Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors pictured in Syria in April 2018. Reuters
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors pictured in Syria in April 2018. Reuters
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors pictured in Syria in April 2018. Reuters
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons inspectors pictured in Syria in April 2018. Reuters

France donates to chemical weapons watchdog after UN warns Syria


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France has contributed $1.2 million to the Syria mission of global watchdog the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

This came a week after the UN disarmament chief reported the discovery of an undeclared chemical warfare agent at a Syrian site to a UN Security Council meeting.

Last month, Syria was stripped of its voting rights by OPCW member states after its forces were found to have repeatedly used poison gas during the country's civil war.

France's voluntary contribution, announced on Monday, was formalised by its representative to the OPCW, Luis Vassy, and the intergovernmental group's director general, Fernando Arias.

At the UN meeting, the US and its Western allies clashed with Russia over international findings that Syria has used chemical weapons.

UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu did not name the agent detected in samples by the OPCW.

But she said its presence “inside storage containers of large volume at a previously declared chemical weapons facility may imply undeclared production activities”.

Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in September 2013, pressed by its close ally Russia, after a deadly chemical weapons attack that the West blamed on Damascus.

By August 2014, President Bashar Al Assad's government declared the destruction of its chemical weapons was complete.

But Syria's initial declaration of its chemical stockpiles and chemical weapons production sites to the OPCW is disputed.

Ms Nakamitsu told the council that Syria reiterated recently that a former chemical production facility was never used to produce or weaponise chemical weapons.

The OPCW had said information and materials gathered there since 2014 indicated “that production and/or weaponisation of chemical warfare nerve agents did, in fact, take place at this facility”.

Ms Nakamitsu said the OPCW rejected Syria's latest denial and still maintains that the Assad regime must declare all chemical warfare agents produced at the site.

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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.”

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