The most comprehensive UAE business survey has arrived. Did the government do a good enough job in the crisis? Would you buy a house this year? Is your company laying off staff in 2010? You told us all this and more.

Over the past few weeks, .Commerce magazine has conducted its first ever reader’s survey. Delivered to our database of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI) members and online, the questionnaire is unprecedented, both in terms of its reach and content.

This questionnaire has been designed to help companies put their 2010 plans in context with their peers, as well as maximise return on investment by providing data that allows them to better target potential customers.

For the full results, please click on this PDF link COM42_20-25_SURV

Despite an annual drop in profits in 2009, local bank Masreqbank has retained its place as the fifth-largest bank in the country. As the financial crisis steadies, the firm is looking to build its wealth management clients.

Can you describe your client base?
Mashreq has developed relationships over the past four decades through different channels. From a perspective of wealth management, we view our customers through different criteria such as income, assets under management, the range of products purchased, as well as channels used for engaging with us.

What volume of investments did you handle (in US dollars last year)? And how does this figure compare to 2008?
While the exact number of investments handled remains proprietary information, we can say that we saw a growth of more than 40 per cent in our assets under management in 2009. This was seen with customer interest in value opportunities in the global investments as well as a response to our needs  and risk profile-based sales model. Additionally, some of our financial products providing yield versus growth are popular.

Has the investment criteria for your clients changed? How?
Risk appetite for each customer is unique and therefore so are the solutions. The risk appetite for all individuals has changed since 2007 as a reaction to the high volatility in all asset classes such as equities and bonds. Our risk profiling process captures such shifts in customer risk appetite and solutions also change in response.

Also the basis for credit risk evaluation changed for most investors due to the rise in corporate credit rating downgrades or bankruptcies.

We have seen customers respond positively to Capital Guaranteed products which are issued by Mashreq itself, as opposed to the practice of distribution of third-party products by most banks. Fixed income is one area where customers have shifted some of their assets to benefit from some value opportunities regionally and globally.

What type of investments can clients expect to see good returns on this year?
We do believe that all asset classes will continue to have varying levels of returns during the year.
Asset allocation and diversification remain the key basis on which customers need to base their investment choices, without focusing on short-term returns highlighted by individual products. The returns of a portfolio depend not only on the type of products purchased, but also how and in what combination.

Also different methods of investment – direct or indirect – as well as lump sum or monthly contribution plans do make a difference to the outcome.

We do believe that customers educating themselves on investments and their different aspects will be one of the key contributors to maximising the returns on their portfolios.

How do investments work for the mortgage market?
The real estate industry is cyclical in nature; therefore research is of prime importance before making an investment. The entry cost will impact the yield that you get from the investment as well as the potential capital returns when you decide to realise through a sale of the property.

Research to check where in the cycle an investor enters and whether there is any scope for a reduction in prices in the near future. Such research is available in the real estate index published by major real estate companies as well as commentary via the media. Evaluation of priorities such as proximity to travel hubs, markets, schools, hospitals and entertainment centres have to be done before taking the final decision.

Also longer-term growth of a locality depends on some key projects such as airport developments, large landmark mall development etc, which can significantly raise the profile and price of the property in the future.

The proximity to these will be directly proportional to premium an investor would have to pay for his property. While most investors deal with their principal bank for mortgage facilities, other financiers at times provide better products that suit the investor’s individual needs.

Look at the different solutions created for different investment perspectives like buy to stay, investments, buy to rent, etc, which have different features built in. The investor should evaluate accurately on his/her requirements before settling for a financier.

Purchasing the first property is a watershed event  in the lives of most investors as a key lifetime goal; subsequent investments may not have the same impact. However, equal care needs to be provided to each such decision as it impacts the end outcome.

To what extent has risk appetite among high net worth clients returned to pre-crisis levels?
In 2009, we did see a drop in the risk appetite of high net-worth clients in response to the corrective phase of most global financial markets including asset classes such as real estate and hedge funds.

Risk appetite remains a function of individual views, at times reflective of the mood of the markets and the voice of the media.

The crisis globally has had a large impact not just on individual finances but also on corporate and semi-government and government level finances. he risk appetite today and the recovery of the same to pre-crisis levels would depend on exposure to pre-crisis assets as well as state of liquidity of each; allocating further funds to new investments would really be a function of the same.

