One of the more poignant realities of Sri Lanka, a year after it defaulted on its debt for the first time, was voiced by a Sri Lankan athlete, Sachini Perera, a record holder in pole vaulting in her country, who recently told The National: “Mine is only one story. We have many stories in Sri Lanka. They need help."
Ms Perera is employed as a housemaid in Dubai. She is right about being one among many: in the past year, about 311,000 Sri Lankans from the 22 million-strong nation have left their homes for jobs abroad, seeking better salaries and escaping the country's economic crisis. Many of those who have emigrated have headed to the Gulf to find work and support families.
These are not just young people. Sri Lankans in their forties and fifties, in mostly the low and semi-skilled categories, have also joined the work force in the GCC. Skilled workers, including doctors and engineers, have left in large numbers too. The salaries that overseas workers send home contribute to lifting the country out of its economic crisis, which is why the Sri Lankan government is encouraging citizens to take up jobs abroad.
One of Sri Lanka's great assets is its human capital. Most of its citizens have had primary-level education, with a 92.38 per cent literacy rate reported in 2020, better than many other low and middle-income nations. This bodes well for the country's future, despite the economic challenges that were compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A year ago, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe took charge after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was forced out of office by popular protests and riots. Sri Lankans have had a tough time in recent years, with inflation touching 50.6 per cent in February and salaries at home unable to keep up.
The economic turmoil has arguably been most concerning in the health and information technology sectors, where professionals have left in droves, understandably seeking greener pastures, but at the same time also leaving a vacuum in these sectors that ultimately proves most costly to those who continue to live in the country. Citizens there have access to free medical treatment and education but when medical staff leave in big numbers, the result is destabilising to say the least.
Although Sri Lanka has a long way to go, revival is most evident in sectors such as tourism as leisure travellers return to the island nation. The country is expected to earn $2.7 billion in tourism revenue this year.
Crucially, moreover, the country secured a bailout package of about $3 billion from the IMF in March. While it proved to be a lifeline, the bailout came with tough conditions that require imposing higher taxes and making cuts to government spending and welfare programmes. So, as the government tries to restructure its debt, much-needed reforms will inevitably make life difficult in the short run for ordinary Sri Lankans.
The government has been making strenuous efforts to attract foreign investment – including most recently from India, Japan and France. But for now, the story of Sri Lanka's slow but steady economic recovery is embedded in the lives of its ordinary citizens, whether they work in the country or abroad, and at whichever age and stage of their careers and lives they are at.
Sri Lanka's human resource loss has been a gain for other countries, especially in the Gulf. But as Sachini Perera and hundreds of thousands of other Sri Lankans join compatriots who have moved far from home and send back money, they deserve credit for rebuilding not just their own lives, but for reshaping the future of their homeland.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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 Laughing Apple
Yusuf/Cat Stevens
(Verve Decca Crossover)
TRAP
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donaghue
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Rating: 3/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Avatar%3A%20The%20Way%20of%20Water
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJames%20Cameron%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESam%20Worthington%2C%20Zoe%20Saldana%2C%20Sigourney%20Weaver%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E3.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
