UAE and UK to unite for Year of Creative Collaboration

Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development, spoke on Thursday of the long friendship and mutual understanding at the heart of the UK/UAE 2017 Year of Creative Collaboration.

“This Ministry is honoured to be partnering with the British Council in full support of this imaginative cultural venture,” he said. “When the joint patrons of UK/UAE 2017 – His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan – inaugurated this creative collaboration at Al Jahili Fort in Al Ain last November, we knew that a great adventure was on the horizon. Now we are getting under way.”

Held at the Abu Dhabi headquarters of the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, the ceremony, which was also attended by Philip Parham, the British Ambassador to the UAE, was used to announce the events that will form the spring season of the year-long programme.

As well as the public and the popular, the spring season also includes events that are aimed at industry specialists and all of these have been organised according to three themes: next generation, community, and inclusion.

These include performances by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Dubai Opera as part of the BBC Proms, a science strand featuring UK authors at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature and commissions from UK-based artists as part of this year’s Sharjah Biennial 13 as well as an international symposium for scientists engaged in Smart City research and workshops for UAE-based museum professionals.

“The UK and the UAE have always shared common values — a devotion to our own cultures and a deep respect for and appreciation of other cultures, ethnicities, languages, religions, and beliefs,” Sheikh Nahyan added.

“We share the joys of civilisation [and] this year of creative collaboration between the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates will intensify those joys.”

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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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Google wasn't new to busting out April Fool's jokes: before the Gmail "prank", it tricked users with mind-reading MentalPlex responses and said well-fed pigeons were running its search engine operations .

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