The Grand Harbour at Valetta, Malta, where tourists from Dubai will be accepted on certain conditions without the need to quarantine on arrival. Alamy
The Grand Harbour at Valetta, Malta, where tourists from Dubai will be accepted on certain conditions without the need to quarantine on arrival. Alamy
The Grand Harbour at Valetta, Malta, where tourists from Dubai will be accepted on certain conditions without the need to quarantine on arrival. Alamy
The Grand Harbour at Valetta, Malta, where tourists from Dubai will be accepted on certain conditions without the need to quarantine on arrival. Alamy

UAE

Health

Malta allows Dubai passengers to enter without quarantine

Authorities recognise Dubai Health Authority vaccine certificate but only certain recipients are eligible

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Malta will allow vaccinated passengers from Dubai to travel to the island nation without the need to quarantine on arrival.

Dubai was among a handful of new destinations outside of the European Union and UK to have its vaccine certificates recognised by the Mediterranean island's government. Malta's state-run airport said it would accept Dubai Health Authority's vaccine certificate from Wednesday.

The changes – set out on Malta Airport's website and the Emirates Airline website – appear to supersede the UAE's status on Malta's red list for travel, but further clarity was awaited from the authorities.

On Wednesday, Emirates resumed its Dubai to Malta via Larnaca service for the first time since March 2020.

Travellers must have had two doses of a European Medicines Authority-approved vaccine – Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca-Oxford or Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) – to enter the country.

People vaccinated with China's Sinopharm are not eligible at this stage.

"Passengers must present a certificate of vaccination against Covid‑19, stating that all required doses were received, to be allowed unrestricted entry into Malta," said Emirates, which flies direct to Malta, on its website.

"A negative Covid‑19 PCR test result will not be accepted for travel in place of a vaccination certificate."

On Tuesday night, the Maltese government abandoned a plan that was due to come into effect on Wednesday that would have effectively barred unvaccinated travellers from entry.

The move followed criticism from the European Commission, which said Malta was bound to the EU-agreed health pass system that is binding on all member states.

The Times of Malta reported the inclusion of Dubai, but said the government had yet to officially announce the move, nor fully outline quarantine rules for unvaccinated travellers from any eligible country.

Malta, which has double-vaccinated at least 70 per cent of its population, has some of the world's strictest entry rules.

It factors in where people were vaccinated and which country issued their vaccine certificate, as well as the brand and EMA-approved status.

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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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Updated: July 14, 2021, 3:07 PM