 2015. While Mr El Sisi and his government have repeatedly said it was an essential project that would drum up revenues for the state, his critics have called it unnecessary and a waste of essential state funds that could be spent on more pressing matters.
“Some might say that the challenge facing Egypt when it comes to population growth is impossible to overcome, but I think that while it might be difficult, it’s possible to confront,” the president said.
“Every sector in the country, whether it is education, health, agriculture, water resources, electricity has seen efforts on the government’s part that far exceed our means,” Mr El Sisi added.
ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon
T20 WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS
Qualifier A, Muscat
(All matches to be streamed live on icc.tv)
Fixtures
Friday, February 18: 10am Oman v Nepal, Canada v Philippines; 2pm Ireland v UAE, Germany v Bahrain
Saturday, February 19: 10am Oman v Canada, Nepal v Philippines; 2pm UAE v Germany, Ireland v Bahrain
Monday, February 21: 10am Ireland v Germany, UAE v Bahrain; 2pm Nepal v Canada, Oman v Philippines
Tuesday, February 22: 2pm Semi-finals
Thursday, February 24: 2pm Final
UAE squad:Ahmed Raza(captain), Muhammad Waseem, Chirag Suri, Vriitya Aravind, Rohan Mustafa, Kashif Daud, Zahoor Khan, Alishan Sharafu, Raja Akifullah, Karthik Meiyappan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Zafar Farid, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Rahul Bhatia
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.”
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
