Frankly, running a multi-billion dollar empire such as Kingdom Holding Co (valued at $18.5 billion, making it one of the Middle East’s largest investment firms) would be enough to keep anyone occupied. The company is also constructing the world’s tallest tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – with a completion date set for 2017 and a value of SR4.6bn. The prince has recently expressed his happiness with the development and said the process is “progressing as planned”.

Aside from the prince’s real estate ownership around the world and significant equity investments in three international hotel management companies, his assets also include stakes in enormous companies including News Corp, Citigroup and Twitter.

Alwaleed is currently pursuing legal action against US-based Forbes magazine for understating his wealth by approximately $20bn in their annual rich-list. In his words, the magazine created a “deliberately insulting and inaccurate description of the business community in Saudi Arabia.”

Today, a report by Arabian Business has surfaced – indicating that the prince will reportedly take the witness stand in London’s High Court next week over another legal battle where he “allegedly failed to pay a $10 million commission on a $120m deal to sell one of his private jets to former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.”

It’s fair to say that the 58-year-old businessman has his hands full. And yet, Reuters has today reported that the prince would be looking at some of the world’s largest cities, including Shanghai, Moscow, London and New York, as potential locations to build a mile-high skyscraper that would surpass both Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (828 metres) as well as his own Kingdom Tower in Jeddah (roughly one kilometre).

Alwaleed has invited Dubai-based Emaar Properties (developers behind the Burj Khalifa) and its chairman Alabbar, to team up with Kingdom Holding on the project. “Right now, we are discussing and evaluating the possibility of building a one-mile (1.6-kilometre) tower,” Alwaleed told Reuters by telephone late on Monday.

“I invite Emaar and Mr. Alabbar to join forces with us and see how we can build the ultimate one-mile tower somewhere in the world,” said Alwaleed.

The prince did not specify what the costs would be, when it would be completed or how it would be financed, but he did, in a verbal statement to Reuters, invite the aforementioned major cities to “come and give their offers”. He also stressed that any countries interested in hosting the world’s tallest tower would have to offer attractive financing terms, tax breaks and other government support.

According to the latest edition of Barclays’ Wealth Insights, roughly 60 per cent of respondents in the region agreed that wealth can be created faster today than in the past – compared to only 43 per cent in Europe and 31 per cent in North America. Interestingly, more than half  of participants stated that personal investments have contributed largely to overall wealth portfolio, compared to other sources of income, such as inheritance at 49 per cent.

The report, released today and based on a global survey of more than 2,000 HNWIs, comprising entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders, substantiates that HNWIs in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region tend to have a more positive view of setbacks and are more persistent in overcoming adversity.

The report navigates the global landscape of wealth, examining how different cultures prepare for the future and consider their legacy through wealth and inheritance planning and philanthropy.

In the rapid growth economies of the Middle East, nearly three quarters (73 per cent) of respondents have accumulated the majority of their wealth in less than 20 years. In terms of how this wealth is used, HNWIs in the Middle East have a tendency to allocate more of their resources to personal property than to tangible assets and collectibles.

On average, respondents in the region currently hold their wealth largely in personal property (30 per cent of wealth), followed by investments (23 per cent) and cash savings (20 per cent). By contrast, just 13 per cent of wealth is held in tangible assets.

This month the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) banned Viber, another such tool, which like WhatsApp is hard for the state to monitor and deprives telecom companies of revenue from international calls and texts.

The kingdom appears to be making a greater push for more control over cyberspace as Internet and smart phone usage soars, in part due to strict laws that limit opportunities for people to mix in person.

“We have been communicating with WhatsApp and other similar communication platforms to get them to cooperate and comply with the Saudi telecom providers, however nothing has come of this communication yet,” Abdullah Al-Darrab, governor of the CITC, told Arab News.

Al-Darrab said Viber was blocked last week for non-compliance, and that WhatsApp and Skype may be next on the list.

Asked when WhatsApp services would be blocked, the CITC chief said it was highly likely to be before the holy month of Ramadan which is expected to start on July 9.

The regulator issued a directive in March saying tools such as Viber, WhatsApp and Skype broke local laws, without specifying how.

Local media reported at the time that Saudi Arabia’s three main operators Saudi Telecom Co, Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Zain Saudi had been asked to tell CITC if they were able to monitor or block such applications.

Mobile penetration was 188 percent by the end of 2012, CITC data shows. Saudi Arabia now has 15.8 million Internet subscribers and the average user watches three times as many online videos per day as counterparts in the United States, according to YouTube.

Conventional international calls and texts are a lucrative earner for telecom operators in Saudi Arabia, which hosts around nine million expatriates. These foreign workers are increasingly using Internet-based applications such as Viber to communicate with relatives in other countries, analysts say.

But the possibility of another boom-and-bust cycle in debt-laden Dubai is a risk for the UAE economy in the medium term, the IMF warned after the emirate announced a string of huge real estate development projects.

The IMF’s report, released after annual consultations with the UAE, indicated the country is doing more than other Gulf Arab oil exporters to rein in growth of government spending and reduce its vulnerability to any steep fall of the oil price.

Hit by the global financial slump, Gulf Arab countries boosted spending sharply from 2009, and increased it further in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. The higher spending has succeeded in keeping economies growing, but means state budgets could fall into deficit if oil prices slide.

The UAE began curbing its spending last year, more than doubling its total fiscal surplus – the combined surplus of the federal government and all of the UAE’s seven emirates – to 8.8 percent of gross domestic product from 4.1 percent in 2011, the IMF calculated.

This lowered the oil price which the UAE needs to balance its combined budget to $74 per barrel last year from $84 in 2011, the IMF said. Brent crude oil is now around $103.

By contrast, other Gulf Arab countries continued to increase state spending substantially last year and their budget break-even prices have been rising.

The IMF said it welcomed the UAE’s plans to continue consolidating its finances: “For 2013, continued fiscal consolidation of around 2 percent of non-oil GDP is planned.

“Fiscal consolidation is expected to be driven by a rationalisation of capital spending and subsidies and transfers, while spending on goods and services, defence and security, and the wage bill are expected to increase.”

The UAE’s finances are difficult to analyse because oil-rich Abu Dhabi, which accounts for roughly 80 percent of the country’s fiscal spending, does not publicly release details of its annual budgets and outcomes.

In October, the federal finance ministry published 2011 consolidated fiscal data, releasing such information for the first time ever, but there has been no update on 2012 so far.

Because of lower oil prices, the IMF predicted the UAE’s fiscal surplus would shrink to 8.1 percent of GDP this year, before narrowing gradually to 5.1 percent in 2018.

DUBAI RISKS

Despite its approval of the UAE’s overall policy direction, the IMF warned of risks in Dubai, which suffered a crippling corporate debt crisis in 2009 but is now recovering strongly on the back of rebounding real estate prices.

“At the emirate level, a faster pace of consolidation in Dubai would be desirable to address the emirate’s continued debt-related risks,” the IMF said.

It also described “insufficient domestic policy reform to mitigate the risk of a renewed boom-and-bust cycle” as a risk for the UAE economy.

“Renewed optimism fuelled by rising real estate prices and loose global liquidity conditions could prompt a renewed cycle of imprudent risk-taking and re-leveraging by GREs (government- related entities) and private companies, which could also affect banks’ balance sheets in light of their strong interconnectedness with GREs.

“In the absence of prudent policies, this could fuel short-term growth at the expense of medium-term stability.”

Dubai’s total debt remains substantial at $142 billion, or around 102 percent of its GDP, and $35 billion of that amount is in government and government-guaranteed debt, the IMF said.

The emirate’s GREs have increased their debt to an estimated $93 billion from $84 billion in March 2012, and about $60 billion of that debt falls due in 2013-2017, it added.

In the last few months, state-linked Dubai companies have announced billions of dollars of new real estate projects. For example, last week Emaar Properties and Meraas Holding said they formed a venture to develop a huge area near Dubai’s downtown; a commercial centre, low- and mid-rise residences, an 18-hole golf course and other facilities would be built over 11 million square metres (2,700 acres).

“While further investment in the development of Dubai’s economy is welcome, the authorities should ensure that, in line with current intentions, execution will be gradual and flexible depending on demand,” the IMF said.

“New investments should be structured in a way that strictly limits risk-taking by the still highly indebted GRE sector,” it said, adding that availability of financial data on the health of Dubai’s GREs was still inadequate.

After protests by UAE commercial banks, the central bank (CBU) has postponed introducing planned caps on mortgage lending and loans to government-related bodies. The IMF said such rules were important to ensure financial stability.

“Looking ahead, the CBU should carefully monitor the interaction of mortgage lending and the real estate sector, and tighten the mortgage regulation or introduce new measures as needed,” it said.

As the date of publishing neared, Musa received a surprising call from one of the banks that happened to have its products featured on the list – asking why they were on it and who had “authorised this marketing investment”. Shocked, she explained that the list wasn’t sponsored and wouldn’t cost them anything. “It merely showcases the popular products based on user viewings,” she adds.

“They were genuinely surprised,” says Musa. “The feedback I got was: ‘This is the first time that we haven’t had to pay to be high up in published rankings – we are not used to it’”.

“For me, this was yet another reason to believe that Souqalmal.com’s independent search results – which are based on what is out there in the market and our most popular rankings which (based on customer views) – really bring something new to consumers in the UAE.”

The site compiled its list of the top-five most viewed financial products across four categories: Credit cards, personal loans, home loans and car loans. The list acts as an indicator of which products garner the most interest in the personal finance market – a tool useful for both banks and consumers. Products only made the list if they received the most views from visitors to the website.

The Emirates NBD loans option – offered to expats with a minimum salary of AED5, 000 at a profit rate of 6.66 per cent – was considered by visitors as the most favourable.

“By visiting the website and then clicking on a particular product, users were given a voice to tell us what they liked. For us, it is a comprehensive guide to where our site traffic is going and which products gauge the users’ interest the most,” says Musa.

She continues to say that this list is the first of its kind to be published here and she feels it would offer the UAE’s residents an interesting insight into what financial products others are interested in. It also provides banks with a clear idea of how their products are faring in the market place and, more importantly, the types of financial products consumers are interested in.

Click on the image below for the full list.

Read the full article by clicking here or on the magazine’s cover picture below.

Read more about Qatar’s trophy and strategic investments, and Doha’s ties with Muslim Brotherhood.

After ‘careful consideration’, Qatar Airways has announced its plans to permanently suspend (at least until further notice) its daily service to the Seychelles – with the last flight operating on August 31.