Commerce-magazine.com spoke to airline executives and a hotel chief at Arabian Travel Market about what the future holds for their respective businesses. Our first interview is with Stefan Pichler, CEO of Jazeera Airways.

What are the plans for the second half of 2010?
Pichler: We have launched a modified and new strategy for the fiscal year 2010. We have four pillars of this strategy; the first is capacity containment, which means spreading the risk and reducing frequencies in markets we were overexposed and adding frequencies in other markets, so there is room for improvement.

The second is we are working on a product to improve our yields and have seen some promising results in the first three months of this year, so we are hoping to enhance that further based on the distribution of capacity.

The next stage is enlarging our sales, which started with online and calls, but now we are distributing by GDS (global distribution system – a worldwide booking system for all travel-related products such as airline tickets and hotels), which started in April, and we are also trying to grab a bigger share of the travel trade market.

It will be three or four years before we have 40-50 per cent of our turnover via travel trade in this part of the world. We are also simplifying our fare structure with only one economy class fare, so we have very attractive fares in the market to hopefully help us gain market share. The last pillar is cost dealership and we have the cheapest unit costs in the region; it’s a day-to-day exercise to keep this cost leadership position.

You mentioned overexposure, so which markets were you referring to?
Pichler: In general we had a lot of capacity in the last year in some of the GCC markets, with a lot of competition and we have reduced our exposure there. But it’s the capacity in the Middle East, non-GCC markets which is what it is all about.

What impact has the $28.5 million loss Jazeera reported for the year to March 31, 2010 had on the airline?
Pichler: The loss is mostly due to restructuring the airline because we started 2009 with two hubs in Kuwait and Dubai and then had to get out of the hub in Dubai as we did not have the traffic rights we had before. We couldn’t fly to other countries where we wanted to fly, so the retrenchment to a single hub led to restructuring.

What is the expected financial performance for 2010?
Pichler: We are striving to have a significantly better financial performance this year.

How badly have low-cost carriers been hit by the economic downturn?
Pichler: Low-cost carriers can offer lower fares because they have lower costs, so when customers try to save money when travelling with airlines, they look at the budget and we are able to accommodate travel needs for the lower end. So, low-cost airlines are the winners of this current market situation.

What’s your take on the outlook for budget carriers in this region?
Pichler: Right now, low-cost carriers in this part of the world account for about 5 per cent of the market and I am pretty sure in the next three years it will grow up to 15 per cent or further. A lot of the markets are pretty regulated, but there is no Open Skies (unrestricted services to other countries) so that restricts growth. One of the drivers is Open Skies and a deregulated Dubai. I hope we get there in the short-to-medium term, which will enhance growth.

What restrictions does not having Open Skies place on Jazeera Airways?
Pichler: If you look around the map between the GCC there is Open Skies, but there are also a lot of restrictions in the Middle East and non-GCC countries. Historically all the markets were restricted and then they open up when governments understand deregulation of air travel brings more benefits in terms of GDP growth than the benefit of protecting the national carrier. When this has sunk in markets will open up.

What’s the latest on plans to sell 200 million Jazeera shares to increase the airline’s share capital?
Pichler: We bought an aircraft leasing company (Sahaab Aircraft Leasing for KD25.6 million) in February and in order to make this acquisition and have a well-funded balance sheet we have to increase our capital. Now, this works in Kuwait with a decree from the Amir, so we will have that in time and then it’s done. If you look at our shares after we announced that up until now, they have been rising so our shareholders buy into our story.

So you expect the stakeholders are satisfied with the proposal?
Pichler: The company’s long-term development is essential and, therefore, all the stakeholders in the airline should be happy. We have made the acquisition and we just have to maintain a sound debt-to-equity ratio and funding as an airline, and that’s what we’ll do.

Dubai Airports says it is trying to tempt airlines operating from Dubai’s existing airport to relocate to Al Maktoum International either this year or next. What would persuade you to move?
Pichler: We have had a lot of talks with the airport guys and told them whenever we can fly from Al Maktoum to where ever we want to fly then we are in. When they give us unrestricted air traffic rights from Al Maktoum we are in. That was our proposal and it still is.

Please click on the next page for an interview with Richard Vaughan, divisional senior vice president commercial operations worldwide, Emirates Airline.

There’s nothing unusual about private equity firms chasing Middle East health investment, but what happens when deals dry up, asks Ryan Harrison.

