ABU DHABI // Filipino expatriates in the UAE will receive skills training as part of an agreement between the Philippines and the Emirates.
The training will broaden their opportunities while also ensuring they have the skills appropriate for positions their host country needs filled.
For its part, the Philippines will provide its workers with orientation workshops before they leave home and after they arrive in the UAE.
“The UAE has favourably considered the recommendations discussed during the Abu Dhabi Dialogue 2,” said Rosalinda Baldoz, the Philippines labour secretary, who is in the capital for a series of meetings with the ministries of Labour and Foreign Affairs.
“The UAE is also for the mutual skills recognition and certifications of our professionals and skilled workers.”
Ms Baldoz was referring to the framework of regional collaboration that came from the Abu Dhabi Dialogue approved in April last year.
“It is a historic document designed to guide participating countries to undertake concrete actions towards an enhanced contract migration cycle, from pre-deployment to employment to preparation for return, and finally to reintegration,” she said.
“We have agreed in principle to push through with these at a technical level, and as the current chairman, I will write to Abu Dhabi Dialogue members for an update on the progress made and encourage them to submit proposals.”
Manila played host to Abu Dhabi Dialogue 2 in April last year, when the UAE turned over the chairmanship of the initiative to the Philippines for two years.
Some initiatives adopted by labour-sending and receiving countries included enhancing the skills of workers, improving the recruitment process, ensuring a balance between labour supply and demand, and helping workers adapt to foreign employment.
First held in Abu Dhabi in 2008, the dialogue was a conference to forge greater partnerships between worker destination countries including the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and countries of origin, such as India, Nepal and the Philippines.
“Kuwait will be the chairman of Abu Dhabi Dialogue 3 to be held in November 2014,” Ms Baldoz said.
She met the Minister of Labour, Saqr Ghobash, on Monday and said she hoped to “sustain the progress made so far in the proper management of contractual labour mobility”.
“Our meeting was very productive,” Ms Baldoz said.
In May this year, working groups from both countries held talks to refine the provisions of an agreement that lapsed in April last year.
The teams exchanged draft agreements and discussed recruitment and deployment policies.
“The UAE Ministry of Labour said they’re still working on it and that it’s being reviewed by their legal team,” Ms Baldoz said.
The agreement, which aims to prevent contract substitution, will not cover domestic workers such as maids, nannies, gardeners, cooks or family drivers.
Those workers fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior, not the Ministry of Labour.
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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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