The decision to halt all flights to and from Mahe, a route that the Doha-based carrier began serving in 2004, was taken for “commercial reasons,” without any specifics being revealed.

However, several reports indicate that since an alliance between Etihad Airways and Air Seychelles was formed – where the Abu Dhabi-based carrier invested a 40 per cent stake in the airline in January last year – the ‘battle’ for Seychelles’ travellers has intensified in the Gulf.

The chief executive officer of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, says that while the unfortunate decision to suspend the route was related to ‘regrettable’ commercial reasons, he looks forward to the day when flights to these ‘idyllic’ islands can be resumed.

“We have built up a strong relationship with our partners over the years and will continue to work with them and the relevant authorities to ensure a smooth discontinuation of the route,” he said.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the government of the Republic of Seychelles, the local business and tourism industry, our travel trade partners in the Seychelles and countries around the world for supporting what was a hugely popular destination for Qatar Airways.”

In case you’re unaware, the inability to monitor, and subsequently regulate, these free-to-use communication apps has been the ‘primary specified’ reason of why countries in the GCC and Middle East view them as security threats. However, reports (and common logic) indicate that depriving telecom companies of revenue from international calls is a close second.

Several days ago, Saudi’s telecommunications regulatory body, the Communications and Information Technology Commission (or CITC), announced that Viber will be blocked because “it does not currently meet the regulatory requirements and laws in Saudi Arabia”.

“The Viber application has been suspended … and the (regulator) affirms it will take appropriate action against any other applications or services if they fail to comply with regulatory requirements and rules in force in the kingdom,” the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said in a statement on its website.

Talmon Marco, chief executive officer of Cyprus-based Viber, says they “regret this block,” but that the people of Saudi Arabia, like people of any other country, should have the right to communicate with their friends and family.

“It’s a shame that the Saudi authorities feel otherwise,” he said in an interview with Arab News.

In a statement released yesterday, the authority has also emphasised that few other applications, including WhatsApp, Tango and Skype, are currently under review, but it is not yet revealed whether they would be met with the same fate (an indefinite suspension) as Viber.

Marco says that the company “would not rest until the service has been restored in Saudi Arabia” and that Viber is currently developing technology that will “circumvent this block,” which he hopes will be rolled out in phases – with the first step scheduled in a couple of weeks.

“We are aware that such goals are ambitious, but more important than ambition is realising these goals in reality,” His Highness said at the time.

A month and several major project announcements later and it’s become apparent that Dubai has no intention of slowing down and has already made substantial advancements towards fulfilling its vision. Over the past few days, plans of two major developments have been revealed.

The first will see The Dubai Mall, already boasting the status of being the world’s largest, undergo massive expansion – the first phase of which will see the complex expand by one million square feet. In 2012, the mall welcomed roughly 65 million visitors (versus New York’s annual 52 million) and its goal is to receive 100 million each year, strengthen its fashion portfolio and enhance the city’s high-end retail offerings.

Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar Properties, says: “The Dubai Mall expansion project builds on Dubai’s new Tourism Vision 2020 announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and the city’s focus on offering high-end retail and leisure attractions for residents and visitors from around the world.

The second is the announcement of “Dubai Design District”, a dedicated industry community devoted to developing the Emirate’s fashion, design and luxury sectors. Announced by Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum and developed by TECOM Investments (member of Dubai Holding), the first phase of the district should be completed by 2015 – with 10 buildings already under construction.

TECOM is investing AED4 billion in the first phase of Dubai Design District, which marks the start of what will become a world-class creative community for the Middle East that promotes and nurtures local and regional designers. It will also be home to some of the world’s leading brands and talent.

The district is expected to become a fully serviced commercial hub for design industry related organizations, brands, and supporting enterprises within the value chain. It will feature a custom built creative community that will encompass purpose-built commercial and retail facilities for established and emerging designers, design institutes, a waterfront promenade, convention centre and event venues, and related academic institutions.

During the first phase of the construction period, businesses and individuals looking to be licensed within Dubai Design District can secure licenses to operate in any of TECOM’s nine other purpose-built free zone business parks.

“In the same way that we have supported IT companies in Dubai Internet City – the region’s first knowledge cluster – and media companies in Dubai Media City, we want to give design and luxury goods companies a platform for growth and an appropriate base for their operations in Dubai,” said Dr Amina Al Rustamani, group chief executive officer at TECOM Investments.

Ahmed Bin Byat, CEO of Dubai Holding says that thanks to the UAE’s resilient and growing retail and tourism sectors, several of the world’s top design and luxury brands have already found Dubai an attractive location to set up their regional headquarters.

“To further strengthen Dubai’s knowledge-based economy and ensure its sustainability, we must create an environment that would produce and nurture future business leaders and entrepreneurs,” he said. “Dubai Design District will be a dedicated home to the growing and increasingly popular local designer community who are emerging onto the global stage.”

He says that once the district is developed, he is confident that it will play an integral role in diversifying the emirate’s economy even further.

The prince, a grandson of Saudi Arabia’s founder and nephew of King Abdullah, had attacked the U.S. magazine’s ranking of world billionaires as flawed and biased against Middle Eastern businesses after he was ranked number 26 in this year’s list.

An official at the High Court in London confirmed that Prince Alwaleed had filed a defamation suit against Forbes, its editor Randall Lane, and two of its journalists on April 30. Details of the claim were not immediately available.

Through his Kingdom Holding Company, Prince Alwaleed owns large stakes in Citigroup, News Corp and Apple Inc, among other companies. He is also owner or part-owner of luxury hotels including the Plaza in New York, the Savoy in London and the George V in Paris.

This year’s Forbes World Billionaires list was published on March 4, and the following day Kingdom Holding said the valuation process used “incorrect data” and “seemed designed to disadvantage Middle Eastern investors and institutions”.

The public spat attracted a lot of comment, but Forbes stuck by its estimate of Prince Alwaleed’s wealth and published an in-depth article in its March 25 issue entitled “Prince Alwaleed and the curious case of Kingdom Holding stock”.

The article gave details about how Forbes had arrived at the figure of $20 billion and criticised what it described as a lack of transparency by Kingdom Holding in detailing its assets.

The article also described Prince Alwaleed’s marble-filled, 420-room Riyadh palace, his private Boeing 747equipped with a throne, and his 120-acre resort on the edge of the Saudi capital with five homes, five artificial lakes and a mini-Grand Canyon.

The High Court official in London said the two journalists named in the defamation claim were Kerry Dolan, the author of the article, and Francine McKenna, who was credited with additional reporting.

No date has been set for a court hearing in the case, which is in its very early stages, the official said.

The law firm Kobre & Kim, which the Guardian said was acting for Prince Alwaleed in the suit, declined to comment. New York-based Forbes could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Guardian article quoted the magazine as saying: “We’re very surprised at claims that Prince Alwaleed has decided to sue Forbes, particularly if he has done so in the United Kingdom, a jurisdiction that has nothing whatsoever to do with our recent story which raised questions about his claims about his wealth.”

Media lawyer Jonathan Coad, of the London firm Lewis Silkin, said London was seen as a more attractive place than New York to bring defamation suits because U.S. libel law made higher requirements of claimants.

“In the U.S., a high-profile claimant has to prove firstly that the article was untrue and secondly that the publisher knew that the article was untrue, which is what we call malice. Those are two hurdles that a UK libel action does not present,” said Coad, who is not involved in the Prince Alwaleed case.

Under British libel law, a claimant has only to prove that a publication was defamatory. Then the burden of proof passes to the defendant, who has several possible defences, including that the publication was true.

Following the announcement made yesterday (Saturday) by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, TECOM Investments, the developers of Dubai Design District, has today said that it aims to complete phase one of this dedicated industry community by January 2015, with construction of ten buildings already underway.

TECOM is investing AED 4 billion in the first phase of Dubai Design District, which marks the start of what will become a world class creative community for the Middle East that promotes and nurtures local and regional designers. In addition, it will be home to some of the world’s leading brands and talent, as well as showcasing Dubai as an international design, fashion and luxury destination that can compete with the more established global centres.

TECOM Investments has also announced that during phase one’s construction period, businesses and individuals looking to be licensed within Dubai Design District can secure licenses to operate in any of TECOM’s nine other purpose built free zone business parks. Under TECOM’s existing offering, the legal and commercial framework for licensing specific design-related activities is already available.

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His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, today announced the launch of “Dubai Design District”.

Adjacent to the Business Bay area, the district is expected to become a full service commercial hub for design industry related organizations, brands, and supporting enterprises within the value chain. It will feature a custom built creative community that will encompass purpose-built commercial and retail facilities for established and emerging designers, design institutes, a waterfront promenade, convention centre and event venues, and related academic institutions.

Tecom Investments, a member of Dubai Holding, will operate the district.

Dubai Design District is another attempt to strengthen Dubai’s tourism, which is expected to see 20 million visitors by 2020, and retail, which is estimated to grow to AED151billion in the next two years. It also hopes to provide an additional key element in Dubai’s bid to host Expo 2020.

The United Arab Emirates holds the second position in the 2011 Apparel Index, while the Middle East luxury market saw growth of 10 to 15 percent from 2011 to 2012, establishing the region as the tenth largest luxury goods market globally.

Combining Dubai Aluminium (Dubal) and Emirates Aluminium (Emal) to create the world’s fifth-largest aluminium producer goes against the grain for the two wealthy Gulf emirates, which for decades have built competing interests in sectors ranging from stock markets to ports and airlines.

Emirates Global Aluminium will be the first product of a merger between companies controlled by the two emirates and will be better able to compete with state-owned Aluminium Bahrain , owner of the world’s fourth-largest aluminium smelter.

“This deal could be giving hints of more consolidation at the government level and creating strong UAE players on the global stage,” said Mohamed Ali Yasin, managing director of National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s brokerage division.

“It also in a way shapes the policy … for the next direction of economic growth of the UAE,” he said.

Governments across the Gulf Arab region are trying to reduce their dependence on oil by diversifying into sectors such as aluminium and petrochemicals.

Dubai’s shift has been the most radical, its dash into new industries born of necessity as its oil and gas reserves decline. Abu Dhabi, with far greater reserves of hydrocarbons, has taken a more gradual approach.

Abu Dhabi’s abundant energy reserves will help the combined company keep a lid on the high energy costs involved in aluminium smelting.

The deal has been in the works for years.