The region’s medical sector emerged from the aftermath of the global financial crisis with barely a scratch on it.

Alongside education and utilities, health is one of the most robust industries, weathering the economic storm thanks to strong demand for services on the back of rapidly growing and aging populations, and spikes in traffic accidents.

In recent years, as governments tweaked their public policy, regional private equity firms made healthcare the home for increasingly large piles of their cash. And during the boom they started a landslide of deals that secured them handsome profits.

But it’s healthcare’s resilience that’s now playing havoc with their deal making. Asset valuations haven’t dropped like other sectors and there haven’t been the fire sales of distressed assets found in the property markets in places such as the UAE. Some say at best it’s left the market for healthcare deals sluggish, and at worst stagnant.

Abraaj Capital, the Middle East’s biggest private equity firm, with US$6.6bn funds under management, has identified high valuations as a hurdle to the conclusion of deals.

The firm has been a major player in healthcare since 2007, when it decided to take the plunge for the first time, buying a substantial stake in Turkey’s Acibadem Healthcare Group, the country’s largest privately owned operator of premium hospitals. Abraaj has since gained a foothold in Saudi Arabia and Egypt through acquisitions and is spreading across the region using these ventures as a launch pad for further buyouts.

Achmed Al-Shahrabani, a senior vice president at Abraaj, says: “Valuations are a key element in deals; good assets come at a price. Because healthcare is more resilient to economic downturns than other sectors valuations in general haven’t come down as much.

“In general, valuations in healthcare companies have generally remained stable, however in some instances we have seen some reductions.”

Abraaj, established in Dubai in 2002, recently used its controlling stake in Eqypt’s Al Borg Laboratories – a medical laboratory-testing company – to buy a 51 per cent stake in Medical Genetics Centre, also based in Egypt. “It gave us a chance to increase the physical size of our operation – by way of more branches allowed us to diversify into genetics. MGC is the country’s biggest genetics testing laboratory,” says Al-Shahrabani.

“We’re looking at healthcare on a regional basis, so if there’s a suitable hospital or other healthcare business then you take that company and continue to grow it in its home country and in parallel roll it out across the region,” he adds.

The “roll up, roll out” M&A model has also proved popular with Gulf Capital, an Abu Dhabi private equity firm with assets of about US$1bn, but valuations have also proved a headache.

Gulf Capital and Abraaj have focused initially on markets such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt; countries with the highest populations. Gulf Capital allocates three per cent of its capital towards healthcare, which may appear small, says Imad Ghandour, an executive director at the company, but is comparable to the ratio of healthcare in the wider economy of Gulf countries.

He says: “Generally, valuations are very high in this region. You have to work hard to get a good deal in healthcare.

“Good deals are hard to do at the right price and today people are aware of the risks and are very keen to invest correctly, whereas before people were prepared to pay higher prices. Now, they are asking for lower prices and fewer deals are being done.”

Ghandour, which oversees Gulf Capital’s investment primarily in mid-market private companies in the GCC with profits between US$5m and US$20m, estimates that there has been a drop of up to 85 per cent in deals done in the Middle East health sector between 2008 and 2009.

Given the dearth of reasonably priced hospitals in today’s market, some smaller private players are taking the initiative and building their own assets from scratch.

Salam Saadeh, founder and CEO of Active-M, a small venture capital outfit that’s been running for a year, says she’s working on a series of projects, on a deal-by-deal basis, and may one day launch a private equity fund.

“We build the health projects ourselves. And, as far as I am aware, there is no one else in this space. No one is focusing on the venture capital health market, the risks are high, but return on investment is also high.

“There are lots of private equity firms that want to get into the private health sector but the problem is there aren’t many assets for sale,” Saadeh says.

“The returns in stock exchange and real estate investment are no longer there to the same extent, this means people are interested in VC for returns.”

Property owners and developers in Dubai will soon have to adhere to new regulations following a Strata Law update. Graham Yeates, head of strata management for property consultant Cluttons, tells .Commerce how they will affect the emirate’s real estate industry.

What changes are being made to the Strata Law and how will these affect Dubai’s property market?
The significant event is the creation of the Owners Association (OA) as a legal entity enabling it to operate a bank account. All owners become part of the OA at time of purchase. It even covers long-term leases like those at the Green Community in Dubai. The OA will run the management of the building for the benefit of owners via an elected board. The board is governed by strata laws that are overseen by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA). It is rather like running a small or medium-sized business, with owners able to contribute ideas or give their time to improve their property

When will changes to the Strata Law be made?
We understand that the final draft is now going through the translation phase, so the release won’t be far away.

