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Quotas for funding women-led startups could address male bias

Experts have deemed the regional venture capital industry as “fundamentally biased against women” as new data shows female startups and entrepreneurs secured just 0.1 percent of the $105 million of the available Middle East funding pot last month. In a bid to equalise gender opportunities, the UAE recently mandated that all listed companies must have […]

How Oman got its budget back into the black

Oman’s economic outlook looks rosier now than policymakers might have dared to expect just a few months ago – having registered a rare budget surplus in the first half of 2022. Data from the Ministry of Finance revealed a OMR784 million ($2 billion) fiscal surplus, compared to an OMR457m deficit in the same period in […]

Jumeirah Bay Island is among the Dubai property hotspots favoured by richest investors

‘Cash is king’ as wealthy real estate investors target Dubai

Cash is becoming king again for Dubai’s residential real estate as wealthy overseas investors continue to splash out on luxury homes. By value, mortgaged buyers for villas and apartments now account for just 18 percent of the market. Last year the figure was close to 40 percent while in 2007 just over 50 percent of […]

Beeah: the hero of zero waste is ready for its next mission

The emirate of Sharjah is poised to become the Middle East’s first zero-waste city, after building the region’s first waste-to-energy plant.  Yet even before the plant’s inauguration in May, Sharjah had the highest waste diversion rate in the region, at 76 percent, thanks to the pioneering efforts of local environmental and waste management group Beeah.  […]

Gulf serves up locally farmed salmon – and better food security

From the old man who dredged up a djinn to the boy who netted an emerald, fishermen populate the folk stories of the Arab world. But the dhow fleets of the Gulf no longer provide a lifeline for local economies. By contrast, aquaculture – the farming of fish, shellfish and aquatic plants – has begun […]

Make it rain: UAE pins its hopes on cloud seeding

Condensation streaming down windows is a familiar sight in Dubai’s summer, an illusion of rain at the hottest time of year.  The UAE’s average rainfall is extremely low in August, but in recent years there has been a rise, which some experts attribute to cloud seeding – when a dedicated fleet of planes take to […]

To get ahead, plastics producers need to be running in circles

The volume of plastics produced globally every year has soared over the past half century, from 15 million tonnes in 1964 to more than 300 million tonnes today. This figure is forecast to double again over the next two decades and nearly quadruple by 2050. But synthetic polymers have one major drawback: they generally take […]

Sharjah wins waste-to-energy race as rest of region cleans up its act

Dubai had the Gulf’s first “seven-star” hotel and Abu Dhabi hosted the inaugural “day-night” Formula One Grand Prix. The emirate of Sharjah can claim a UAE first too – one that is less glitzy but potentially more transformative – the first waste-to-energy power plant. The Sharjah waste-to-energy facility, officially inaugurated in May, adds another dimension […]

Motor insurance stalls despite UAE premium growth

UAE listed insurance companies reported that the value of premiums rose 7.64 percent year-on-year to AED15.676 billion ($4.27 billion) in the first half of 2022, but industry experts said the motor segment continues to struggle. A total of 13 insurers listed on the Dubai Financial Market accounted for 56.1 percent of the total premiums of […]

Indian workers return to Gulf in their droves

The demand for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled Indian workers has increased “drastically” as a rebound in Gulf economic growth signals the end of the coronavirus-induced reverse migration of workers from the region. An increase of nearly 50 percent in fresh migration to the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members – including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, […]

Careem food delivery Dubai

Startup exits escalate in UAE

The UAE is seeing an increase in startup exits this year, as the market matures while bigger players look to acquisitions to scale up their operations. The UAE Venture Investment Report, by research firm Magnitt, states that there were 10 startup exits in the Emirates in the first half of 2022, just one less than […]

oil $100 oil price

Oil firms ride high but sector braces for more ‘realistic’ prices

The Middle East’s oil and gas sector will remain buoyant into 2023, even as global oil prices become more “realistic” after surpassing a 15-year high of $123 per barrel in March, according to analysts.  Oil prices hovered just below $90 per barrel on Tuesday, having gradually come down from $100/barrel at the end of July […]

How Oman has moved from protests to surplus in a year

Last June Oman was facing protests over job layoffs and poor economic conditions as the sultanate suffered from the double shock of the coronavirus pandemic and a slump in oil prices. Just 14 months later Fitch Ratings has upgraded Oman’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating to ‘BB’ from ‘BB-‘, with a stable outlook. Fitch said […]

Sharjah enters the fray as UAE holiday home market heats up

The UAE’s fledgling holiday homes market will remain attractive to investors and could fuel consolidation among hotel operators, experts say, as Sharjah becomes the latest emirate to announce regulations to diversify its tourism sector. Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) has launched an official framework – the Holiday Homes Project – which aims to […]

Rising inflation leaves UAE businesses underinsured

Rising inflation is leaving UAE companies at risk of being underinsured in the event of a potential claim, with industry experts urging companies to make sure they keep the valuation of assets up to date. In the event of a claim, such as those being prepared by UAE businesses damaged by the severe flooding last […]

BlackRock may spur wealthy to make crypto leap

Institutional investors and high net worth individuals have traditionally shunned cryptocurrencies as volatile and untrustworthy. The ongoing turbulence in the market, with the value of bitcoin dropping by nearly half so far this year, has not helped sentiment but there are signs this is changing. BlackRock, which has $8.49 trillion of assets under management, yesterday […]

The sky’s the limit for cloud kitchens in the Gulf

While many businesses suffered due to the coronavirus pandemic, cloud kitchens – companies that prepare food solely for home delivery without having sit-down restaurant space – were beneficiaries of the online ordering boom. The GCC has been a hotspot for this growth with companies including Sweetheart Kitchen, Kitopi, KLC Virtual Restaurants and kaykroo overseeing delivery […]

Raising prices is not the only way to protect margins from inflation

Amid the onslaught of rising UAE business costs, a newly published industry report has outlined where exactly the pain is being felt most. While some firms are opting to raise prices, experts outlined some of the other short-term strategies companies are adopting in order to help keep their margins healthy. The latest S&P Global Dubai […]

Traditional UAE banks must snap up neobanks to survive

The UAE’s growing army of digital-only banks could soon be snapped up by traditional banks as digitisation continues apace, experts have told AGBI. A global survey published on Tuesday by UK-based comparison platform, Finder, said 19 percent of adults in the UAE have a neobank account, up from 17 percent last year – and that […]

Qatar ramps up recruitment drive ahead of World Cup

With just over 100 days until the start of the tournament, the World Cup Qatar 2022 is looking to hire thousands of temporary workers to help stage the Middle East’s largest ever sports event. Regional competition for talent remains high, but Qatar has so far resisted offering inflated salaries to lure cross-border workers. French hotel […]

SoftBank slump not a ‘total disaster’ for Gulf wealth funds

The $23.1 billion quarterly loss announced by Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund this week may not represent a “total disaster” for its Gulf investors, according to US-based experts. Announced during President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 2017, the Vision Fund is heavily backed by GCC sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund […]

Crown prince keen to catch up after slow start on green energy

At a time of heightened global pressure to cut carbon emissions, many Gulf countries are racing to develop their renewable energy credentials. Bahrain, however, has been one of the slower-moving actors, and still relies on conventional fuels for almost all of its electricity.  The country had a mere 12mw of renewable capacity in 2021, just […]