Seven out of 10 (69.2 per cent) respondents would consider working on an independent or freelance basis instead of being a full-time employee, with their main motive for doing so being to achieve a better work-life balance (30.5 per cent).

Other top reasons professionals would consider a freelance career are to be able to focus more on the things they love (23.5%); better pay (18.3%), and more control over their career path (11.8 per cent). Freelancers are considered, by 54.9 per cent of respondents, to earn more than full-time professionals.

“There is clearly a strong interest in freelancing in the region; however, the majority of people do not know where to begin. This suggests that more needs to be done to educate professionals in the Middle East on their options,” says Suhail Masri, vice president of sales at Bayt.com.

Half of the respondents’ companies (53 per cent) outsource work to freelancers, because it is considered to be cheaper than hiring an employee (30.4 per cent). Freelancers are also seen as being a good contingency plan between hires (28.4 per cent), while a quarter of respondents (24.8 per cent) believe that they are more skilled and efficient.

Data for the poll was collected online from May 2-28, 2013, with 7,795 respondents from UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia.

Having ‘found’ ourselves lost many-a-time, Kipp is both glad and relieved to report that by the end of this year, if you step into any of Dubai’s 8,007 taxis on the road, drivers will have a hi-tech navigation system at the tip of their fingers – referred to by the Roads and Transportation Authority (RTA) as ‘smart maps’.

“All of our cabs will be applying the new system by the end of 2013,” says Adel Shakri, Director of Transport Systems at the RTA Public Transport Agency, according to Gulf News. The system has already been put in place in roughly 3,500 taxis in the emirate and has, according to Shakri, helped drivers to smoothly reach customers’ destinations with unmatched efficiency.

“The system also records the real time of movement of the vehicle reserved by passengers through the respective reservation and distribution centre at the Transport Systems Department,” he said, emphasising that “Dubai’s expansion never stops” and that this move mirrors a growing demand to meet the needs of both residents and visitors.

“We need to keep up with the same rhythm by adding to the maps strategic sites of public transport services. This includes taxi cabs, which serve as the cultural façade of our emirate. And we need to boost their efficiency by supporting them with hi-tech systems to eventually offer the best services to users,” he says.

The mapping system will sport an audio communication feature to guide drivers to locations, addresses and landmarks, as well as provide accurate information about the locations of hotels, hospitals or commercial centres.

Director of Fleet Drivers Affairs at Dubai Taxi Corporation, Marwan Othman, says that the majority of drivers have already begun training on the new system to ‘achieve the system’s main goal – serving passengers’.

Each state has chosen a different path of nationalisation and while Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have adopted arguably controversial schemes like reducing the expat populations by hundreds of thousands over the years, the United Arab Emirates has been pursuing an entirely organic approach. And 2013 – labeled earlier by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum as the “Year of Emiratisation” with intensified efforts and initiatives– has never seen better results.

At the 13^th edition of the Careers UAE, where roughly 150 companies showcased their recruitment and enrolment needs, the exhibition played host to a whopping 17,522 Emirati visitors and an extremely high volume of applications. All in all, the three-day event raised the bar in terms of attendance and garnered steady exhibitor participation.

“As Emiratisation efforts intensify across the country to attract UAE nationals to a vast array of career opportunities, exhibitors participating at this year’s event have demonstrated steadfast support to contribute to the country’s recruitment goals,” says H.E. Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and CEO, Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC).

As any country would tell you, nationalisation is rarely an obstacle-free road – and pitfalls, diverse challenges and obstacles are expected – but as efforts are amplified and new initiatives are born, the UAE hopes to employ over three thousand Emiratis in public and private sectors over the next five years throughout various industries.

This morning, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has announced that – after a successful series of career open days in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai – it has decided to hire 60 UAE nationals out of the approximate 600 applicants that were interested in working for them.

ADIB has been recognised for two consecutive years with an award by the Emirates Institute of Banking and Financial Studies (EIBFS) for its continued commitment to Emiratisation and for supporting Emiratisation initiatives in the UAE.

The next step is for other companies to filter through the pile of pending applications received during this year’s exhibition and find the right talent.

Following a previous announcement of this initiative being carefully rolled out in stages, the petroleum company has assured the public that – particularly in the initial stages, until customers have had a chance to become accustomed with it – support staff will be available for assistance.

When the company reached out to potential customers for feedback about its upcoming initiative, one of the voiced concerns was their need for a learning curve in the early stages of the plan. Until the public is able to easily shift to the new system, staff members will help customers with dispensing fuel safely and efficiently, EPPCO says.

The 10 locations – situated along Al Wasl Road, Oud Metha Road, Jumeirah Beach Road, Mankhool Road, Al Nahda Road and in Nadd Al Hammar and Al Qusais – were chosen based on their relatively low vehicular traffic during night hours.

Once again, EPPCO continues to assure the public that in no way will the introduction of the self-service scheme result in any staff redundancies – because the ‘affected’ staff members will simply be deployed in other stations within the network.

Regional project management and consulting firm KEO International has been appointed project manager and Los Angeles-based Aecom Technology Corp was named as design consultant for the al-Wakrah Stadium, the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee said in a statement.

Qatar, where summer temperatures top 45 degrees celsius, was the surprise winner of a FIFA vote in 2010 to choose the 2022 host country. The tiny Gulf state plans to build solar-powered, air-conditioned stadiums to overcome the sweltering summer heat as well as housing, infrastructure and transport for the event.

The top tiers of the planned 45,000-seat stadium will be modular and, following the tournament, the capacity of the stadium will be reduced to 20,000, with the remaining 25,000 seats removed, donated and re-constructed in countries that need sporting infrastructure, the statement said.

“This is an important step for us as we deliver on our innovative hosting concept,” Hassan al-Thawadi, Secretary General for the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, said in the statement.

“In the coming months, we will also bring on board a project manager and design consultant for Al Rayyan Stadium.”

No financial details of the contract was provided.

Construction of Qatar’s first stadium for the 2022 World Cup tournament is slated to start in 2013, with construction of the first stadium completed by 2015, officials from Qatar’s Supreme Committee said last year.

The Gulf state has plans to build nine new stadiums and renovate three existing facilities.

Every year since 2005, the Ministry of Labour has continued to impose a three-month period (two months prior to 2010) where workers should be allowed a break of two and a half hours – from 12:30pm to 3pm – as a means of particularly protecting outdoor labourers during the peak summer hours when temperatures are at their worst.

The ban will apply between June 15 and September 15, and this rule strictly applies to employees working in open areas such as construction sites.

The law also insists that companies must set up adequately cool and shaded places of rest for their employees during recess or – in the event that work flow must remain uninterrupted for technical reasons, in which case an exemplary clause could apply – provide them with cold water.

As part of the ministerial ruling, daily working hours – be it in the morning or night – should not exceed eight hours, and any employees working additional hours in a continuous period of 24 hours must be paid overtime.

In the past eight years, Kipp is pleased to report that, according to past reports by the ministry – an extremely high percentage of companies and employers adhered to the ban.

Last year, the ministry inspectors conducted a total of 53,990 visits across the UAE and found that 99.79 per cent of them were compliant – yet there were more than 100 firms that turned a deaf ear to the warnings at their own peril. Let’s root for 100 per cent this time around.

The city is set to be the seventh most popular city globally in terms of inbound international visitors in 2013, outranking cities such as Hong Kong, Barcelona, Milan and Rome. At 10.9 percent, Dubai (along with Bangkok) shows the strongest growth in arrival numbers among the top ten global markets, with 9.89 million overnight visitors expected this year.

Dubai also ranks eighth globally by international overnight visitor spend, with an estimated $10.4 billion to be spent in the city during 2013. The Index indicates that if all top 10 destination cities maintain their current rates of growth in the next few years, Dubai will surpass Singapore and New York in 2016 and Paris in 2017 in terms of international visitor arrivals.

“While the Middle East and Africa’s top ten cities lineup is exactly the same as in 2012, there is a striking difference in how far Dubai is ahead of the other cities. Its international arrival number is almost twice that of Riyadh in second rank, and about four times as high as the third-ranked Johannesburg,” says Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, global economic advisor for MasterCard and the author of the report.

Among the Middle East and Africa’s top ten, Abu Dhabi (ranked seventh with 1.7 million visitors) showed the strongest growth rate, with an anticipated 16.1 percent increase in arrivals. The Index highlights that, if these rates are maintained in the coming years, Abu Dhabi will overtake Lagos in 2016 and match Johannesburg by 2017.

The UAE’s capital also ranked sixth among the global top 20 with regard to growth rates of international visitor arrivals between 2009 and 2013, with growth of 96.8 percent during this period.

Within the Middle East and Africa, Dubai ranks first by international overnight visitor spend, followed by Riyadh and Beirut.

Earlier this week, thousands continue to queue outside the main passport office in Riyadh to secure exit visas – with many being forced to wait in line for over 24 hours. Officials have said if expatriates leave within the grace period, they will be allowed to apply for another visa to work in the kingdom.

The city is in the middle of a sweeping labour reform aimed at tackling domestic unemployment by pushing companies to hire more Saudi nationals – a task that hasn’t proven to be easy.

A report by Reuters suggests that the disproportion of foreigners in jobs – a trend that is common across other gulf countries as well – potentially stems from the fact that Saudi nationals demand higher wages and many private firms, particularly in fields involving manual labour, are finding it difficult to attract them.

With a foreign population of approximately nine million and a total of 28 million residents, Saudi nationals hold approximately one in 10 private sector jobs.

While economists in the kingdom have not yet deduced the economic impact of this foreign mass departure; signs of delay in construction and road works due to a shortage of workers may be a sign of things to come.

Director general of ICDL GCC – an organisation that promotes digital skills and cyber safety across the region – Ezzo says that while technology is here to stay and social platforms have continued to serve as effective vehicles for social interaction. The GCC youth need to remember it can just as easily be abused and exploited by people with malicious intent.

Ezzo highlights the need to address online safety in using social networking is particularly significant in the Gulf where Smartphone and Internet penetration rates are high, and children have access to mobile devices.

According to Ezzo, many children can find it difficult to distinguish between real life and virtual reality and that when they use social media – whether to play games, interact with friends and family, or post videos and photos – they need to understand that the Internet is full of people who can access their personal and private information.

“We encourage parents to talk to their children about social networking. They can even make this a family affair. By being their children’s ‘friends’ online, parents can monitor their activities and list of friends while networking,” he said.