How will the Owners Associations work?
Owners will meet on an annual basis to receive financial reports and elect their board. They may also meet to discuss or approve major items of expenditure or more critical issues outside the scope of day-to-day matters, which are dealt with by the board. So the board will review the costs of running the building i.e. service charges, and the OA (owners in general meeting) will ratify this at their general meeting. The matter is put to a vote and once passed all owners must pay their share.

What are the biggest issues that the Strata Law needs to address?
Strata wouldn’t solve all of the world’s property problems, but it would provide purchasers with the strongest form of land title. Title is a document stating that the bearer has a “right of ownership”. This document is remittable and recognised by lenders and will avoid the current abyss in the present mortgage market in the UAE. Strata gives rights and obligations to the owner. He has a right to use common property and an obligation to comply with the rules and regulations spelt out in the constitution. Strata can be residential, office, retail etc.

Cluttons recently said the new laws would tie up loose ends and clarify grey areas. Could you elaborate?
Loose ends primarily relates to the nonsensical situation, which exists at present where people have bought into a freehold property but the developer still rules the roost. Owners will now be able to review their service charges and adjust those services to suit their collective needs. Hopefully, this will mean no more arguments with developers. Strata Laws will provide a legal framework enabling owners to work through their problems in a systematic manner with the assistance of RERA, knowing that the law is in place to help them.

Some owners have criticised developers for increasing service charges on their properties, so how will the laws address this?
It won’t be the law so much as the ability of owners to sit down and rationally discuss their needs and the quality of services their building deserves, so it won’t just cover what the developer wants. After due consideration of their current needs and future capital reserve fund, the owners determine their own service charges. Any developer margins, commissions and kickbacks will be eliminated forever.

Investor confidence has been hit by rising interest rates on mortgages and developers delaying off-plan builds. How secure is the UAE property market?
Once investors see the benefits of strata the property industry will respond to the security it offers, along with transparency and the personal touch of the board or helpful owners in presenting the building to the best of its potential i.e. grounds, pool surrounds other landscaping, painting and cleaning.

How can property companies and developers convince sceptics that the UAE is a good place to invest?
These are issues outside the scope of Strata such as resolving the question of residency attached to purchase. Investors don’t react well to uncertainty. They buy for the long haul. That is where the strength comes from. If you remove residency from a purchase you destroy credibility.

Rob Morris talks to City Of Life director Ali F Mostafi about the first UAE movie to secure a theatrical release.

Staring out the window of a Dubai taxi, Ali F Mostafi momentarily loses his composure when spotting the poster for his new film City Of Life emblazoned on another nearby cab. ‘Wow, that’s amazing’ he says excitedly as the taxi pulls alongside ours during a leisurely drive around the emirate’s Media City district.

A convoy of cabs each splashed with the same advertising trails behind as part of a publicity drive to promote Mostafi’s new movie. In it, the lives of three people from different backgrounds and ethnicities are laid bare against Dubai’s multi-cultural backdrop. A disillusioned Indian taxi driver who dreams of becoming a Bollywood star, a European air hostess and privileged young Emirati are the protagonists in a story of greed, ambition and betrayal.

After four years of development, the film premiered in Dubai on April 22. Mostafa, a 28-year-old Emirati who wrote, directed and produced the movie, talks about knocking down doors for investment and the challenges UAE filmmakers face.

Where did you get the idea for the movie?
I was once taken to a place called Bollywood Café and there were Indian people performing as famous people. There was this look-alike of a Bollywood actor and my friend told me it would be interesting to do a documentary following this guy around. It was a cool idea, but I wasn’t necessarily a documentary filmmaker. I wanted to make fiction, drama and entertainment, so I took that idea and saw how I could make up this fictitious character who was a look-alike in Dubai that drove a taxi cab by day and performed as a Bollywood actor by night. That was a film by itself but it wouldn’t really represent Dubai, so I had to add a few more characters to show a bit more diversity. When I added the Emirati story, I took things from personal experiences and added fiction. That was the second storyline added to the script and then lastly the western storyline came in and that’s how we came up with City Of Life.

