Straw

Maybe he should have raised the debate.
Maybe he shouldn't have broached the subject the way he did.
Either way, it is not compulsory.

Interesting fact that 20-30% of UAE females cover their face.

Purple is the colour of choice

It is the colour of grapeshisha and it is the colour of speed.

Chuck a billion at it.

Stndard Chartered is a pretty well known bank. Pretty gung-ho of Istithmar to be chucking a bill at it. 2.7% - is there any other reason to this that pure return?

Istithmar, which is owned by the al-Maktoum ruling family in Dubai, has spent more than $1.8 billion buying overseas assets since its foundation, including 280 Park Avenue and the Knickerbocker Hotel at 6 Times Square in New York. It also owns stakes in Swiss aircraft-maintenance firm SR Technics and Perella Weinberg Partners, a financial advisory firm founded by former Morgan Stanley vice-chairman Joseph Perella.

London-based Standard Chartered, which makes two-thirds of its profit from Asia, bought control of Hsinchu International Bank in Taiwan last month and 81 percent of Pakistan's Union Bank Ltd. in August.

Some trend there....

From Bloomberg

No more sandy water

A decade of dredging and artificial island-making will have removed almost all of the sand from the territorial waters of Dubai by the time Dubai Waterfront completes in 2011.

By that point, around 1.9 billion m3 of sand will have been removed from the seabed between the shoreline of the emirate and the start of international waters.


What will the be the effect of having sand free waters? Who knows? Fin-free fish?

Firefox blocked, myspace investigation, Youtube sale?

Three questions
1. Can it really be true that Etisalat don't understand the benefit that Firefox brings to the tech space? (courtesy of Keefieboy - Firefox Blocked)

2. Was the Myspace (newly opened site to UAE residents) sale to Murdoch a scam? It certainly was very cheap.

3. Is consolidation in the Web Video market space be good for world? Google buying Youtube.

Human Rights Watch & the UAE

They're back, with a direct message:

UAE: Stop Harassment of Human Rights Defenders

This is the first paragraph of a letter sent to HH Sheikh Khalifa:

Your Excellency,

Your government’s policies toward human rights defenders in the United Arab Emirates are an important measure of its commitment to respect and protect the basic rights of UAE residents. For this reason we are seriously concerned about recent steps taken by UAE authorities that seem targeted to harass and silence activists attempting to monitor human rights in the Emirates. We urge you to put an immediate stop to these policies, and to make clear that the government intends to protect the ability of human rights defenders to carry out activities without interference.

Read the rest of the letter here

This is their message:

The authorities in the United Arab Emirates should end their harassment of some of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders and give their organizations the legal recognition they have sought, Human Rights Watch said today.

Read the press release here

Abu Dhabi Rent

The Negative is that it is too expensive for the residents.
The Positive is that the shortage makes Abu Dhabi a good investment.

Burj in Perspective

Check out BurjDubaiSkyscraper.com to check out the current status.

UAE ranks well in the corruption stakes

The whole thing about bribery and comparing it with other countries is a ticky business. Where is the benchmark? How do you compare like for like, especially when you are looking at a country venturing into new markets? Transparency International have released their latest report entitled the Bribe Payers Index 2006 which attempts to do just that amongst a select number of countries.

The BPI looks at the propensity of companies from 30 leading exporting countries to bribe abroad. Companies from the wealthiest countries generally rank in the top half of the Index, but still routinely pay bribes, particularly in developing economies. Companies from emerging export powers India, China and Russia rank among the worst. In the case of China and other emerging export powers, efforts to strengthen domestic anti-corruption activities have failed to extend abroad.

The index determined clusters from least likely to bribe to most likely. These are the results:

Cluster 1: Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Austria, Canada, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, US, Japan

Cluster 2: Singapore, Spain, United Arab Emirates, France, Portugal, Mexico

Cluster 3: Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, Malaysia

Cluster 4: Taiwan, Turkey, Russia, China, India.

Ignore what you think you know of corruption within the UAE. Look at the UAE going overseas. In my understanding the UAE has behaved impecably whether you are looking at JVs, overseas investment or pure aquisitions. In fact, the UAE fares as a cluster 1 country when veturing in OECD activity. And that is crucial if the powerhouses of Dubai and Abu Dhabi wish to continue their strategy of investing in high profile ventures overseas, as they have been doing over the last couple of years.

However you wish to take the results, it is worth remembering that Transparency International's work is recognised worldwide. For essentially a developing country, the UAE can be proud for what it is achiving. Reputation for honesty goes a long way in the politically correct business world of today.

See the full Bribe Payers Index (BPI) 2006 Analysis Report at Transpaency International's site.

Angry Emirates

Airbus are in a little bit of bother. Delivering the airbus so late will cause them some severe problems. Emirates Airline are the biggest order for the Airbus (43 out of the 134), and due to the delays, could leave Airbus with bigger problems than they currently have.

The Times has learnt that a number of airlines are extremely unhappy about the delays — and the lack of information that they have received from Airbus. Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, said: “This is a very serious issue for Emirates and the company is now reviewing all its options.”

Sources close to Boeing said that Emirates was considering ditching half its 43 A380 orders and buying the new 747-8 instead. That could cost Airbus a further $6 billion in lost revenue.