ICDL GCC has partnered with law enforcement agencies, educational institutions and other government organisations across the GCC in a bid to protect children from cyber threats including exploitation, bullying and addiction and will visit schools as part of a campaign to raise awareness on the subject amongst teachers and parents.

Additionally, it also shows that 83 percent of users in the UAE agree that mobile “is an extension of me — I feel lost without it,” with 81 per cent stating their mobile is their most important piece of technology.

The company’s CEO, Steve Hamilton-Clark, was citing the recent 2013 TNS Annual Mobile Life Report, which draws on consumer behavior  motivation and attitude responses from 38,000 people in 43 countries to help companies develop a mobile business and marketing strategy.

“As more people gain access to smartphone technology, they are eager to use new content and multiple functions as long as they deliver convenience, experience, reassurance, relevance and independence,” explained Hamilton-Clark.

The study also highlights that customers want to interact with the world around them as they look for brand experiences that engage, entertain and remain on the mind.

As mobile engagement grows, Hamilton-Clark insists that consumer brands must be prepared to manage a full spectrum of customer services – be it helping with pre-purchase research or slick after-sales services.

In the first report of its kind in the region, Standard Life NRI Wealth Study also revealed – through a sample of 300 UAE-based NRIs with a disposable income of Dh15,000 a month – that only 21 per cent relied on NRI financial advisers, while 18 per cent trusted their bank, and a mere 10 per cent turned to non-NRI financial advisers.

In a nutshell, trust is a key factor.

When it comes to financial products, 64 per cent of respondents say they prefer offerings from Indian companies and that – for 91 per cent of them – their children’s schooling is the most significant priority in their lives. Their four top expenses that follow are; rent, miscellaneous household bills, holidays and health-related expenses.

“It is really interesting to see that many NRIs trust family members instead of professionals when seeking expert advice for financial planning,” says Chris Divito, CEO, Standard Life International Limited.

“Our survey found that, on average, NRIs allocate some 70 per cent of their disposable income towards savings and investments, so it is clear they have a strong savings ethic. If this pro-savings approach were to be supplemented with expert advice, then they could reap the benefits of professional financial planning for a more secure future.”

*The study was based on a sample of approximately 300 NRIs who were UAE residents, with a disposable income of AED15,000 and above. Of the respondents, 34 per cent were between 25 and 35 years old, while 54 per cent of them were between 36 and 45 years old; 12 per cent were between 45 and 60 years old. Married respondents comprised 96 per cent, while single respondents made up four per cent. Eighty three per cent of respondents were male, 17 per cent female. A total of 59 per cent of respondents have been UAE residents for more than 10 years, while 34 per cent have been in the UAE between five and 10 years, and six per cent were in the country between three to five years. 

The new law includes a ban on shops selling alcohol from 10pm to 6am, with fines of up to 500,000 lira ($270,000) for owners and operators of venues that violate the law, and a possible one-year jail sentence for selling to minors.

Turkey is an overwhelmingly Muslim nation with a secular constitution, but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK party has come under fire from some quarters for undermining the separation of state and religion in the country.

Since coming to power in 2002, the government has taken various measures against alcohol, the consumption of which is forbidden by Islam. Tax on alcohol has soared and flag carrier Turkish Airlines has stopped serving alcohol on some domestic flights.

“Religion-linked restrictions are contrary to secularism,” political commentator Nazli Ilicak wrote on Twitter. “I am not defending alcohol but freedom.

“Not even beer will be sold after 10pm. We can’t consider this normal … I see it as an excessive intervention and an ideological stance.”

The government, meanwhile, says it is trying to bring Turkey up to European norms by controlling alcohol sales and protecting the younger generation as it negotiates to enter the EU.

“There are such regulations everywhere in the world. The youth of a nation should be protected from bad habits,” Erdogan said in a meeting with party members.

The bill passed by parliament, which needs presidential approval before coming into effect, bans alcohol producers from sponsoring events and venues where alcohol is sold and consumed. It also prohibits the public display of alcoholic drinks and requires health warnings on packaging.

“We don’t want a generation wandering around in a merry state day and night,” said Erdogan, who declared in April that yoghurt beverage ayran was Turkey’s national drink, rather than beer or the aniseed spirit raki favoured by many Turks.

INDUSTRY BLOW

The law changes would be another blow to local brewers that are already grappling with alcohol taxes of more than 100 percent – among the world’s highest.

The law requires a distance of at least 100 metres between premises selling alcohol and places of worship or education, though it excludes tourist premises.

“I think this will have a serious negative impact on the sector. It will hit the tourism sector in particular but affect the country’s whole economy,” said Akin Ongor, owner of the Turkish boutique winemaker Selendi.

The opposition CHP party’s deputy leader, Faiz Öztrak, was no less critical, saying that the government’s measures would have a wide impact.

“Government always changes the game rules unilaterally. After all these, how can you invite foreign investors toTurkey? You don’t establish confidence,” he told a press conference on Friday.

Shares in Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes were down by more than 6 percent and Turk Tuborg by nearly 2 percent in early afternoon trading.

The world’s biggest spirits group Diageo, which bought Turkey’s Mey Icki for $2.1 billion in 2011, said in a statement that it was “very saddened” by the passage of the legislation and that a better result could have been achieved if the sector had been consulted.

The event comes amid thought-provoking research indicating that more than 90% of the user-generated passwords in the Middle East – including the ones which IT professionals deem to be “strong” – are actually susceptible to hacking, leaving the door open for billions of dollars in potential financial, reputational and strategic damages.

These revelations are according to the 2013 Middle East TMT Predictions by global firm Deloitte. According to the study, underlining the need for urgent solutions by information security experts is the fact that while it previously took cyber criminals about 5.5 hours to crack any eight-character password, they are now resorting to “crowd hacking” where criminals outsource the task to thousands of other machines and fellow hackers, enabling them to decipher the codes and undo years of IT professionals’ work in mere seconds.

Recently, regional online payment provider CashU has also warned Middle East PC users to remain diligent and protect their PCs with up-to-date antivirus in light of the recent malicious attacks across the region. A virus called “ransomware,” has been spreading across the region, prompting users with an onscreen message that their PC is locked and asks users to send a set amount of money via CashU service to have their PC unlocked. It has documented attacks in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar, as well as the Levant.

“These phishing attacks are primarily targeting PC users with the aim of collecting private information such as user data, financial and password information,” said Omar Soudodi, acting CEO of CashU.

According to a Ponemon Institute report that was commissioned by Juniper Networks, web-based and DoS (Denial of Service) attacks are the most serious types of attacks reported by respondents’ companies – making up 62% and 60% of the cases respectively. This has motivated the participants at GISEC to collaborate and share information on recent attacks so that criminals can be identified by their modus operandi.

Kevin Mitnick, hacker turned international cyber security guru, will speak at the GISEC Conference to share his perspective on the threat of “social engineering” – a highly effective type of attack that exploits the human element of corporate security.

While relatively unknown to the general public, the term “social engineering” is widely used within the computer security community to describe the techniques hackers use to deceive a trusted computer user within a company into revealing sensitive information, or trick an unsuspecting mark into performing actions that create a security hole.

Mitnick is to illustrate why a misplaced reliance on security technologies alone, such as firewalls, authentication devices, encryption, and intrusion detection systems are virtually ineffective against a motivated attacker using these techniques.

It first surfaced last year as “human betacoronavirus 2c EMC”, but the suffixes “2c England-Qatar, “2C Jordan-N3″, “England 1″ have also appeared and many scientists have resorted to “novel coronavirus” – new crown-shaped virus – instead.

While the World Health Organisation (WHO) says the virus and the severe infections and deaths it has caused are “alarming” and need to be tracked, none of its names is especially helpful.

“A virus is only ‘novel’ until the next one comes around,” Raoul de Groot, head of the Coronavirus Study Group (CSG), said of the catchiest of the titles it has acquired so far.

So with the death toll from the 42 cases identified at 21 and expected to rise – de Groot’s group has come up with a new name: “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome” or MERS, since all the cases have had a direct or indirect connection to the region.

The CSG, which published the name in the Journal of Virology last week, said it had been endorsed by the Saudi, Dutch and British scientists who discovered it, the WHO’s European office and the Saudi health ministry.

But naming deadly new viruses is fraught with sensitivity, and the signs are this matter has yet to settle.

DIFFICULT HISTORY

Human disease is littered with examples of fractious, sometimes furious rows over what emerging pathogens are called.

Some 30 years ago, when the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, was discovered, it was named “GRID”, or “gay-related immune deficiency”, helping to spread the slur “the gay plague”.

It was not until it became clear the sexually transmitted virus was also infecting heterosexuals and haemophiliacs, that GRID was replaced with the more accurate HIV.

More recently, the scientific “H1N1″ was the name that stuck for the pandemic flu strain that swept the world in 2009/2010 after earlier suggestions proved too sensitive.

An Israeli health minister objected to “swine flu” on religious grounds and “Mexican flu” caused offence to a nation.

When scientists called a “superbug” enzyme that makes bacteria resistant to almost all known antibiotics “New Delhi metallo beta lactamase”, or NDM-1, the Indian health ministry called it “malicious propaganda” to put India in the name.

“Clearly, naming viruses and diseases after ethnicity, religion, gender and lifestyle is potentially stigmatising and offensive, and thus unacceptable,” de Groot said.

“All parties involved were acutely aware of sensitivities around geographic naming and the issue has been weighed very carefully,” he told Reuters via email.

The MERS decision involved Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, Maria Zambon of the UK Health Protection Agency and Ali Mohamed Zaki, an Egyptian microbiologist working at the Dr Soliman Fakeeh Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, among others.

All of them played key roles in discovering the new virus.

According to a source close to the discussions, who declined to be identified due to sensitivities surrounding the issue, one suggestion was to name the virus after Zaki as a tribute to his work; he lost his job after going public with his findings.

It is early days, but so far, MERS has not caught on, despite the WHO’s European branch saying “the WHO and other committee members strongly urge the use of this name in scientific and other communications”.

A “disease outbreak update” issued from the WHO’s global headquarters in Geneva on Wednesday referred to the “novel coronavirus” or “nCoV” throughout. MERS did not get a mention.

A WHO spokesman said he was unable to comment on the discrepancy but added that from now on “we are going to be using the new name in all our updates”.

UAE-based telecommunications operator Etisalat today launched its first global corporate social responsibility and sustainability report to highlight activities across its 15 operating countries.

Entitled “Etisalat CSR & Sustainability Report 2012,” the report was released at The Institute for International Research (IIR) 10^th CSR Summit, held today in Dubai. The heads of CSR departments from Etisalat’s operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Gabon, Egypt, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Togo and the UAE all presented their latest projects.

