Al Wasl Plaza’s trellis design was inspired by an ancient golden ring found in the Saruq Al Hadid site by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai. It also reflects the intertwined logo of Expo 2020.
Al Wasl Plaza’s trellis design was inspired by an ancient golden ring found in the Saruq Al Hadid site by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai. It also reflects the intertwined logo of Expo 2020.
Al Wasl Plaza’s trellis design was inspired by an ancient golden ring found in the Saruq Al Hadid site by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai. It also reflects the intertwine
Dr Nawal Al-Hosany is permanent representative of the UAE to the International Renewable Energy Agency
September 24, 2021
We are merely days away from seeing what a ‘world of pure imagination’ looks like. The fantastical promo for Expo 2020 Dubai featuring Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, which takes as its refrain the famous line from Roald Dahl’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has whet appetites across the globe to see just what kind of world we could create for future societies.
The world that has been created at the Expo site, however, is not a place of sugar-coated sweets and chocolate treats. Rather, it’s a space that shows what a sustainable future could be. It is set to be a manifestation of the words of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai: “The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it and execute it.”
That the imagination of the Dubai Expo organisers is focused on how economies can forge a sustainable, green future is nothing but encouraging. Indeed, it’s symptomatic of how the country and its leadership envision the next 50 years of our nationhood: as a creative, diverse, inclusive and sustainable place powered by renewable energy.
Expo 2020 Dubai – the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia – will not just be a catalyst for economic activity and growth in the UAE. It will deliver one of the most sustainable world fairs in history.
A central concern of any major event when it comes to its sustainability is its long-term use. The infrastructure built for many global extravaganzas, from World Cups to tech fairs, are often thought of as "white elephants" – excessive, permanent structures whose long-term costs outweigh their usefulness.
Mindful of this, the Dubai Expo’s International Sustainability team has been working with private and public partners to minimise the environmental impact of the six-month event to preserve the infrastructure that has been developed for it, long after the curtain has fallen. This is in the same vein as the UAE’s long-term vision for its Expo infrastructure.
For instance, the UAE National Pavilion from Milan Expo 2015 is now hosted at Masdar City, repurposed as the headquarters of the UAE Space Agency. And prior to that, the award-winning UAE Pavilion from Shanghai Expo 2010 – designed as parallel sand dunes in tribute of the UAE’s natural desert landscape – has been relocated to Saadiyat Island.
The UAE's pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 has since been relocated to Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, where it houses the Berklee College of Music. Courtesy CCI
Dubai Expo’s International Sustainability team has been working to minimise the environmental impact of the event
Fast-forward to next week, we will see sustainability take centre stage at this year’s once-in-a-lifetime event. The opening week of Expo 2020 is themed Climate and Biodiversity Week, aimed at raising global ambitions for climate action and environmental protection. As another immediate example of reusing infrastructure, the Water, Energy, Technology and Environment Exhibition (Wetex) and Dubai Solar Show will both be held at the Expo 2020 Dubai site, where more than 1,200 companies from 55 countries will convene top showcase the opportunities that come with climate action and the green energy transition.
Then there’s the energy required to run the site and the pavilions. Fifty per cent of it is being generated by renewable sources; all the permanent builds are fitted with solar panels and other clean energy systems with a combined total capacity of 5.5 megawatts. For context, that’s enough energy to do approximately 180,000 round trips from Downtown Dubai to the Abu Dhabi Corniche.
Standout examples of this include the net zero energy and water building, Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion, which is aiming to become a Platinum-certified LEED building.
The Pavilion is surrounded by 18 Energy Trees. These ingenious structures are equipped with more than 4,900 solar panels which are programmed to face the sun and soak up its rays during the daytime, like enormous sunflowers, capable of produce four gigawatt-hours of alternative energy a year.
With innovation like this at the heart of the Expo site, it’s little wonder that the site is on-track to receive LEED certification for more than 120 of its permanent buildings – 95 of which are targeting LEED Gold, while four are targeting LEED Platinum, the highest LEED recognition.
Expo 2020 is also highlighting a major milestone for renewable energy in the region, with the official inauguration of the Middle East and North Africa’s first industrial scale, solar-powered green hydrogen facility, in collaboration with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) and Siemens Energy. which is rightly being spotlighted at the Expo as an example of the major socioeconomic advantages that clean energy can unlock.
Located at Dewa Outdoor Testing Facility of the Research and Development Centre at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, daylight solar power from the park will power the Green Hydrogen Project, which is projected to produce approximately 20.5kg of hydrogen an hour at 1.25 megawatts of peak power.
Sustainability runs throughout the site – from top to bottom, from the towering buildings themselves to getting people to the site and the buildings. As an example, the official logistics partner of Expo 2020 Dubai, UPS will launch zero-emissions delivery solutions like e-quads, e-bikes and an Arrival electric vehicle, which will run on the solar power infrastructure in place at Expo 2020 Dubai site.
This is the critical decade for climate, innovation and partnerships. A decade that demands that we all to come together in the pursuit of a common goal. And this global collaborative effort will be on full show at the Expo, where country pavilions highlight the best of their expertise and knowledge of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. This is evident from the Singapore Pavilion, themed Nature, Nurture, Future, representing the garden city and the nexus between nature and the built environment. The Netherlands Pavilion is a miniature ecosystem, brimming with sustainable solutions for water, energy and food.
Meanwhile, the Mozambique and Seychelles pavilions will offer visitors glimpses into their quest for accessible energy and the glorious deep-sea treasures that we must preserve at all costs, respectively. The Cuba Pavilion will tell of the country’s evolution in renewables and biotech, while the Comoros Pavilion puts recycling in the spotlight.
The German Pavilion will showcase some of Europe’s cutting-edge sustainability innovations, and the Czech Republic Pavilion displays how to extract water vapour from the air using solar energy – something that will be of keen interest to those of us who live among arid desert climes. And this is just a sample of the great plethora of country pavilions highlighting human ingenuity and innovative ways to support all life on our planet in the years ahead.
Combined, the 200 pavilions at the Expo site – 191 of which represent participating countries – offer a glimpse into a future world powered by clean energy underpinned by sustainability. It really is the stuff of imagination. But this world is not confined purely to the mind, to words in a book or images on a screen. This is a world we are designing collaboratively and collectively. Spurred on by a vision of making tomorrow better, the UAE is moving from a world of pure imagination to a reality at great speed.
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
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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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
UAE v Zimbabwe A, 50 over series
Fixtures
Thursday, Nov 9 - 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Saturday, Nov 11 – 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Monday, Nov 13 – 2pm, Dubai International Stadium
Thursday, Nov 16 – 2pm, ICC Academy, Dubai
Saturday, Nov 18 – 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier
UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
Desert Warrior
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