With an aggressive growth strategy planned, Emirates are not too pleased, and the shift looks like an option that may be considered.

discussdubai

It's always good when a fresh discussion board comes to the scene. discussdubai.com exists but is waiting for a heart. So, sign up for the forum and discuss away.

Check it out: discussdubai.com

Is Condi causing a commotion?

According to the Gulf News she is:

Commenting on the first issue under the title "A hidden plan to create disorder", the Dubai-based "Gulf News" said: "Condoleezza Rice is back. The US secretary of state is touring the region to 'encourage' the resumption of the peace process, according to her aides. But according to what she has been saying all last week in interviews with American newspapers, she is here to pit Arabs against each other.

"She said an 'alliance of moderates' has emerged in the region, under her sponsorship, to confront "the alliance of extremists" namely the Palestinian ruling party Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance group.

from Internet Chat Radio

Dubai Corporate Governance

Dubai is poor at corporate governance. What does that mean? Here are 3 definitions:

"Corporate Governance is concerned with holding the balance between economic and social goals and between individual and communal goals. The corporate governance framework is there to encourage the efficient use of resources and equally to require accountability for the stewardship of those resources. The aim is to align as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations and society" (Sir Adrian Cadbury in 'Global Corporate Governance Forum', World Bank, 2000)

"Corporate governance is a field in economics that investigates how to secure/motivate efficient management of corporations by the use of incentive mechanisms, such as contracts, organizational designs and legislation. This is often limited to the question of improving financial performance, for example, how the corporate owners can secure/motivate that the corporate managers will deliver a competitive rate of return", Mathiesen [2002]

"Corporate governance is the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as, the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. By doing this, it also provides the structure through which the company objectives are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance", OECD

Make sense that Dubai needs to work harder at it? Well the general consensus is that there is some way to go. That's why companies such as Hawkamah exist.

American Ramadan

Here's the trailer for the film American Ramadan. Looks like an interesting film. If anyone knows where it is showing, please let us know.

The US goes halal

I have no complaint concerning the banning of pornography and gambling in the UAE. It took the west some time to realise the harm that could be done by gambling market, and with the US passing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, making it illegal for financial institutions and credit card companies to process payments to settle internet bets, it appears that Bush has hindered the haram. Companies such as Party Gaming and 888 together have lost billions of dollars in value almost overnight. Now, the only difference between the use of the web it feels as if the only thing between the UAE and US, in terms of "web access" is porn and voip. And although, gambling, per se, has not been outlawed, the banning, in theory, of online gaming, is the acceptance that there is something inherently evil about gambling. One of my friends who couldn't undertsand the furore over this suggests, that if you miss your fix, then come and play the roulette wheel of the UAE stockmarkets.

When Media collides

E-vision is the cable TV arm Etisalat. I bet they are in a quandry as to how to deal with the TV through your internet connection. Will there be a reactive strategy to ban all such sites? Or will something be done to create a UAE equivalent?



Check out Viidoo as an example of what life might be like.

Not Doing Business

Hat tip to bizzwhizDubai for spotting the latest Doing Business report from the World Bank.

It looks like troubled times for the UAE. Is the UAE slowly slipping down the doldrums or is 77th place a realistic spot?

2006 - 77th
2005 - 68th (rebased from 69)




There were no rankings previous to this, but the key categories were measured in the same way and are similar to currently. The overall rank is probably about right for the specifics that they are recording, taking into consideration that the UAE falls at both ends of ths scale in various categories. Since the UAE is pretty high up on some categories, the drop by a few places is not significant. Worryingly, though, is the fact that there doesn't seem to be much improvement in areas that the UAE seems to be poor in, such as enforcing contracts, starting and closing a business and protecting investors.

This is a World Bank ranking, so it does have some weight. In some parts of the world, those being judged look at rankings and actively try and improve in the specific areas. Whether or not this makes the ranking legitimate is debatable, but it appears that the UAE is not doing the basics to jump ahead of the pack. With Qatar and Bahrain not measured, and Saudi, Kuwait and Oman all ahead of the UAE, there must be something that could be done to work on those criteria.

"Decree, task force, committee" - are words that I am sure we will hear soon. And hope that positive action will result in those words.

Buy the report

Harrods Dubai

Luxury brands and retailers love Dubai. First Harvey Nicks, then Harrods:

If the deal is finalised, Harrods will follow in the footsteps of major UK luxury department store Harvey Nichols, which opened in Dubai's Mall of the Emirates in May this year, following a Dh100 million investment and partnership deal with Al Tayer Group.

It remains unclear whether the Harrods brand will be introduced in its full London department store format, or solely as a food and well-being retailer under the Harrods 102 name.

Hopefully they won't have a silly advertsing campaign like the "Forget London" teaser that Harvey Nicks used which raised some controversy being so close to the London 7/7 bombings.

Harrods' entry to raise Dubai's retail profile

The longest...

...billboard in the Middle East. Sama Dubai advertising The Lagoons, 400m and on the Sheikh Zayed Road.



From Jazarah
via ADBlogArabia

2nd place Dubai

You usually hear of Dubai in first place, but in the grand scheme of things, being ranked second in the world in terms of office real estate construction activity, is pretty good going. 1st place - guess who? Shanghai? Mumbai? No, it's Moscow.

Read details of Colliers report at Trade Arabia