Etisalat Egypt included the initiative “Origin”, a project to secure drinking water in 19 governorates to date.

Other African countries, such as Togo, have had aid contributions split between education and health, while Nigeria received aid through its annual Merit Awards Scheme – an educational scholarship program that focuses on undergraduate students of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Computer Science, and Business Management courses.

The aid to Afghanistan included the distribution of more than 3,000 food packages in Kabul during the holy month of Ramadan.

Benin received supplies for elementary school students and the provision of seating and tables for nine colleges. Additionally, the company has supported the Ministry of Health in Benin through blood donations.

The telecommunications company also provided assistance to both Sri Lanka and Pakistan for water projects, sanitation aid, education, as well as aid to orphans.

During the conference, which was also sponsored by Etisalat, the telco group exhibited its high impact projects, including Mobile Baby (Tanzania), Emirates Energy Star (UAE) and the Etisalat Foundation (Egypt).

This year, and more specifically since Saturday, ‘thousands’ of workers went on a two-day strike – involving employees in Dubai and Abu Dhabi refusing to leave their accommodation premises. According to most reports, Arabtec’s workers earn between Dh650 to Dh1200 per month and they’re requesting for an additional Dh250 a month to help support their families back home.

In an official statement, Arabtec said they are working with the Ministry of Labour and police to resolve the situation “as quickly as possible”, yet there are mixed reports concerning the latest situation.

Gulf News has reported that on Tuesday, workers returned back to their normal routine after being promised their issues will be looked into, if not completely resolved. On the other hand, today’s report by 7days suggests an almost entirely different scenario.

Workers told the local paper that they vowed to continue this strike until their demands are met. One worker said that he, along with several of his colleagues, plan on having a meeting with the supervisor and listening to what he has to say. “If we do not get our increase the strike will continue,” he added. Other reports suggest that their demands were rejected and the workers had no choice but to return to work.

The argument of the workers’ wages being low, according to the report, is that meals are provided. The counterargument, according to several workers, is that they’d rather have more money to send home then have meals provided for them.

The company promises its projects delivery schedule will not be affected by the action and that the labour dispute will be resolved as soon as possible, but yet – according to Reuters – two employees said other workers continue to observe the stoppage and no promises on wage hikes have been made.

Most blue collar workers in the Gulf Arab states are migrant labourers hired on a contract basis from South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, and strikes are uncommon.

Migrant workers in Dubai are often employed at wages that are low by Western standards and housed in dormitory-style accommodation on the outskirts of the city, part of the United Arab Emirates, a regional business and tourism hub.

Two Arabtec employees who asked not to be identified said several thousand workers engaged on various projects did not report for duty on Sunday and stayed in their accommodation.

A sub-contractor confirmed the stoppage, saying he had to call back his workers from one Dubai work site after Arabtec labourers failed to show up on Sunday.

Asked for comment, an Arabtec spokesperson said: “We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible, alongside the Ministry of Labour and the Police Authority.”

The UAE Labour Ministry told Reuters a team of the ministry’s labour crisis management committee was “closely following the work stoppage by a number of Arabtec’s workers”.

The ministry added that Arabtec was paying the workers according to contracts it had signed with them, and said their accommodation was in compliance with labour regulations.

FREE MEALS AND ACCOMMODATION

It said the labourers were receiving meals and had free transportation, housing and health insurance, services that it said were at least equal to their salaries.

The employees said the strike began on Saturday and that the workers were determined not to end it without a pay rise.

“They are upset at the low wages and also about not being paid for overtime work,” one employee told Reuters. He said workers at his site were paid between $160 and $190 a month.

“The protest started in Abu Dhabi on Saturday and today (Sunday), workers in Dubai have also joined,” he said.

Arabtec, the largest publicly-listed construction firm in the United Arab Emirates, was part of a consortium that won a $653 million contract in January to build a branch of France’s Louvre museum on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island. It was not clear whether this project was affected by the protest.

Arabtec was among the contractors that built Dubai’s palm-shaped island projects and the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa.

Dubai’s building boom stalled in 2009 after the global slowdown triggered a collapse in its real estate sector, with prices falling by over 50 percent from their peaks of 2008.

Construction has gradually picked up as developers have revived stalled projects and announced new ones including the world’s biggest Ferris wheel and more than 100 luxury hotels.

Moody’s Investors Service raised its rating on Ankara’s sovereign bonds to Baa3, or investment grade, from Ba1 late on Thursday, following in the footsteps of Fitch credit ratings agency, which took that step last November.

The upgrade came on a day when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was showcasing Turkey’s global prestige on a visit to the White House, and in a week when the emerging nation of 75 million made a final loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund.

“It was a major strategic step for Turkey,” said Erdal Tanas Karagol, economic director of the SETA think-tank in Ankara.

“This will help the current ruling party prepare long-term plans, to set higher goals and will create a suitable international environment to carry out those plans.”

The boost puts Turkey 11 notches on Moody’s rating scale above historic rival Greece, on the other side of the European Union frontier, and should drive more foreign direct investment (FDI) to an economy that still has great potential to grow.

“The ratings agencies are finally catching up with the fact that the Turkish government has done a huge amount of work in the last decade to put the country onto a stronger economic and political footing,” said Simon Quijano-Evans, head of emerging market research at Commerzbank in London.

Government debt has fallen to 30 percent of gross domestic product from more than 100 percent in the crisis years early last decade. Inflation and the budget deficit are falling.

POLICY ANCHOR

Turkey’s IMF programme and candidacy to join the EU provided a strong policy anchor in the early years of Erdogan’s mildly Islamist conservative AK party government from 2003. But the pace of political reform has slowed as EU accession talks have run into the sand due to Cypriot and French obstruction.

“There is a sense of a lost anchor,” said Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Istanbul Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, EDAM.

The EU had lost influence on issues such as media freedom, tolerance of dissent and freedom of expression because Turks no longer believed they were wanted inside the European bloc. Rights groups complain Erdogan is falling short on democracy.

Ulgen said the rating upgrade was a triple vote of confidence in the resilience of the Turkish economy despite Europe’s debt crisis, in sound economic and fiscal management, and in a strengthened geopolitical relationship with the West.

“Our goal is very clear. We have to secure our survival from our own internal strength,” Chief Executive Wolfgang Prock-Schauer told reporters on Wednesday.

Germany’s second-biggest carrier, almost 30 percent-owned by Etihad, suffered a first-quarter loss before interest and tax (EBIT) of 188.4 million euros ($244.5 million), causing its shareholders’ equity to turn negative – meaning its liabilities exceeded its assets.

Air Berlin’s finances have been deteriorating for several years as it struggled to halt losses and manage its debts following a period of aggressive growth. Some analysts have had a close eye on the size of its equity compared with its debt as a key indicator of financial health.

The group’s shareholders’ equity was minus 53.1 million euros at the end of March, against a positive 130.2 million at the end of last year.

Air Berlin blamed a traditionally weak first quarter and restructuring costs for the drop in equity and said it expected the measure to turn positive by the end of this year.

The airline said it would not need more help from Abu Dhabi-based Etihad, which bought its stake in Air Berlin via a share issue in 2011 and then granted it a $255 million loan.

Last year, Air Berlin posted its first annual operating profit since 2007, after cutting seats and unprofitable routes and selling its frequent-flyer programme to Etihad.

Earlier this year it also launched a restructuring programme called Turbine 2013, under which it is reducing its staff numbers by 10 percent to help save 450 million euros by the end of 2014.

It said on Wednesday it had already achieved two thirds of the 200 million euro earnings contributions from Turbine it had targeted for the year and affirmed its 2013 EBIT breakeven goal.

It also said its liquidity, which rose to 470 million euros at the end of March from 328 million at the end of 2012 thanks to a bond issue, would be sufficient to finance its operations, implement Turbine and make investments until next year.

“They’re still in a stressful situation, but the liquidity is so high. The situation will improve rather quickly in the next few months,” analyst Juergen Pieper at brokerage Metzler Equities said. “With Etihad as a strong partner, I think the situation there is under control.”

Back in Dubai, Kipp Report speaks exclusively to Tom Farrell, Vice President of the company in the Middle East as he strongly points out that – especially as far as this part of the world goes – people still have a place for Nokia in their hearts and that traditionally, this region is a strong one for the Finnish group.

On a side note, we’re also told that an extensive, lengthy legal process was necessary before they were able to publicly claim that Lumia 920 is the most innovative Smartphone in the world. “Let’s put it this way, nobody challenged us,” says Farrell.

“What you’re seeing from Nokia is a very fast innovation cycle, much faster than before,” says the visibly excited VP. “We want to drive the industry and take leadership and that means being better and faster.”

With the release of the Lumia 920 and 925, Nokia brought a lot of firsts into the market including the first optical image stabiliser on a Smartphone, wireless charger technology, the best mapping software in the world and real time traffic and navigation updates; compliments of a partnership with the RTA in Dubai. Farrell says that with new innovation, Nokia is able to set higher standards in the industry for others to follow.

Drake, which specialises in mechanical, engineering and plumbing (MEP), has seen its shares jump 35 percent year-to-date on growing speculation that it was a takeover target, with Arabtec viewed by analysts as a possible buyer.

Arabtec is on an expansion drive after a management shake-up led by Abu Dhabi state fund Aabar, its largest shareholder.

“I have heard the speculation,” Drake Chief Executive Khaldoun Tabari said on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi. “I am not interested in selling my stake. Our shares are out in the market and our company is doing well. We have always worked closely with Arabtec and will continue to do so. You are going to see more announcements of us working closely with Arabtec.”

He attributed the increase in share price to the company’s performance this year.

“Our turnover has increased by 25 to 30 percent.”

Tabari owns about 44 percent of Drake directly and through other companies.

The construction sector in the region is gradually picking up after nearly three years of slow growth following a global slowdown and the collapse of Dubai’s property boom.

He said the results of a bid for MEP work at the Midfield Airport Terminal project in Abu Dhabi, currently under construction, would be known in a few days.

“We don’t rule it out,” said Tabari, when asked if Drake would secure this contract.

The tender is valued at around 500 million dirhams.

The contractor in total is currently bidding for projects worth about 15 billion dirhams, Tabari said. It is active on projects in Gulf countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait and has also worked in other countries like Egypt and India.

