A banner promotes the BWF Badminton World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. Adek Berry / AFP
A banner promotes the BWF Badminton World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. Adek Berry / AFP
A banner promotes the BWF Badminton World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. Adek Berry / AFP
A banner promotes the BWF Badminton World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia. Adek Berry / AFP

Sport

Indonesia grant Israeli badminton player visa for world championships at Jakarta

The Olympic Committee of Israel said Misha Zilberman, 26, had been cleared to enter Indonesia after being repeatedly denied a visa.

Associated Press

August 10, 2015

  • English
  • Arabic

JERUSALEM // Indonesia granted an Israeli badminton player a visa to enter the country and compete in the world championships in Jakarta after a months-long standoff, Israel’s national Olympic committee said Monday.

The Olympic Committee of Israel said Misha Zilberman, 26, had been cleared to enter Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim country – after being repeatedly denied a visa because he is Israeli.

OCI secretary general Gili Lustig said Zilberman had been waiting in Singapore for two weeks after making an initial visa application six months ago. He said the Badminton World Federation intervened to ensure Zilberman could secure a visa.

Zilberman was scheduled to fly from Singapore to Jakarta on Monday accompanied by his mother, also a badminton player, as well as the CEO of the Badminton World Federation, Lustig said. Zilberman is set to compete on Tuesday.

Lustig said the visa delay had prevented Zilberman from properly training for the championships.

“But for us it’s a big victory that he will be there,” Lustig said. “Now he’s an ambassador for Israeli sport.”

In a post on his Facebook page on Aug. 3, before he was granted the visa, Zilberman voiced his dismay with the visa denial.

“They won’t give me a visa to participate in the world championship!!” he wrote. “After six months of exchanging letters, and after sending all the documents they requested, and after we arrived in Singapore, they are saying no.”

Israel does not have formal diplomatic relations with Indonesia and many other Muslim-majority countries, some of whom have denied Israeli and Arab Israeli athletes visas to compete in the past.

Zilberman competed in the 2012 London Olympics, the first Israeli badminton player to represent his country at the games. He has won numerous badminton competitions in Israel, including mixed doubles with his mother, who is also his coach.

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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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