When did that moment of inspiration at Bollywood Café take place?
Four years ago, so this film is four years in the making.

How does it feel to see the film finally on the big screen after four years?
The fact that we are sitting in a taxi with my name and poster of my film plastered on the side and seeing it launched in Dubai (on April 22) is a feeling that no filmmaker can describe, especially for their first feature. It has been extremely overwhelming and exciting; this is actually happening and the film is out and people are seeing it.

What were the box office revenues for the opening weekend?
I don’t know the exact figures of the box office yet. There are a lot of things that go behind the box office in terms of percentages. What I do know is it was very high for us only being in 12 screens.

What challenges do filmmakers in this country face?
The challenge was to convince people that this movie needed to happen. We have so many film festivals; Dubai’s has been around for about six years and we have the Gulf Film Festival and one in Abu Dhabi; we have a lot of film festivals but we don’t have enough Emirati films that could represent us in the cinematic world. So, my main goal is not just to make any feature but to try and do a feature film of a standard equivalent to a western film in terms of being able to make films like that here. It’s about trying to help pave the way for future filmmakers and attracting international productions.

How did you get investors on board?
Perseverance. It’s banging on doors until your knuckles bleed and someone listens. When they eventually did, it was an amazing ride. The idea to seek investment was to take a different approach. If you want to talk to anyone about investment here, you speak to them about real estate. The other thing that they also really know about is advertising; everywhere you go in Dubai there is marketing. That is the one thing they would like to invest in as well, so I approached them [potential investors] and said ‘if you put your money in a commercial with your brand on CNN for example, you would last three weeks and be played twice a day. Give me that same amount, we will put it in this film and it will be there forever. Someone can pick up the DVD in 30 years time and still see your brand and at the same time that person will also have shown support for this industry,’ so it’s almost like a win-win situation. And they liked that idea. My silent investor gave us the full amount, which was about $5 million.

How much pressure were you under to produce a quality film when given millions of dollars?
I don’t think it’s about the money because not many people knew the budget beforehand. Rumours were flying around and someone once said something ridiculous that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Ruler of Dubai, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister) gave me a blank cheque. The Sheikh had no idea about the film until we were filming. He visited us on set, gave us a lot of support and said ‘good luck’, which was amazing. I showed him the film for final approval because it was about his city and I wanted his blessing. That was the only involvement from the Sheikh that this film ever had.

How will the Middle East film industry change in the next five to 10 years?
I still think we are in a hatching form and City Of Life was just a little piece of the eggshell coming off the egg. We still need to break through. The fact that this little piece has come off the egg has made it a lot easier for people to push right through. This film has really helped pave the way for the next UAE movie to come along and attract international productions. It’s about trying to help build the infrastructure, but the fact we have one film a year doesn’t mean we have a film industry.

How do you portray Dubai in the film and what impact will this have on tourism?
The picture of Dubai in this film is not the picture painted for tourism – I painted it as a real place and city. It gives it a lot more spice than a tourism video would do. You can’t be a pioneer unless you’re trying to get shut down or unless you’re criticised. You are not successful unless you’re criticised and when I show this film I’m just scratching the surface and not delving into deep situations. Why would I want to be controversial on my first feature and why would I want to shut down the film industry with one movie?

What I did was show stuff that is a reality we see around us – I wasn’t showing anything that doesn’t exist. There are bound to be people who see certain scenes and say ‘that’s not right’, but at the end of the day I’m not making a documentary, I am making entertainment and as a director you have to let the audience ride on that visual storyline and you have to create that vehicle. At the same time, I didn’t want to make a propaganda piece. These are characters that I have invented and once people start getting the mentality and open-mindedness about what films are then this industry will develop a lot quicker.

One year on since Dubai real estate prices halved, the managing director of Cluttons tells Alicia Buller about his long-term hopes for the region’s property market.

Ian Gladwin is remarkably sanguine, considering his position as a real estate managing director in rocky times. As the boss of Cluttons Middle East, a growing global arm of the UK-based real estate firm, Gladwin says he bagged his current role in 2008, just as Dubai was starting to bow under the weight of the region’s overheated property sector.

But just one year on, things turned sour for the region as property prices nosedived by 50 per cent on average.
“Taking on the headship of the region at a time of change means that I am looking at where we are as a business, in what has been a very confused market,” he says.