The proposal calls for state-owned Kuwait Airways to buy 25 new Airbus jets and to lease a further 13 to upgrade its fleet but needs government approval, the source said. It could be signed by the end of this month.

The move comes months after Kuwait was awarded $500 million by Iraqi Airways for damage caused when former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces seized aircraft and parts, ending a two-decade row over compensation.

The Kuwaiti airline’s aircraft buying committee judged that Airbus made the most attractive offer in a tender process which included bids from Boeing and Bombardier, the source said.

The source declined to be named because the deal still needs government approval.

In August 2007, Kuwait Airways cancelled an order for 19 passenger planes worth $3 billion from local lessor Alafco after failing to get government approval.

Under the new proposal, Kuwait Airways would pay around 850 million dinars ($2.98 billion) for the 25 new planes, which would include 10 wide-bodied A350-900 jets and 15 of the slimmer medium-haul A320neo, the source said.

Such an order would be worth $4.38 billion at list prices, but aircraft are usually sold at a discount.

The A350 is designed to counter Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which would have been included in the deal scrapped in 2007.

Kuwait Airways would start receiving the Airbus aircraft from 2019, the source said, confirming details of the talks originally reported by Al-Watan newspaper on Sunday.

“The final decision is the government’s,” the source said. “I think by the end of this month, they should take it.”

Kuwait Airways and Airbus, which is owned by aerospace and defence group EADS, declined to comment.

Under the plan, the airline would also lease 13 of Airbus’s A330 and A320 models for six years, the source said, without giving an estimate for the cost of that part of the agreement.

One of the reasons the Airbus deal was seen as favourable was that it combined the new and leased jets, the source said, adding that the leased jets should start arriving this summer.

The airline wants to take 11 jets from its old fleet out of service.

It is currently operating 950 flights a week and will be one of the first airlines to operate out of Dubai World Central in October – with 50 weekly flights to the kingdom. It has also just celebrated its fifth consecutive year as part of the Arabian Travel Market.

And although CEO Captain François Bouteiller tells Kipp of the airline’s previous success, nasair hopes  – for the first time  – to end this year in profit. In the past nasair has come close to profitability and even broken even, but never has it enjoyed profitable success.

Operating an airline in Saudi Arabia is challenging – whether you’re a budget or traditional carrier – because the fare caps implemented by the government have remained unchanged for 25 years. Francois tells Kipp he thinks they may be working on loosening the strings. “You can imagine how costs have increased in 25 years but the fares haven’t changed,” he says.

Click here to watch a brief video clip of Francois Bouteiller

“We’ve had major changes in 2012 and we’ve had consecutive months of profit, but we hope to actually end the year with a profit,” he says. When pressed for speculative figures, he insisted it was too early to even begin guessing.

“If you take a look at what we’ve done over the past couple of years, but more specifically last year, we’ve had a 40 per cent increase in passenger numbers and sales growth,” he adds. “In 2012, we transported nearly three million passengers, and this year it could be 4.5 million.”

It’s also the fact that he’s the chief executive officer and visionary behind Qatar Airways – an airline that, despite facing financial losses, delays and muted expansion plans, continues to plough on stronger than ever. When asked what the greatest challenges airlines in the gulf face, he candidly referred to insufficient slots in western airports due to lack of expansion, rising fuel prices, government lobbying aimed at restricting growth due to Co2 emissions and most importantly, congested airspace.

It was only recently that the Doha-based airline’s fleet of 20 Boeing 787 aircrafts was given the green light to operate. Before then, they were parked on the ground for three months; costing the airline $200 million in financial losses. Al Baker has expressed unhappiness and disappointment with the situation, but repeatedly says he will be compensated by Boeing – but that actual figures cannot be discussed.

“We don’t buy planes to park them on the ground,” he said to reporters at this year’s Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. “We lose money this way, and it upset us that we were unable to operate them. Of course, now they’re flying again and we will push ahead with our growth plans.”

Click to watch Kipp’s video interview with Akbar Al Baker

Al Baker tells Kipp Report that he intends to regain the airline’s expansion momentum in two ways; by vigorously pursuing their existing plans to expand, and by receiving additional aircrafts – possibly from both Boeing and Airbus. As far as alliances go, he insists that once Qatar Air officially joins OneWorld in October, they will be part of “a huge alliance and continue to look for more partners to grow their business”.

As for an alliance with Dubai-based Emirates Airlines, Al Baker did not want to discuss it anymore. “We talk to each other often, but to even have an alliance, we would have to pass through many regulatory hurdles and they’re very complicated, therefore we don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he said.

Aside from airplane deliveries and expanding to new routes, Al Baker was visibly proud about an arguably more important, and imminent, development.

Hamad International Airport (commonly known as Doha’s new International Airport) is the world’s first to be designed, operated and solely managed by an airline. Kipp wondered whether this sets a precedent for other airlines to follow suit but the visibly enthusiastic CEO doesn’t necessarily agree.

“I don’t know if other airlines have the same vision that Qatar Airways does,” he tells Kipp. “I don’t know if other airlines have the kind of knowledge that we’ve developed managing an airport.” He adds that once the airport is officially operational, it will “simply be the best in the world” – as the airline has put in six years of detailed planning in transforming it into a world-class airport. He believes the airport will very difficult for anybody else to match.

“It’s not always money that produces something good, it’s the vision, the perseverance and of course, the quality and standards,” he said.

Education Minister Nayef al-Hajraf, Commerce and Industry Minister Anas al-Saleh and Sheikh Mohammad al-Mubarak al-Sabah, all in their early 40s, had come for an informal meeting with some 30 Kuwaiti bloggers and online journalists to discuss issues that concern young people.

“It was an ice-breaking action,” Sheikh Mohammad, a member of the ruling family who is Kuwait’s minister for cabinet and municipal affairs, told Reuters.

“We wanted them to hear what we had to say. We wanted to hear what they had to say,” he said in the April interview.

Like most countries in the Gulf region, Kuwait has seen little of the kind of turmoil that turfed out entrenched rulers in other Arab countries in 2011. But opposition politicians and a youth movement have been emboldened.

Dozens of activists and political figures have been charged since late last year with insulting 83-year-old ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, mainly in comments made online.

Young people regularly spill out onto the street to protest over local issues. Most of the gatherings are peaceful, but some have resulted in clashes with police.

In an attempt to prepare for the future of a country where more than half of citizens are under 25, Kuwait has tasked the three men and other younger officials with exploring reform. With little desire to substantively change the political structure – the Al-Sabah family has ruled Kuwait for 250 years – the men are focusing their efforts on the economy.

Their concerns about Kuwait’s economic future give them common ground with many activists, a Kuwait-based diplomat said.

“They understand the difficulties and the realities of the situation here,” the diplomat said. “But they face huge hurdles.”

THEY GET IT

A major oil producer and U.S. ally, Kuwait is one of the world’s richest countries per capita and one of the most politically free in the Gulf, but development has stalled due to bureaucracy and political upheaval – December’s parliamentary election was the fifth since 2006.

The economy is almost entirely dependent on oil, even more than most in the oil-rich Gulf region. Income from crude made up 94 percent of Kuwait’s state revenues in the first 10 months of the fiscal year.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that Kuwait may exhaust all of its oil savings by 2017 if it keeps raising state spending at the current rapid rate.

Rock-bottom prices for gas, power and gasoline have turned the world’s 20th biggest economy into its sixth-biggest consumer of oil, producing less than $3.70 of economic output for every kilogram of oil equivalent that it used in 2010, compared with the global average of $6.20, according to World Bank data.

“This has become an increasingly important issue as these subsidies have become increasingly distorting to our economy. This is something we are trying to address,” Economy and planning minister Mohammed al-Jasser said on Tuesday.

“Rationalisation of subsidies, particularly on fuels for non-targeted participants”, is needed to improve Saudi productivity, he told a financial conference in Riyadh.

Jasser did not give details of how Riyadh would tackle fuel subsidies.

Saudi Arabia keeps its domestic energy prices low for everyone, regardless of income levels, paying the subsidies out of the hundreds of billions of dollars that the kingdom makes from exporting crude oil.

This practice limits the potential long-term returns from oil exports. Nearly 40 per cent of Saudi electricity is still produced by burning oil.

Energy-hungry industry has boomed over the past decade, thanks to energy costs that are a fraction of those in most countries. This growth increases the cost burden on state-run companies that supply fuel, power and gas.

“Subsidy is becoming a big part of the government budget. Subsidy should be revised and done in a different way. It should be smarter and support low income people,” state-run Saudi Electricity co chief executive, Ali al-Barrak said.

Jasser also said Saudi Arabia should also resolve imbalances in its labour market, including the low level of private-sector employment among Saudi citizens, particularly women.

He said it was important for the country to diversify its economic base and develop more medium-sized companies.

There has been talk before about raising low fuel prices, including domestic natural gas prices, for years, but there is no clear sign that it will happen.

The government is wary of provoking social unrest by hiking gasoline or power prices, especially since the Arab Spring. It is also being cautious not to scare off gas-hungry industries that create jobs for a youthful population.

Reducing subsidies available to higher income groups, while maintaining cheap power supplies for millions of Saudis who are relatively poor, could help lighten the burden on Riyadh without sparking unrest.

“Over the last two years we have seen a real debate happening in government and among the wider public, so that’s a definite step forward,” John Sfakianakis, chief investment strategist at Masic in Saudi Arabia, said.

“But now we need to look at how this can be addressed in terms of actual decisions,” he adds.

Reuters

According to Reuters, the grounding cost the airline a total of $200 million and Al Baker expects to be compensated for the losses.

The progress of Hamad International Airport – which the airline intends to manage and operate – has also hit delays but is expected to be completed in phases. And yet, despite these setbacks, the airline hasn’t faltered in terms of its aggressive growth strategy – unless you count the cutbacks in routes of course.

During a press conference on the opening day of Arabian Travel Market – Al Baker announced yet another major expansion on three continents with an enormous increase in capacity in Pakistan.

The Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, will become the carrier’s 20^th destination on the African continent, launching on September 18, followed a month later by Clark International Airport in the Philippines from October 28. Effective March 1 next year, Philadelphia will become the airline’s fifth US gateway.

“Yet again Qatar Airways is bucking the trend across the industry demonstrating that we are resilient in times of global economic austerity because while others are cutting back, we see the opportunities to expand our global footprint,” Al Baker said.

“Our three new routes we are announcing today show we have faith in expanding our operations across different continents. This year, for example, has certainly been the year of growth in the Middle East with five of our eight scheduled route launches in the region alone.”

