The second stage of the UAE’s national railway network that will ultimately stretch more than 600 kilometres is on track.
The National took a 10km journey on board an Etihad Rail inspection train, from Saih Shuaib to Al Maha Forest in Abu Dhabi, to see how construction was progressing.
It’s all hands on deck to complete the rail network. Special care is taken to protect wildlife and natural habitats
Omar Al Sebeyi,
Etihad Rail
From Saih Shuaib, tracks are being laid north towards Dubai and south towards Abu Dhabi, creating a rail link for the first time between the two emirates.
“It’s all hands on deck to complete the rail network,” said Omar Al Sebeyi, acting executive director of the commercial sector at Etihad Rail, as he pointed at construction workers who were laying tracks and building bridges and tunnels on the route.
Stage one of Etihad Rail, a 264km line, has been fully operational since January 2016.
Two trains transport up to 22,000 tonnes of granulated sulphur each day from gasfields in Shah and Habshan to an export point in Ruwais, about 240km west of Abu Dhabi city.
The second stage of the network will extend from Ghuwaifat on the border with Saudi Arabia and connect the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah on the east coast.
The fleet will expand from seven to 45 locomotives, and transport 60 million tonnes of cargo a year.
Teams began laying tracks on Package A of stage two, a slice of network stretching across Abu Dhabi, in January, while track-laying on Package B, which connects Dubai and Abu Dhabi, commenced in June.
Track-laying for Package C, running through Dubai and Sharjah to connect with the northern emirates, and Package D, which connects Sharjah with Fujairah Port, will begin in coming months.
Recently, excavation work was completed on the longest tunnel in the region. Measuring 1.8km, the tunnel connects the port of Fujairah on the emirate's eastern seaboard with the rest of the UAE and GCC rail network.
In addition, 160 bridges are being constructed across Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
After the completion of stage two and other future expansion works, the rail network will stretch about 1,200km across the country and carry both passengers and freight. Authorities said it would reduce road haulage in the UAE, taking 2.5 million lorry trips off the motorways each year.
In March, Etihad Rail announced it had completed 34 per cent the network.
A scenic route
The inspection train passed through the lush green area of the Al Maha Forest, where trees and shrubs line the route.
“Special care is taken to protect wildlife and natural habitats,” said Mr Al Sebeyi.
The rail operator has partnered with environmental agencies, including the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi and Emirates Nature-WWF.
“We have built a series of animal crossings and culverts to ensure the UAE national railway network does not interrupt any natural animal migration. We have integrated over 95 animal crossings and culverts into the project,” he said.
On Package A of the network, Etihad Rail has built 22 gazelle underpasses, 10 camel underpasses and 78 reptile underpasses. On Package B, it is constructing 23 gazelle underpasses, six camel underpasses and 51 reptile underpasses.
As part of its environmental initiatives, Etihad Rail translocated 550 ghaf trees and replanted 590. The company also implemented strict measures to protect wildlife in the Al Wathba Wetland Reserve, including speed limitations and a ‘no-horn zone’ around the area.
In addition, it relocated more than 300 species of wildlife in the Misanad Nature Reserve in Sharjah, including snakes, Cheesman’s Gerbils, scorpions, and gecko, the endangered lizard.
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The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
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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.”
