Expo 2020 Dubai will celebrate the UAE National Day and Jubilee next weekend with fireworks, live performances and hourly surprises for visitors over four days.
For the Golden Jubilee weekend, the world’s fair will be open from 9am to 2am from December 1 to 4.
More than 200 performers will take to the stage at Jubilee Park, Dubai Millennium Amphitheatre and Al Wasl Plaza each day, entertaining audiences with specially curated shows to celebrate the UAE’s 50th anniversary.
Every day, there will be a big surprise and every hour, another surprise
Amna Abulhoul,
executive creative director for Expo 2020 Dubai
Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday, Amna Abulhoul, executive creative director for Expo, said the performers will include at least “95 people from 95 country pavilions”.
“Every day, there will be a big surprise and every hour, another surprise,” she said.
“This weekend is all about the world turning into one and paying tribute to the people of this land, the UAE. Each day the gates to Dubai Expo will be opened by story tellers of the UAE.
“On December 2, the day will start with a national anthem and flag-raising ceremony, followed by an Al Azi performance, where we have narrated 50 years of the UAE [through] a 10-line poem.”
The main show for UAE National Day, "Journey of the 50", will take place at Al Wasl Plaza twice daily, at 7.30pm and 10.15pm, and will be an “extension of the impressive opening ceremony”.
Visitors can also enjoy daily fireworks throughout the four-day weekend, as well as choir performances and a show called The Story of a Thread, which depicts a young boy and his grandmother talking about the UAE through the decades.
Broadcast on large screens at different stages across the Expo site, visitors can also watch the UAE's official 50th National Day celebrations, which will take place in Hatta on December 2 from 5.30pm.
In its first seven weeks, the world's fair has welcomed more than four million visits through its gates, apart from the 22 million online visits.
Figures released on Monday showed there were 4,156,985 visits since October 1, with the popular Irish show, Riverdance, helping to draw the crowds during the evenings throughout November.
Organisers said sales of the half-price November ticket, which costs Dh45 until the end of the month, were also going strong, with more than 120,000 weekday tickets sold over the past three weeks.
Organisers have yet to release details of ticket offers for December.
In pictures - UAE National Day celebration
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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.”