Qatar Airways is currently in talks with Airbus to buy up to 15 of the European aircraft maker’s A330 passenger jets, a deal worth potentially $3.6 billion at list prices, citing production delays to Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.

“We are talking to Airbus about A330s to fill in the gap that the Dreamliner delays have caused Qatar Airways. Anywhere between 10 and 15 (aircraft),” Chief executive, Akbar al Baker, told Reuters on Monday.

Additional reporting from Reuters

These fast-growing Gulf carriers are expected to be among the first and possibly biggest customers for Boeing’s latest offering, which was presented to customers last week.

“For sure they have changed, I hope they have,” Emirates’ President Tim Clark said, when asked whether the Dreamliner crisis has changed Boeing’s approach and thinking.

“Boeing came out of the ashes of the Sonic Cruiser years ago and came up with the Dreamliner, which was a leap of faith by any stretch. They were just beginning to stabilize when things went wrong again,” said Clark.

Emirates is not a customer of the Dreamliner but is the largest 777 operator with up to 175 jets that will need replacing soon.

Boeing announced it had begun selling an upgraded aircraft family code-named 777X, launching a race against Airbus for sales of long-haul jets.

Boeing, which has just emerged from the Dreamliner crisis, will now have to convince customers who have lost millions due to the grounding of the 787s.

Qatar Airways, which grounded all its five Dreamliner aircraft, would receive compensation from Boeing, its chief executive Akbar al Baker said.

“Everyone takes risks but Boeing took a very big risk because they went from ground zero to 100 in one leap instead of going in stages,” Qatar Airways’ outspoken chief Baker told Reuters on board its first 787 flight from Dubai to Doha last week, after the battery fix was installed.

Apart from Qatar Airways, fast-growing Gulf airline Etihad Airways has 41 Dreamliners on order.

“We put together a permanent and comprehensive fix for the issue and we are confident of the 787 safety,” Boeing’s Middle East President Jeff Johnson said when asked about assurances to its Gulf customers.

LESSONS LEARNED

U.S. regulators formally lifted flight restrictions on the 787 last month and allowed the redesigned lithium-ion battery system to be installed in airlines.

Ethiopian Airlines became the first carrier last month to resume flying the revamped Dreamlinerfollowed by All Nippon Airways and Qatar Airways.

It all began when the private luxury real estate developer revealed plans for a Hollywood-themed Damac Towers by Paramount in March. Since then, they’ve also announced plans of a 28-million square foot ‘Akoya by Damac’, a master plan development in Umm Suqeim (ten minutes from Sheikh Zayed Road).

Along with a long list of developments Akoya will include – like international schools, a solid retail infrastructure, boutique hotels and spas – Damac has announced the development of an 18-hole PGA Championship Golf Course, to be named Trump International Golf Club.

You wouldn’t think it at first, but Dubai and Abu Dhabi have recently been ranked as the 6^th most popular destinations for golf tourism, according to a study by accounting firm KPMG last month. Surprisingly, that’s not a regional comparison; but a worldwide one where the emirates are pinned against the likes of England, South Africa and USA.

Construction of the 7,205-yard course has already begun and will be ready for play next year. It will also include a 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art club house and a luxurious Trump Spa & wellness centre, which will be managed by The Trump Organization.

Donald Trump cancelled a previous foray into Dubai’s real estate market, a project to build an international hotel tower on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, after the emirate’s property downturn.

Hussein Sajwani, Chairman at Damac says the course will provide a ‘unique challenge for golfers, while delivering the utmost luxury and refinement’. “By collaborating with Donald Trump, we are bringing the most elite name in golf and international luxury real estate to Dubai,” he said.

Donald Trump, chairman and president of The Trump Organization says that ‘Dubai is an incredible city that truly understands the meaning of luxury’ and that this golf course – which is his first in the Middle East – will ‘exceed all expectations’. The Trump Organization already has 14 award-winning courses under its ownership and management across the world.

“There will be nothing like it in the region and beyond,” he said.

Tourism is crucial to Dubai’s economy, which had a gross domestic product of around $90 billion last year; it supports the emirate’s large retail industry as well as its hospitality sector.

Occupancy at Dubai’s 599 hotels, which have 80,500 rooms combined, was 78 percent in 2012 as the number of visitors rose 9.3 percent from a year ago to 10.16 million, according to data from the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

Helal Almarri, director-general of the DTCM, told Reuters that the emirate was likely to have more than 160,000 hotel rooms by the end of the decade and aimed to attract 20 million tourists annually by then.

Most decisions to build hotels would not be made by the Dubai government but by private companies. However, the Dubai government is active in supporting growth of the industry by providing infrastructure, marketing the emirate overseas, adjusting visa policies for visitors and expanding the network of the state-owned Emirates airline.

Saudi Arabia, India and Russia will be the main contributors to expected growth in tourist numbers, Almarri told Reuters.

“With Emirates airline and other carriers we focus very much on extending the routes to those markets,” he said.

Dubai’s main airport handled 5.85 million passengers in March, up 20.6 percent from a year earlier, according to airport authorities.

Ethiopian Airlines was the first to resume its operations and Qatar Airways, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, is the latest to announce its continuation.

The outspoken chief of the Doha-based airline says regulators have overreacted and the plane ‘should never have been grounded’. He also tells local media he’s unhappy about their fast-paced and steady expansion plans being stifled. More specifically, the chief is upset the company’s plans to launch 15 new routes are being scuppered, meaning they’ll have to settle for 10.

“The aircraft shouldn’t have been grounded,” Akbar Al Baker told reporters at a press conference in Dubai. “I think there was a reaction by the regulators because of the unnecessary emergency evacuation of the Japanese aircraft.”

Speaking to local media as the aircraft returned to service for the first time – Al Baker said the Gulf carrier would now have to ‘claw’ back new destinations and he expects Boeing to compensate them and other affected airlines for their losses during the delay.

Although he blames the U.S. plane manufacturer, he does insist that he, like many others, has complete faith in them and the safety of their aircraft. He says he ‘really does believe’ it is one of the safest planes and even if the battery problem happened again – which he insists it wouldn’t – it would be ‘very limited and not affect safety’.

“The Dreamliner is so safe, I’ll fly with you today, and anytime,” he said.

The plans would have appeared fanciful three years ago, when a crash in the inflated real estate market triggered a corporate debt crisis and a slew of company restructurings. But Dubai, home to an archipelago of man-made islands and an indoor ski slope in one of its shopping malls, staged a dramatic economic recovery last year, partly because of a tourism boom.

Tourist arrivals grew 10 percent and hotel revenue rose 19 percent in the first half of 2012. Some state-linked companies have been working through their debt loads while some property prices have started to rebound.

“Maybe we will try to build something a little taller,” said Mohamed Alabbar, the chairman of Dubai’s largest developer Emaar Properties, which built the 828-metre Burj Khalifa.

The tower, which dominates Dubai’s spectacular high-rise skyline, was opened in 2010 but is set to be overshadowed by the 1,000-metre Kingdom tower under construction in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

“Dubai needs another tall building. Dubai is only about 30 years old. So we have a lot of time and lot of investment left,” Alabbar told journalists at a conference.

Meydan Group and the Sobha Group, two Dubai conglomerates, separately announced a joint venture to develop a major leisure, retail and residential complex near the city’s downtown area.

The complex will include a 350,000 square metres water park, a 7-km lagoon, retail spaces, leisure and sports attractions as well as 1,500 villas.

In its simplest form, this growing epidemic is often defined as ‘attending work while sick’. And we all have that one work colleague that – regardless of the severity of his or her illness – will insist on putting their health on the line to come to the office. Naturally, the consequences of that irresponsible decision can spread, quite literally, to others.

Why? Occasionally, it’s the enormous workload rearing its ugly head, but more often than not, it is either guilt or fear. There have been several studies and polls on the subject – some of which suggest that employers, since the global crisis, have begun using it as a scare tactic – and we’ve written about a couple here.

According to Dr Layla Al Marzouqi, head of clinical governance at Dubai Health Authority, only government employees were previously charged (AED50) to obtain a sick note. Now, the new charge will affect everybody “regardless of where they are working, or their social class”.

As The National reports, this move is merely a piece in the puzzle; a part of a series of measures introduced to combat an ongoing fraudulent abuse of the system. In a nutshell, its aim is to discourage those feigning illness to skip a working day – in hopes that the charge will force them to think twice.

To further quote the report, this move has been met with ‘mixed reactions’, with one resident in Dubai describing it as ‘a tax on the sick’ and one medical practitioner ‘detesting’ the idea; saying it ‘shows distrust in doctors’.

You may be reading this thinking, if I’m really ill, then 60dhs is a price I wouldn’t mind paying – but does that mean that workers from all social classes can afford this charge? It is a classic case of an entire population being affected by the mistakes of a few.

The health authority says they’re still reviewing the actual charges and that; in the meantime, they’re open to alternative suggestions.

What are yours?

The IMF, which has sent a team of experts to the major oil producer before preparing its regular annual report on the country’s economy, has said the government needs to include the tax system in its fiscal reforms.

Income is not taxed in Kuwait, one of the world’s richest countries per capita, and water, electricity and petrol are heavily subsidised.

“The committee has rejected in its meeting to impose any taxes on citizens especially (given) that the level of public services is not good enough,” member of parliament Yusuf Zalala, head of the assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee, was quoted by the daily Kuwait Times as saying.

The IMF has calculated that Kuwait may exhaust all its oil savings by 2017 if it keeps raising state spending at the current rapid rate. The international body therefore wants Kuwait to expand its tax base, to provide stability in case of any sharp fall in oil prices.

Some members of parliament have suggested that foreigners, who make up around two thirds of Kuwait’s 3.7 million population, should pay more for services, but others have argued this would dent the country’s appeal to foreign companies.

Political infighting and bureaucracy have held up economic development in Kuwait, and its public infrastructure and services, from telecommunications to garbage collection, lag other states in the Gulf such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

After all, it is the world’s longest fully automated metro network. That’s why Kerala’s Kochi Metro Rail Ltd is sending a team of officials to the United Arab Emirates to take a closer look at the metro’s technological aspects.

It is not only Dubai’s rail that they intend to study, but this week the emirate will be their starting point. To better understand the functioning and operations of metros in major cities, they’ll also be paying a visit to Paris, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Copenhagen and Singapore.