Cluttons has been in the region since 1975, which makes it something of a stalwart in the Middle East. Globally, the firm employs some 600 people and covers a wide range of property-related services for both the residential and commercial property sectors.

“While we have a strong reputation, we also have to look at how we move forward at a time of change when the market needs different things,” he says.

“How do we move with the new challenges in the regional real estate market?”

One of the firm’s key focuses now is research. In times of uncertainty, credible information and insight becomes paramount, as evidenced by the sheer number of reports released to the media in the past few months – from Cluttons and competitors Jones Lang Le Selle, Landmark and Asteco Property Management, to name but a few.

Gladwin places clout on the fact that his firm is long- in-the-tooth as far as UAE property firms go.

“Cluttons has data on land and construction prices as far back as the pre-Sheikh Zayed Road days. A lot of people are now asking what data has been provided, both in terms of the boom, where we are now and what the trends mean. Our term of years on the ground has enabled us to recall on a lot of data,” he says, somewhat pleased. “Our pool of data is now, of course, playing into our hands.”

Gladwin can be forgiven a whiff of hubris, in a country where an estimated 90 per cent of brokerage firms went scampering off into the night when the real estate market became more transparent and realistic.

Cluttons is one of the oldest established firms of Chartered Surveyors in the UK, and was an important firm during the establishment of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

“Transparency is the key in this confused market – there is certainly a need for both serious players, such as banks, but also those interested in Dubai from an international perspective. In a time of nervousness, business has been very robust on a need and flight to quality,” Gladwin says.

“A speculator trading mindset has driven some sectors of the market, rather than a genuine end user market and real estate is a long-term play. If you are a developer or operator you have to be in it for the long term to realise value – fair value and true value.”

Gladwin says that his long-term faith in the healing of Dubai’s real estate market stems from its well-developed infrastructure – more specifically, the airports, the port, the hotels and the Dubai International Financial Centre.

“Once a city has infrastructure and property you cannot ignore it. Now it is a matter of reflecting and understanding where we are in the market. Dubai, to a great extent, is a new market where a correction has always been anticipated – it was just a matter of when it was going to happen and how it was going to happen,” he insists.

Mobilising the Emirati workforce takes grass roots education policies, not just cash and quotas, writes Ryan Harrison, a lesson the UAE is slowly learning.

Hard cash still forms a hefty chunk of the UAE’s incentive package to drive nationals into the private sector. The government’s latest ploy, subsidies, will top up the salaries of locals joining a private firm to match what they would have received in the public sector. Previous tactics have included imposing legal quotas on businesses – historically the most popular nationalisation method in the region. But emiratisation experts are adamant that just throwing bodies at jobs based on nationality will not necessarily make a difference to businesses.

Cash is always an instant sweetener, but to attract and retain a healthy workforce needs a nutritional employment pack beginning with education and training, says Younes Proctor, an emiratisation specialist at Abu Dhabi-based Sorouh Real Estate.

“Quotas backfire because you’re basing your success on a percentage. People can play with the numbers very easily,” he says.

“And subsidies are a partial solution in the sense that certainly it’s going to attract people but when they get to the job they still have to do it themselves – there’s no money that will be a substitute for getting the job done.”

He adds: “There is no one silver bullet that will move the process on very smoothly. So you have to come up with a number of solutions that go towards your vision. One of the ways is to align educational qualifications with the needs of business – so, we need people with finance, IT skills, real estate development and so on.

More needs to be done at the educational level, argues Proctor, to offer these vocational types of degrees.

Critics have argued in the past that when faced with legal allocations of Emiratis, private companies often hire locals as merely “quota-fillers”, following the letter of the law but not its spirit. The danger being that this leads to staff that are not qualified or not committed.

The UAE government has tried in the past to push private companies to hire Emiratis. For instance, firms with more than 100 employees have to allocate a quota of positions for locals.

It even took the step last year of declaring that Emiratis cannot be fired from private companies unless they are accused of “serious misconduct, including, among other reasons, absenteeism, theft or drunkenness.”

But the Abu Dhabi government said last month it was looking beyond quotas. Abdullah al Darmaki, the head of Abu Dhabi’s emiratisation department, told UAE daily The National that the quotas system could eventually be scrapped, and instead the government will offer subsidies to companies to encourage them to hire and keep Emirati staff.

