Japan launched on Thursday a rocket carrying what it hopes will be its first successful Moon lander, live footage from the country's space agency showed.
The H2-A rocket blasted off at 8.42am local time, carrying the precision "Moon Sniper" lander, which is expected to touch down on the Moon's surface in four to six months.
The lift-off from Tanegashima in southern Japan, which had been postponed three times by bad weather, was watched by about 35,000 people online.
The rocket was also carrying a research satellite developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa), Nasa and the European Space Agency.
The launch came after India last month landed a craft near the Moon's south pole, in a historic triumph for the world's most populous nation and its low-cost space programme.
Japan's compact lander, officially called the Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon (Slim), is designed to land within 100 metres of a specific target on the Moon, far less than the usual range of several kilometres.
"By creating the Slim lander humans will make a qualitative shift towards being able to land where we want and not just where it is easy to land," Jaxa said before the launch.
"By achieving this, it will become possible to land on planets even more resource scarce than the Moon."
Globally, "there are no previous instances of pinpoint landing on celestial bodies with significant gravity such as the Moon", Jaxa said.
India joined the US, Russia and China to place a spacecraft on the lunar surface, and the first one to do so on the south pole.
Japan's previous attempts have failed, including last year when it sent a lunar probe named Omotenashi as part of the US's Artemis programme.
The size of a backpack, Omotenashi would have been the world's smallest Moon lander.
But after the probe was launched by Nasa's powerful rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the mission went wrong and communications were lost.
Japan has also had problems with launch rockets, with failures after liftoff of the next-generation H3 model in March and the normally reliable solid-fuel Epsilon last October.
In July, the test of an Epsilon S rocket, an improved version of the Epsilon, ended in an explosion 50 seconds after ignition.
And in April, Japanese start-up ispace failed in an ambitious attempt to become the first private company to land on the Moon, losing communication after what the company called a "hard landing".
It was carrying the UAE's Rashid rover, which was to land on and explore the Moon's south pole.
The Japanese rocket that took off on Thursday was also taking into space the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission developed by Jaxa, Nasa and ESA.
The satellite's high-resolution X-ray spectroscopic observations of the hot gas plasma wind that blows through the universe will help study the flows of mass and energy, as well as the composition and evolution of celestial objects.
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Why the Tourist Club?
Originally, The Club (which many people chose to call the “British Club”) was the only place where one could use the beach with changing rooms and a shower, and get refreshments.
In the early 1970s, the Government of Abu Dhabi wanted to give more people a place to get together on the beach, with some facilities for children. The place chosen was where the annual boat race was held, which Sheikh Zayed always attended and which brought crowds of locals and expatriates to the stretch of beach to the left of Le Méridien and the Marina.
It started with a round two-storey building, erected in about two weeks by Orient Contracting for Sheikh Zayed to use at one these races. Soon many facilities were planned and built, and members were invited to join.
Why it was called “Nadi Al Siyahi” is beyond me. But it is likely that one wanted to convey the idea that this was open to all comers. Because there was no danger of encountering alcohol on the premises, unlike at The Club, it was a place in particular for the many Arab expatriate civil servants to join. Initially the fees were very low and membership was offered free to many people, too.
Eventually there was a skating rink, bowling and many other amusements.
Frauke Heard-Bey is a historian and has lived in Abu Dhabi since 1968.
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