“A team led by project director, Mahesh Kumar, will head for Dubai to gain a greater understanding of the third rail system and communications-based automatic train control system (CBTC),” said KMRL managing director, Elias George. Kochi Metro is estimated to cost Rs4.43 billion and it will cover 25.523 kilometres in length.

When Dubai Metro ‘opened its doors’ in September 2009, as a city – or rather, emirate – it’s safe to say we were unanimously relieved. It was a project with brains behind it; not a luxurious dream of an elitist, but rather something the entire population could find practical. And, sure enough, in 2009, 2010 and 2011, the metro transported approximately 6.9 million, 38.9 million and 69 million people, respectively.

According to data released by the Roads and Transport Authority in Dubai, the metro carried approximately 350,000 passengers a day in December of 2012.

In 2005, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page – along with CEO Eric Schmidt – all reduced their yearly compensation to $1. And now, Mark Zuckerberg, the brain behind Facebook, the world’s most successful social network, has officially joined the club as well.

This move was revealed in the company’s IPO Filing at the beginning of this year, but only in a recent proxy filing, was it concretely confirmed, along with his decision to ‘forego any bonuses’. Last year, in addition to his $500,000 base salary, Zuckerberg received a whopping $266,101 bonus. That’s a lot to give up, but trust me; you can take back any sympathetic sentiments you may be feeling.

According to Business Insider, the 28-year-old billionaire exercised 60 million stock options when Facebook went public in May of last year. At the time, they were worth an approximate $2.3 billion – although the report adds that he sold half the stock to cover his tax bill. Currently, he’s still currently nesting another 60 million that can be exercised on November 7, 2015; at the same astonishingly low price of six cents.

On the other hand, Zuckerberg now sits on a massive loss of nearly $7 billion on paper. This is, of course, based on the 609.5 million shares of company stock he owned as of March 31. The company’s stock, since the IPO was completed last year, hasn’t closed above $38; a 29 per cent decline.

As far as public appearances and statements go, it’s always been apparent that the young entrepreneur strongly believes there’s more to life than money. He’s quite often made headlines for sprouting out seemingly noble statements like “we don’t wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company” and “we don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services”.

He’s also insisted on numerous occasions that Facebook is free and always will be – although if you count recent developments like paying to promote your private posts to friends – then he’s sort of playing fast and loose with the word ‘free’.

King Abdullah originally announced the housing scheme in March 2011. His plan to build 500,000 homes over several years was part of a series of official steps to improve social welfare, at a time when social discontent was prompting uprisings in other Arab countries.

But the housing programme has been slow to get underway, partly because of difficulties in obtaining land – an example of how inefficiencies in Saudi Arabia‘s economy can slow its growth, despite its oil wealth. Last week’s royal decree may push the programme forward by opening up thousands of acres of state-owned land for construction.

“The decree is an important step that begins to address the gap between demand and supply of land in order to begin building the amount of units promised,” saidJohn Sfakianakis, chief investment strategist at MASIC, a Riyadh-based investment firm.

“It should eventually, as more allocations become available to the ministry of housing, bring down the price of land. Land prices, especially in Riyadh, can only come down if more land is made available as the majority of land still remains idle.”

SHORTAGE

Saudi Arabia has lagged poorer countries in providing housing to its citizens. Some 60 percent of nearly 20 million Saudis are estimated to live in rented accommodation rather than homes they own, and much of the housing is in poor condition, said Mike Williams, head of research at the CBRE property consultancy in neighbouring Bahrain.

Because of the housing shortage, rising rents have been a major source of inflation; rents nationwide rose 3.7 percent from a year earlier in March, though that was far below a peak of 29.7 percent seen in 2008. Apartment rents in Riyadhjumped 8 percent last year, estimates Jones Lang LaSalle.

Faisal al-Dekheel, a 25-year-old government employee, is one person who has grappled with the shortage. He wanted to rent a cheap apartment in Riyadh that would spare him a commute to work of up to 95 minutes, but found he would have to pay an annual rent of 60-80,000 riyals ($16,000-$21,300).

“I cannot afford such an amount. It is impossible,” said Dekheel, who eventually settled for an apartment costing 26,000 riyals a year in the distant eastern suburbs of city. “This is not an easy amount too.”

Part of the problem is that the kingdom’s wealthy have snapped up residential land plots around the country as long-term investments, making them too costly to use for lower-income housing.

Complicating the situation, many plots remain undeveloped because they were given to citizens under a previous system of land grants, and the recipients lacked the money to build on their land.

“The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has distributed around 2.2 million plots in this way, but there is no data recording how these plots have actually been utilised,” Williams said in a research report.

“There is the possibility that most of them remain undeveloped, and therefore these grants are proving insufficient in addressing housing needs in the Kingdom.”

In March, local media quoted Housing Minister Shuwaish al-Duwaihi as saying his ministry was able to obtain only a third of the land it needed to carry out housing projects. Ministry officials were not available to elaborate on his comments.

A lack of affordable bank financing is another constraint on home ownership. Partly because of Islamic sensitivities, there are no clear legal provisions for letting banks take away a borrower’s home if he defaults on a housing loan; this causes banks to charge high rates on the loans which they extend.

“The long-documented lack of security for mortgage lenders means that risk is priced into such products, making them unaffordable to all but a few,” Williams said.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Two years after King Abdullah originally announced the housing scheme, last week’s decree may finally put it into top gear. The king instructed the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs to hand over municipal lands immediately to the Ministry of Housing, which was told to build infrastructure such as roads on them before distributing them to citizens, who would build homes with loans granted by the housing ministry.

The Ministry of Finance was ordered to approve funds for the infrastructure construction. The king also told other departments to provide the housing ministry with the data it needed to decide which citizens were eligible for the land grants and loans – a key issue to avoid waste and corruption.

Even if all the government agencies cooperate smoothly, however, the scale of the task means it is likely to be many years before Saudi Arabia reaches the levels of home ownership – around two-thirds – enjoyed by other rich countries such as theUnited States and Britain.

The housing ministry said in January it would need a year just to prepare the mechanism for deciding citizens’ eligibility for land grants. Administering it may be a slow process in a country where the state bureaucracy is not known for its efficiency.

Bottlenecks in the construction industry may then delay the delivery of homes. One current bottleneck is in the supply of cement; last week King Abdullah ordered the import of 10 million tonnes to ease a shortage and called for three or four cement plants to be built over the next three years, granting 3 billion riyals towards the scheme, state news agency SPA reported.

“In my calculation, I’ve put 10 years to finish the whole project,” Fahad Alturki, senior economist at Jadwa Investment in Riyadh, said of the housing programme.

With Saudi Arabia‘s population expected to grow by 2.1 percent annually in 2010-2015, well above the global average of 1.1 percent, according to a central bank report, the current housing programme may need to be followed by others. In January, minister Duwaihi told local MBC television the country needed 1.1 million housing units.

Dekheel said he was optimistic about buying his own home eventually, but was not expecting it to happen soon. “For sure I will apply to get a land and loan,” he said, adding: “It is going to take at least five years until the youth can have access to this.”

The sector’s net income slid 18 percent from a year earlier to 8.0 billion riyals ($2.1 billion) in the first quarter of this year, Riyadh-based NCB Capital calculated this week after the companies announced earnings.

Even worse, global oil prices have dropped sharply since the start of this month. That threatens to pull down petrochemical product prices later this year, hurting firms’ bottom lines.

This matters for the entire Saudi stock market, because petrochemical shares account for roughly a third of its total capitalisation.

But a closer look at the outlook for petrochemical earnings suggests it is not so grim, many institutional analysts and investors argue – meaning the market could rebound quickly if oil prices stabilise in coming weeks.

A collapse of demand for Saudi petrochemical output is not on the cards, saidFaisal Potrik, analyst at Riyad Capital, who is keeping a “buy” rating on Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) , the world’s biggest petrochemicals group.

“Demand is still there, especially out of Asia - that’s going to cushion and has been cushioning the impact of any decline in the West,” he said.

RETAIL SELLING

Heavy selling of petrochemical shares by retail investors has pushed the sector index down 4.8 percent this month, leaving the overall Saudi market flat. Saudi Arabia is far underperforming most Gulf markets; Dubai, which is not directly exposed to the petrochemical industry, is up 12 percent this month.

There has been plenty of bad news to alarm investors. SABIC said last week that it would cut about 1,050 jobs in Europe and close some operations there because of weak demand on the continent.

Demand is stronger in the United States but the revolution in extracting natural gas there is strengthening some of the Saudi companies’ competitors, by reducing the cost of the gas they use as feedstock.

Meanwhile, the price of Brent crude oil has tumbled 8 percent this month to its lowest level since mid-2012. Petrochemical prices have held up well so far this year – ethylene was around $1,490 a tonne in the first quarter, up 16 percent from the previous quarter – but they could drop if oil prices stay at current levels, since in the long term the markets are closely related.

SABIC announced last week that its net profit sank 10 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, while sales shrank 3.3 percent. It warned that growth would probably not improve until next year.

BETTER THAN EXPECTED

But there are signs that petrochemical firms’ plight is not as bad as some investors are assuming. Although first-quarter profits dropped at many Saudi producers, most actually beat analysts’ consensus forecasts, except for when company-specific factors were involved, said Amer Khan, fund manager at Shuaa Asset Management in Dubai.

In fact, much of the drop in the sector’s profits during the first quarter was due to shutdowns of facilities for maintenance and emergencies – events that did not indicate weakness in the firms’ core business.

PetroRabigh, for example, posted a 658.1 million riyal net loss in the quarter, against a year-earlier profit of 115.8 million riyals – but the loss was due to an unexpected disruption of power and steam supplies from an outside provider. This forced PetroRabigh to halt operations.

Concern that SABIC‘s European layoffs are a sign of things to come may also be overblown. Announcing first-quarter earnings, the firm’s chief executive Mohamed al-Mady described Europe as a “special case” and said he was optimistic about growth in China improving, while the U.S. construction market – a major source of demand for SABIC‘s products – was recovering.

Potrik at Riyad Capital forecast SABIC‘s earnings per share would rise to 8.75 riyals this year from 8.26 last year, meaning the stock, which closed Wednesday at 91.25 riyals, is trading at an inexpensive 10.7 times projected 2013 earnings. He has a target price of 120 riyals for the stock.

NCB Capital has a target of 120.5 riyals for SABIC shares.

“We expect the sector’s earnings to improve in the next quarters of 2013 as most of the shutdowns ended in 1Q13,” it said, predicting petrochemical product prices would remain “broadly flat” this year – not a strong performance, but not as bad as many investors have been fearing.