The nation’s motorists will have to measure up to more stringent safety regulations. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
The nation’s motorists will have to measure up to more stringent safety regulations. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

Police patrols couldn't have come sooner



In reference to Nawal Ramahi's story on police patrols enforcing new national road rules (June 30), this is long overdue. Failing to make children wear seat belts or put them in car seats puts other motorists at risk too.
Vijay Ramburuth, Dubai


I can't wait to never again see another child standing between the driver's and passengers' seats. 
Jade Fitzgerald, Abu Dhabi

It is about time. Lets hope people realise this will save lives. I look forward to seeing more police on the road to enforce this.
Kay Lancaster, Dubai

This is long overdue, but the fine is not high enough. I hope there will be a community service education campaign so the public understands.
Christina Drake, Cape Town

Increased supply won't keep rents down

In reference to Lucy Barnard's story about residents bargain-hunting for houses due to increased supply (Abu Dhabi rental market is picking up activity, June 28), even such moves may prove futile. More often than not, landlords put the rents up again the year after the contract is signed knowing full well you will not want to move again. There should be a cap on how much they can increase rents.
Name withheld on request

Sunscreen will always be a must
In response to Sarah Treleaven's story (With concerns about the safety of sunscreen on the rise, who should we believe?, June 28), if I spend half an hour in this sun without sunscreen, my skin would burn the same way it would if I stuck my arm in the oven. I immediately go red, get blisters and sun stroke and feel physically ill. The sun is very dangerous for some. I cannot be in it without sunscreen.

Dana Kennedy, Manchester

Not everyone is paying municipality fee
Regarding issues with the Abu Dhabi municipality fee collection glitches (April 10), it appears there continue to be many expats still not being charged the fee. More than half of my colleagues have not received any bills from ADDC. Two of my colleagues left the country without having to pay anything. It's bad enough that my family and I have had to cancel our summer holiday due to the extra costs incurred by the fee, but it is even worse knowing that many have not received this fee at all. Some suspected they haven't receive the bills since they are renting from expat owners, but a number of others are renting through large real estate companies and are still unsure why they haven't had to pay. Is there a special provision I haven't heard of?
Name withheld upon request

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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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0-100km/h: 4.7sec
Top speed: 210kph
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On sale: September

KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY

July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington

July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon

1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024

1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs

2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website

2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006

2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black

2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year

2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video

2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started

2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products

2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013

2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS

2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa

2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition

2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone

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Sarfira

Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal

Rating: 2/5