Abu Dhabi said subsidies will start immediately and that companies would use the money to train their Emirati employees and help them gain a foothold in the private sector. The funds would also allow the companies to match the salaries offered by the public sector.

Charles Wilson, a nationalisation expert and senior HR adviser to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, says: “I don’t agree with subsidies for getting nationals into the private sector as it’s not solving the problem. It’s up to the private sector to compete against government because government is more attractive.

“For the government to subsidise that gap is pushing the problem under the carpet. The problem is there and needs addressing, but throwing money at it is not the solution,” he says.

Wilson says the UAE is in desperate need of a broader link between educational qualifications with the needs of business or, as he calls it, “crossing the bridge”.

“Not enough work is being done to cross the bridge between education and the workplace. And I don’t think we can rely on the workplace to do that, it’s only partially their job.

“I think it’s up to the private sector to get across that bridge, to go into the world of education and to make sure that they identify their needs to the world of education and encourage the nationals across.

“Once they’re across, we need properly constructed training schemes because so often I see a national brought into a company and then left. He needs coaching, she needs mentoring, looking after, caring for, and a constructive training scheme which leads ultimately, if possible, to an accredited qualification that the company wants,” Wilson says.

It’s worth noting that although many students from the region return home after being sponsored by their governments to study in international universities, they return and concentrate on positions in the public sector, rather than the private sector.

Wilson adds that it’s a myth that matching the public sector’s high salaries is key to getting nationals into the private sector. “The important factor is, do you care, have you got a good development system, am I going to be looked after by your organisation and can I see a way ahead.

“There are some factors as regards to salaries and conditions but they have lessoned in my opinion in the past few years. There was a time when it could be truthfully be said that a national was looking for the big office and all that goes with it. That’s no longer true.”

It takes a lot to build a sustainable city but Abu Dhabi is tackling the logistical, economical and social challenge, reports Ryan Harrison.

Should Abu Dhabi build skyscrapers like Dubai? How do you protect Emirati culture from expats? And when oil runs out, how will car-less office workers get around in the summer? Answers to these questions are all part of making Abu Dhabi a sustainable city.

In recent years, sustainability as a term has adopted a narrow definition to simply mean renewable energy. It can of course also mean efforts made to preserve the economic health of a nation or attempts to maintain social stability or quality of life.

In May, a new global think tank on sustainability, made up of two Abu Dhabi government departments and a delegation from the World Economic Forum (WEF), will meet to create a survival guide for world cities looking to embrace sustainability.

The World Sustainable Capitals initiative, created last September at the Davos meeting in China, is being spearheaded by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council and Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ADCED). It currently has one member, Barcelona, the capital of Spain’s Catalonia region.

“There’s a need for cities across the world to learn from each other and benchmark themselves against each other,” says Fahad Saeed Al Raqbani, deputy director general of the ADCED.

Using Abu Dhabi’s financial might thanks to oil, Al Raqbani hopes to help transform the capital into one of the most efficient and well thought out cities in the world.

“The approach to tackle urban planning and sustainable economic development challenges can only be holistic, integrated, long-term and, most of all, based on the participation of citizens and the private sector,” he says,

“As such, a responsible city is a city that protects its natural and physical environments, that preserves heritage but also that supports continued and diversified economic growth by attracting investors and industries. A sustainable city absorbs its expanding population by creating new opportunities for its citizens. It enhances the economic, social, cultural and environmental well- being of current and future generations.”

The biggest challenge is Abu Dhabi’s massive population growth forecasts, which put the capital’s inhabitants at three million by 2030, double what it is today.

So where do all these people live? “You don’t need to build skyscrapers, you can just build densely,” says Rick Rosan, president of the US-based Urban Land Institute Foundation, a group that researches best practice for land use in cities.

“You’ll probably need multiple stories though, but you can still build very densely at six to eight storeys, such as Amsterdam,” Rosan says.

Meanwhile, Richard Levine, director of the Center for Sustainable Cities (CSC), says it also allows Abu Dhabi to better fit its environment. “When you try and spread a European-type city out in Abu Dhabi then you’re going against the climate. Every aspect of every building is exposed to the heat and dryness.

“There are traditions in hot climates to build densely and have a large interior, such as in the town of Fez in Morroco, which has tightly nit living areas. It protects people from the extreme heat and dryness and the coolness at night, and saves energy,” he says.

