Tag Archives: dubai
Dubai consumers ‘are feeling good about the economy’
Consumers in Dubai are far more optimistic about the state of the economy than they were just a few months ago, a new study has shown.According to the Dubai Department of Economic Development's (DED's) latest Consumer Confidence Survey, 90 per cent of people living in the emirate in the first quarter of 2013 were happy that things were looking up.This was a significant improvement on the fourth quarter of 2012, when 74 per cent of survey respondents felt the economy was in good shape.In addition to this, around 95 per cent of citizens think that Dubai's gross domestic product will expand by the end of this year.Leaders at the DED believe that rising real estate prices and the booming tourism sector are two of the main factors behind this renewed sense of optimism.Indeed, 66 million tourists are expected to visit Dubai in 2013 and local businesses will obviously benefit from the influx of holidaymakers and business travellers.Encouragingly, the research also indicated that more people who live in Dubai are predicting better job opportunities in the near future. Some 87 per cent said they expect to see more job vacancies cropping up in the next 12 months.Meanwhile, 82 per cent of workers in the city rate their current job prospects as either “good” or “excellent”, which is up from 71 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012.”The prevailing consumer sentiment in Dubai shows an increasing level of confidence in the emirate's ability to stimulate economic activity, create jobs and generate wealth,” commented director general of the DED Sami Al Qamzi.”Dubai's bold announcements of a strong commitment to development and pledge to make the emirate more attractive for investment and business is producing the desired results.”Another recent study – this time conducted by Friends Provident International – appeared to back up Mr Al Qamzi's suggestions, as it revealed that investors are increasingly seeing the UAE as a safe haven and Dubai-based property assets are in particularly high demand at the moment. Continue reading
Shaikh Khalifa’s UK visit: History in the making
Shaikh Khalifa’s UK visit: History in the making Silvia Radan / 22 April 2013 For the second time in 42 years, a state visit by a UAE President to the UK will be happening on April 30-May 1. The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will be travelling with a political, military and business delegation to Great Britain at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II. “I can’t think of anywhere else in the world of a state visit being returned in such a short time, with the Queen’s visit here in 2010 and, if I may say so, a returned match by Shaikh Khalifa only two-and-a-half years later,” said Dominic Jermey, British Ambassador to Abu Dhabi. Although he would not reveal details of discussions between the UAE and UK delegations, the ambassador has “no doubt” that the issues of dropping UK visa for UAE nationals, as well as the political sensitivities raised by the nuclear power in Iran will be discussed. “Defence, security, foreign policy and business will be at the heart of the visit, but first and foremost, this is a visit between two royal families, who value each other, so it is about enhancing the relationship between the UAE and UK,” said Jermey. According to him, when Queen Elizabeth visited the UAE in 2010, several agreements were signed, boosting military, political and business relationships. Presently, there are 30,000 Emiratis visiting the UK every year and one million UK citizens coming to the UAE annually, despite the “high threat from terrorism” official warning of the UK government for its citizens travelling to the emirates. The bilateral trade between the two countries is £11 billion with plans to reach £12 billion in a couple of years. About 4,000 UK businesses operate here, some of them being over 80 years old, and several UAE companies such as Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, Taka (the energy company), Masdar and Dubai Ports invest heavily in the UK. The NMC hospital was the first UAE organisation to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, while the health cooperation between the two countries continues to grow with more British doctors and clinics establishing here. Education wise, several new British schools and colleges are setting up in the Abu Dhabi Emirate in the coming months and over 1,500 Emirati students travel to the UK every year for their higher education. “In the next couple of weeks, there will be an agreement signed to recognise British institutions that offer vocational qualifications in the UAE, such as nuclear safety, medical technicians or defence engineering,” said Jermey. Historically, the two nations have very strong connections and this very state visit is reflective of the Queen’s visit to the UAE in 1977 returned by Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s state visit to Great Britain in 1989. Just as his father did, Shaikh Khalifa will inspect the guard of honour, honour the Unknown Soldier at the Westminster Abbey and will have a luncheon with the Queen. — silvia@khaleejtimes.com Leaders greet Queen on b’day The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has sent a congratulatory cable to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on the occasion of her birthday. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, also sent similar cables to Queen Elizabeth. Continue reading
Daddy is a duck, mum’s a chicken
Daddy is a duck, mum’s a chicken Amanda Fisher / 22 April 2013 A team of Dubai scientists, led by Dr Chunhai Liu, may hold the ticket to reviving a species of extinct bird, after they successfully used a duck to father a chicken. It may seem from the realms of science fiction, but scientists at Dubai’s Central Veterinary Research Laboratory (CVRL) are turning fiction into fact through the use of primordial germ cells — a type of stem cell stacked with sexual material. The idea germinated in the wake of the first successful cloned sheep, Dolly, when CVRL Scientific Director Dr Ulli Wernery decided to try to help increase numbers of the endangered desert bird Houbara Bustard — the chief prey of falconers in the Gulf. “There are two reasons the population declined, and is still declining: because of hunting and habitat destruction. It’s always the same,” Wernery said. However, cloning birds is “almost impossible” because it is so hard to extract genetic material from the yolk of a foetus, so scientists devised the current technique to transplant sexual material from a Houbara into a chicken. “Houbaras only breed once a year, laying three to four eggs. Chickens lay 300 eggs a year, that is the advantage. We can clearly see it works…it’s a lot of work (but) you can save very rare breeds, not only Houbaras…with this technique.” The team have been working on this project for more than a decade, producing four chicken eggs fathered by a duck, and two Houbara eggs fathered by a chicken in the past three years, though the research has only just been publicised. Scientists first extract a drop of blood from the embryo of a three-day old Houbara egg — which invariably survives as the interference is negligible — before the material is inserted into the embryo of a chicken, which at sexual maturity produces both Houbara sperm and chicken sperm. The sexual material from the chicken with the Houbara cells is then used to fertilise a female Houbara, and the resulting chick is a pure Houbara bird. The next challenge for scientists, Wernery said, was to use a female chicken with Houbara cells as the vector of the Houbara sexual material, in order to lay Houbara eggs at the same rate chicken eggs were laid. Since findings had been published, CVRL had had numerous approaches from scientists around the world, including America where scientists had access to the frozen carcasses of the extinct Passenger Pigeon, which is believed to have died out in 1914. “They want to revive them with our method,” Wernery said. “I’m sure it will happen. Science is now advancing, who was talking about cloning 20 years ago? Nobody, now everyone’s cloning…they will be successful, I’m sure.” Wernery said there were no ethical issues with the method, as most of the embryos from which cells were extracted survived — while CVRL had in recent weeks mastered a way to produce their own Houbara cells without needing embryos. “There’s also the question: ‘Does it make sense (to produce more of a particular bird)?’. In my opinion it makes a little bit of sense, but we’re better to protect the species that are still alive but endangered…otherwise another one will be extinct, and you have to start this process again.” There would have to be strict controls on the release of cultivated populations of birds, as released birds may threaten existing populations of other birds, Wernery said. Wernery said he hoped the cultivated population of Houbaras would then be used as prey for the falconers, leaving the wild population stable. “One day, if there’s no Houbara, falconry is dead and this we don’t want, it’s a very nice sport…but we have to be careful.” Wernery said the science elite of the world were surprised to learn Dubai science was at the vanguard of various research — possible only through the millions of dirhams in support from His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. “People are always astonished when they hear from us that Dubai is doing this…many other people can benefit from this research.” amanda@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
