Operations at UAE’s pioneering Barakah nuclear plant are “on schedule” despite the Covid-19 outbreak, the chief executive of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation has said.
Speaking via video link to the Washington-based Atlantic Council, Mohammed Al Hammadi explained that, as a result of rigorous measures taken at the Barakah plant construction site, the virus had not affected the timetable for completion.
The nuclear plant, 50km southwest of Ruwais in Al Dhafra region, is the first such facility in the Arab world.
“Today we are on schedule,” Mr Al Hammadi said. “We are continuing with our plan and we will keep safety as the overriding priority … the current impact we have right now did not derail us from our plans.
"We are planning to go critical very soon. In a couple of weeks or month or so from now. We are targeting to get the units operational and start putting power to the grid before the end of the year."
The Enec head said leadership at the corporation had worked quickly to assess the “multifaceted crisis” presented by the pandemic.
“We assessed the situation that we were in seven weeks ago. We did stop all the non-essential work at Barakah. We demobilised people from the head office to 90-100 per cent. Almost everybody is working from home,” Mr Al Hammadi said.
“They looked at the construction site. Priority number one was to keep people safe and keep Covid-19 out of Barakah. That was the ultimate goal. Nothing else.”
He explained the site was swiftly locked down and workers were monitored and tested. As a result, there have been no Covid-19 cases at the site.
“They immediately [moved] to lockdown the site, demobilise the critical resources and continue. They got their heads down and they got the work done. We've observed the facility. Anyone leaves Barakah, they are not allowed to come back to make sure there is no introduction of the virus to the Barakah site,” he said.
“So the good news that I have today – we don't have a single positive case at the construction site.”
The Enec head said the conduct of leadership and workers at the plant in the Covid-19 outbreak, which he praised as exemplary, had been shared with the World Association of Nuclear Operators.
Mr Al Hammadi said moving forward the nuclear industry would have to continue adapting to the ongoing crisis.
“It's 12 months to 18 months if we are optimistic. We need to get used to the new norm of working with this Covid-19 and make sure the business and facilities are safe from this pandemic,” he said.
Mr Al Hamadi said the UAE’s nuclear programme was model for the world and had been planned and executed to the highest international standards.
“We had a clear commitment to the highest standards of non-proliferation, the highest standards of security, the highest standard of nuclear safety and nuclear quality,” he said.
“Today, if you ask the [International Atomic Energy Agency] they will say go to the UAE and look at the model to develop a civilian nuclear power plant and programme for a nation.”
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Where: Parc OL, Lyon, France
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Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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Iran has sent five planeloads of food to Qatar, which is suffering shortages amid a regional blockade.
A number of nations, including Iran's major rival Saudi Arabia, last week cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of funding terrorism, charges it denies.
The land border with Saudi Arabia, through which 40% of Qatar's food comes, has been closed.
Meanwhile, mediators Kuwait said that Qatar was ready to listen to the "qualms" of its neighbours.
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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.”
