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Khaleej Times
In line
with its efforts to support decisions pertaining to the Gulf Common
Market (GCM) and ensuring their implementation in the UAE, the Ministry
of Finance (MoF) held its third meeting with the UAE team tasked with
applying GCM resolutions related to employment, education and health.
Headed by Ibrahim Hassan Rashid Al Jarwan, Head of GCC and Arab
Countries at MoF, the meeting was attended by representatives from the
Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific
Research, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, the General
Pension & Social Security Authority (GPSSA), the National Human
Resource Development & Employment Authority (Tanmia), and the
Federal Authority for Government Human Resources. The
participants reviewed the recommendations and decisions concluded
previously at their second meeting while highlighting the major
developments made by various sub teams regarding the GCM. They also
discussed efforts placed to achieve equal treatment for GCC citizens in
all sectors, particularly with regards to employment in the
governmental, public, education and health domains. Furthermore, light
was shed on the resolutions of the GCC supreme council for the GCM and
the related executive decisions implemented in the UAE. The
meeting also witnessed a number of proposals, initiatives and suggestions
for applying the GCC Supreme Council resolutions regarding the GCM.
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Arabian Business
The UAE
does not plan to issue federal bonds before 2012, a Finance Ministry
document showed on Monday. "The federal government will not issue
sovereign bonds before 2012 and only if deemed necessary," Obaid
Humaid al -Tayer, minister of state for financial affairs, said in the
latest ministry newsletter. "The UAE is currently working on
launching a bond market parallel to the stock markets which will
increase initial issuance on a federal level and local level." The
UAE, the world's third largest oil exporter has been planning a federal
bond issue for some time but a flurry of bonds from UAE companies have
hit the international markets recently. The UAE capital Abu Dhabi is
seen finding favour among investors as a safe haven due to unrest
elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa region. The emirate is
trying to curtail bond sales by state entities and centralise
fundraising through the debt management office in a bid to crack down on
undisciplined issuance.
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Gulf Today
The UAE
Central Bank will postpone a decision obligating banks to adopt the new
system of ‘secure cheques’ till the end of this year after the decision
was expected to be put into effect from July 1, according to a
well-informed source. The source pointed out that cheques of secure
features account for 70 per cent of the total number of old cheques and
that there is some confusion in the branches of banks as was the case in
early this year. Most banks launched many awareness campaigns for
customers to change their old cheques with other cheques that are
compatible with the secure features but customers did not respond to
these campaigns, the source said. The source explained that the UAE
Central Bank is waiting for the secure cheques to reach 90 per cent of the
total number of cheques subject of clearance before obligating banks to
apply the new system and stop receiving old cheques. The banks need
further six months to reach the desired percentage by launching more
awareness campaigns for their customers, particularly that the local
market depends on cheques in most of its transactions.
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Khaleej Times
DUBAI — The UAE
economy is robust and is based on a solid foundation and long-term
vision, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said on
Monday. “That is why, we, the leadership and the government, are
not worried about the future of our national economy. We rely on our
youth to further strengthen national economy,” he told a group of young
Emiratis at Qasr Al Bahar in the presence of Shaikh Hamdan bin
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. The young
nationals said they were proud of the country’s top leadership who
facilitate world-class education and training, jobs and dignified living
for them. Shaikh Mohammed’s upbeat outlook of the UAE economy is
underscored by optimistic projections made by eminent economists at
various global organisations and financial institutions. These include
the International Monetary Fund ( IMF), the World Bank, Institute of
International Finance (IIF), Economic Intelligence Unit, National Bank of
Abu Dhabi, Saudi American Bank Group and National Bank of Kuwait. All
macroeconomic indicators show signs of a sustained vibrant growth, and
economists believe that a combination of higher than expected oil price,
a strong performance from the trade and tourism sector, and expectations
of faster regional growth will help accelerate the country’s growth to
close to five per cent in 2011 and 2012.
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Dubai Denies Neighbors Fuel as City Struggles to Pay
Off Debt: Arab Credit
Bloomberg
Dubai, the
second-largest of seven sheikhdoms in the United Arab Emirates,
has stopped supplying gasoline to its neighbors as subsidies on fuel
prices squeeze the city’s ability to service and repay debt.
Emirates National Oil Co., a Dubai government-owned refiner and
operator of service stations, closed filling points in neighboring
Sharjah and restricted supplies to other northern emirates last week.
Dubai has $16 billion of publicly held debt maturing later this year, International
Monetary Fund data show. The emirate plans to cut “subsidies
and transfers” by 50 percent to 2.67 billion dirhams in 2011 from a year
ago, according to a government forecast. “Below-market retail
prices -- without a way to make up the losses -- is an unsustainable
situation,” said Rachel Ziemba, a Middle East analyst at Roubini Global
Economics LLC in London. “The
Dubai government continues to be cash-strapped, and this is one of the
reminders that just because its companies are restructuring, it doesn’t
mean that Dubai Inc. is out of the woods yet.” Dubai borrowed at
least $129 billion to turn itself into a tourism, trade and financial
services hub, according to Credit Suisse Group AG. It had to seek help from
neighboring Abu Dhabi after the global credit crunch pushed property
prices down by more than half from their peak in 2008 and forced some
state- owned companies to seek changes to payments.
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Emirates 24|7
Dubai has
been named as the best destination for inward investment in the Middle
East by the London-based The New Economy magazine. The Best Destination
for Inward Investment award, a category of the New Economy's Inward
Investment Awards 2011, identifies countries that represent the benchmark
of achievement and best practice in the financial and business world.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai,
in a ceremony on Monday at Qasr Al Bahar, was presented with the award by
Fahad Al Gergawi, CEO of Foreign Investment Office, a body affiliated
with Dubai's Department of Economic Development, on behalf of editor Jan
Spiegel who heads the Awards panel. The New Economy is published
quarterly and provided to Finance Directors, Chief Financial Officers and
their legal and strategic advisers, corporate treasurers and leading
bankers, institutional investors and compliance officers, regulators,
Ministers of Finance, Energy/Environment Ministries and their senior
council.
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The National
ABU DHABI //
Every adult Emirati could have a vote to elect members of the FNC within
eight years. Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for FNC Affairs, said
yesterday the Government hoped to extend the franchise at each successive
election, starting with the next one in three months' time. "The
next step might be to have 150,000 voters, and then after that
everyone," he said. With a four-year fixed term, that would mean the
first election with universal suffrage would take place in 2019. "This
is important, but right now what is [important] is that it was going to
be fewer than 70,000 and now more than 80,000 will vote." He said
the next steps would be prepared immediately after the election on
September 24. Society now is far more fluid than in the past, Dr Gargash
told an audience of more than 200 at the Police Officers Club in Abu
Dhabi. "Now there is a geographic movement and society movement in
the Emirates," he said. "If a father was a fisherman, the son
was also a fisherman. But now the son can be more advanced through
education. Now a police officer can have a son who is a university
professor."
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