ABU DHABI // A safety system that makes sure all pupils are accounted for has been installed on hundreds of school buses.
Emirates Transport and Abu Dhabi Education Council said 1,300 vehicles had been fitted with the system, which counts the number of children getting on and off. It requires the driver to check each seat and triggers an alarm if anyone remains onboard.
The new technology aims to prevent a repeat of the case of Nizaha Aalaa, the three-year-old who died of heat exhaustion in October last year after being locked inside a school bus.
All 1,300 buses for kindergarten and Cycle One pupils are equipped with electronic count system, a bus-checking system, and a motion detecting system.
A sensor detects any movement inside the bus when the engine shuts down at the end of a journey, providing an alert message if a child is still on board.
“Emirates Transport has achieved this milestone for all school buses to be equipped with these smart systems for day one of the new academic year,” said Dr Amal Al Qubaisi, director general of Adec, who hoped it would be applied to all school buses in Abu Dhabi emirate.
“We have to prepare to welcome the students in school and when they leave their homes by providing a safe transport for them,” she said.
She said Adec would work with Emirates Transport, Abu Dhabi Police, and the Department of Transport to improve the safety of buses.
“We will not tolerate any school transport accidents as we are keen on ensuring our children’s safety and security,” Dr Al Qubaisi said. “Necessary precautions will be made to prevent accidents.”
Mohammed Al Jarman, general manager of Emirates Transport, said his organisation and Adec were setting up a central operations room equipped with technology to track school buses’ journeys.
Emirates Transport has imported 152 buses to modernise its school bus fleet, he said.
There are 2,090 school buses in Abu Dhabi emirate, covering 254 schools, Mr Al Jarman said.
In total, 98,171 students use the bus service and are registered with Emirates Transport.
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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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