DUBAI // Jashim Izaz Ibrahim could barely contain his excitement as he got behind the wheel for the first time.
As the learner driver drove round the streets, he remembered to slow down as he went through a residential area, giving him plenty of time to stop for children who had kicked a football into the road.
Thankfully, Mr Ibrahim was in no danger because he was only trying out the Emirates Driving Institute’s driving simulator.
After the hour-long session, the 22-year-old engineer from India was presented with a report on his driving skills.
The simulator gives learner drivers a chance to get acquainted with driving without the pressures of being on real roads, said P M Abdul Razak, assistant manager at the institute’s instructor training centre.
“A simulator helps familiarise them with vehicle controls, its operations, such as steering control, gear change for manual transmission, progression in various driving conditions, braking safely, lane discipline and how to meet and pass other vehicles before they get into a real car and have to manoeuvre through traffic,” he said.
Students learn how to control the car at their own pace before their first on-road lesson.
“I learnt the importance of paying attention behind the wheel, dealing with risky situations and hazards on the road, and following the traffic signs and the rules,” Mr Ibrahim said.
“I think I did well,” he said. “But I failed to use my indicators three times.”
At one point on the simulated motorway, he also managed to swerve around a stray camel that had wandered on to the road.
University studies in the UAE, Norway and Australia have indicated that simulators can place students in driving situations that are high-risk or difficult, or in situations particular to certain regions, said Dino Kalivas, chairman of the driver education and training committee at the International Road Federation.
“In the UAE, students can learn to drive and experience a range of conditions – fog, wet roads, heavy traffic or how to manage traffic signals, manage their speed and maintain a safe following distance from other vehicles,” Mr Kalivas said.
“The best driver-simulator training should have a number of short lessons that allow students to experience, measure their ability and reapply their learning, with feedback from instructors.”
Emirates Driving Company in Abu Dhabi also offers driver simulator training that prepares drivers for emergency situations, such as how to drive in dense fog.
“We’re now seeking new technology,” said Khaled Al Mansoori, chief executive of the company. “We’re testing the use of virtual reality to create safer drivers.”
Students use a virtual reality device to simulate a driving experience. Compared with regular driving simulators, the experience of realism would be higher in a virtual-reality system.
“We tried it a few months ago to see if it’s suitable,” he said. “What’s amazing is that when you move your head, you don’t see your actual surroundings. You won’t see a computer screen like that of a typical simulator, or you won’t see me standing behind you. You’re moving through a virtual environment and responding to traffic.”
The company has yet to decide whether to include it in its curriculum. Some who tried the device had complained of motion sickness, Mr Al Mansoori said.
In Dubai, the Road and Transport Authority recently introduced a virtual reality training pilot project that may become part of the curriculum, Mr Abdul Razak said.
The simulator will allow every learner driver to take an hour-long training session before doing 40 30-minute practical driving lessons on the road. The simulator session costs Dh100.
rruiz@thenational.ae
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