According to the Plan Abu Dhabi 2030: Urban Structure Framework Plan, urban residents make up 68.5 per cent of the total population, a figure expected to grow dramatically in the coming years.

ADCED’s Al Raqbani cites several cities around the world who have committed to overcoming challenges to reach important sustainable urban goals by 2030.

“With our partners, we would like to engage cities that are making strategic choices about how best to achieve high standards of living, quality of landscape and environment while managing diversified economic growth in order to build sustainable cities by 2030. Barcelona has recently joined our initiative and it is a sustainable model thanks to its innovative urban planning,” he says.

“New York and Sydney are two other examples of sustainable cities. Mayor Bloomberg announced 10 bold goals, including achieving the cleanest air of any big city in the country, cutting greenhouse gases 30 per cent by 2030 and making sure that every New Yorker can walk to a park within 10 minutes. In Sydney’s vision, sustainable development is not just about the physical environment, but also about the economy, society and culture and how addressing each will result in better outcomes.”

These are noble notions. But while Abu Dhabi’s city transport system is still in the embryonic stages – a 131km metro system is scheduled to open in Abu Dhabi in 2016 – how will the expected increase in city-dwellers get around?

Nancy Kete, director of EMBARQ, a sustainable transport group that works with cities to solve urban mobility problems, says Abu Dhabi needs to get people walking.

From the Mac right through to the iPad, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has masterminded a brand that has captured the world’s imagination and bank balances. Commerce explores what it takes to emulate Job’s business style.

Steve Jobs is an innovator through and through, a true titan of original thought. Born in 1955, he grew up around San Francisco’s apricot orchards which later became known as Silicon Valley. Jobs still lives there with his wife and four children.

In 1976 he co-founded Apple and is still the firm’s CEO. The ubiquitous Mac computer, iPod, iPhone, iTunes and most recently iPad are his biggest achievements.

Jobs also co-founded and was the CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which created some of the most successful animated films of all time, including Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Monsters Inc.

Pixar merged with The Walt Disney Company in 2006 and Steve now serves on Disney’s board of directors.

Jobs was once quoted as saying: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

Game Plan Player
Apple’s recent launch of the handheld iPad was not just a masterstroke of technological invention. It capped a meticulous long-term business strategy that started with the launch of the iPod in October 2001 and has come to fruition with the slow death of the global publishing industry.

The plan was as ingenious as it was simple: get people listening to music on the iPod, launch the iTunes store so they can pay for music, bring out the iPad so people can read their newspaper online and pay for the privilege through iTunes.

It’s this forethought, coupled with his ability to master the art of “cool” that has guaranteed his success.
In 2006, Apple reached the one billionth iTunes download milestone. Two years later it hit five billion, and according to latest figures the firm raced pasted six billion last year.

There are now upwards of 80 million accounts on iTunes linked to credit cards around the world – having captured the world’s imagination and bank balances.

Power of Speech
In the past three decades, Jobs’ presentations at the start of a new launch have often attracted as much attention as the product he’s selling. Famed for his clean, crisp delivery and light blue jeans, running shoes and black long-sleeve T-shirt, he has been dubbed the world’s greatest storyteller.

As natural and matter-of-fact as the talks appear, it’s no secret that Jobs sometimes spends months researching and practising for one event. The result is a well-crafted spectacle of a sales pitch.

The key to a successful delivery is surprise, so in the critical weeks leading up to a launch Apple avoids revealing any details at all about the new device.

Industry analysts say Jobs doesn’t sell computers; he sells an experience.

And this hits at the heart of his presentations that are meant to inform, educate, and entertain.

He ensures that Apple presentations have all the elements of a great theatrical production – a great script, heroes and villains, stage props, breathtaking visuals – and one moment that makes the price of admission well worth it.

Make Friends
The week before the big launch of the iPad in San Francisco, tech blogs were abuzz with sightings of Jobs in Manhattan, according to various online sources.

Most importantly, he was seen in the newsroom of the New York Times and on the third floor of the News Corp tower.

One morning he showed up at the Time-Life Building to demonstrate his new tablet computer to Time Inc, CEO Ann Moore and a roomful of magazine editors.

Tech commentators say the fact that Jobs himself flew to New York – and that the top executives of America’s
leading national newspapers and magazines turned out to meet him – may be taken as a sign of just how badly both sides need each other to capture the market in today’s changing media times.