France's foreign minister met cheering children at Abu Dhabi's oldest French-speaking school on a visit to the capital on Monday.
Jean-Yves Le Drian was at the Louis Massignon school to open a 300,000 square metre extension of the facility in the Al Saadah area.
The extension does not increase the capacity in terms of pupil numbers but substantially expands the amount of outdoor space available.
“I'm delighted to be returning to the Louis Massingon School," said Mr Le Drian, at the school on Monday. "France and the UAE have an exceptional relationship."
Mr Drian has a packed itinerary and the one-night visit also saw the UAE and France launch a partnership for "sustainable development" including the fight against climate change. But the school visit was one of the most colourful of his engagements.
Louis Massignon school is one of seven across the UAE that are controlled by the French foreign ministry catering to thousands of pupils. Unlike many private British or Indian curriculum schools, they are directly managed by an agency of the French government.
“It is an honour and a privilege for me to have a minister coming to the school,” said principal Gilles Lasserrade.
“Because it shows the interest he has in education and how important it is for the future. I feel proud.”
When Louis Massignon - named after the French scholar of Islam - opened in a small house on the Corniche in 1972, the UAE was barely a year old. The school catered chiefly to children from the French oil company, Total, who were involved in early exploration here. Children of diplomats also attended.
“[The heritage] is very important,” said Mr Lasserrade, who has been principal for three years. “It gives us legitimacy when French parents come to Abu Dhabi. They feel this historical school is a guarantee of [what they would] find in France. What you get here you would get in any French school.”
By 1980, it had moved to its current location and today more than 1,760 pupils from primary to secondary study there. There are about 330 staff including 240 teachers. The number of pupils has increased this year after a dip in recent years, largely due to job losses and families returning home, school administrators said.
There are 496 of these schools across the globe catering for 355,000 pupils and the French government wants to double their numbers by 2030 as part of a soft power initiative.
“All students who go through this system are particularly successful at university whether in America or England,” said Mr Lasserrade.
Mr Le Drian leaves on Monday night. He is also expected to give a major speech on regional issues at Sorbonne Abu Dhabi at 4pm and visit Louvre Abu Dhabi to inaugurate the new exhibition - 10,000 Years of Luxury, which showcases 350 objects that symbolise the history of fashion, jewellery , art and design - including the oldest natural pearl ever found that was unearthed in Abu Dhabi last year.
His trip is another part of the flowering of relations between France and the UAE over the past few years. Louvre Abu Dhabi’s opening in 2017 was a major part of this but ties across commerce and culture have been growing significantly over the past few years. The UAE Ministry of Education has also reintroduced French to some public schools.
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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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- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
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A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
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