Ahmed al Kamali would be pleased if the UAE national anthem becomes a familiar tune in Guangzhou, China in the coming weeks.
The country has sent its biggest contingent, 99 athletes, to the Asian Games there, and the chief of the UAE Athletics Federation hopes the team can improve on their medal haul of three gold, four silver and three bronze from the Doha Games four years ago.
The 16th Asian Games open today, with a record 9,704 competitors - 184 more than were at the Doha Games four years ago - taking part in 54 sports across 15 days.
The UAE contingent will compete in 18 sports, and officials are optimistic that more medals are in the offing.
The country's billiards and snooker, chess, cycling, judo, shooting, swimming and table tennis representatives go into action from tomorrow.
The 13-member track and field squad must wait until November 21 to begin competition. They are still training in Malaysia and will arrive in Guangzhou on Sunday without Ali Obaid Shirook, who was forced to pull out yesterday due to a knee injury. He was to have taken part in three races - the 400m, 400m hurdles and the 4x400m relay.
"Obaid's withdrawl is really disappointing news," al Kamali said. "He also got injured during the World Championships last year.
"But we still have a lot of hope. I expect to reach the final round of at least eight events and once we are in the final, it is a matter of luck. That's the nature of sport. So our main target is to reach the final.
"I am optimistic because the team has prepared well. We started our preparations really early and they have been training together now for about four months. So the preparation has been good."
Al Kamali said the athletics competition is particularly stiff because so many countries take part, "not like shooting, where there are eight or nine countries because it is a costly sport".
He added: "In athletics, you just need a shoe and run. So most of the countries participate in track and field events; about 45 or 46 countries are taking part."
UAE fans will be hoping to see Omar Jumaa al Salfa, the 2008 Asian Junior 200m champion, on the podium. Mohammed Abbas Darwish, the triple-jumper, also faces expectations; he won the country's lone gold medal at the West Asian Championships in September.
"Yes, we have a lot of hopes from these two boys but we don't want to put them under pressure," said al Kamali.
"Omar is completely focused. The event will not be very easy for him because there are the Japanese and some new Qataris, a Nigerian who has just been given citizenship.
"But he has prepared really well. So, fingers crossed."
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PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
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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.”
Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
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It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
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Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
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