RAK Business, Oct., Nov., 2002

‫مجلــة أعمــال رأس اخليمــة‬

PUBLISHED BY RAK DED

ISSUE (12) OCT.,-NOV., 2020

KRISHAN CHUTANI

CORONA PANDEMIC HAS INCREASED THE DEMAND FOR HEALTH AND IMMUNITY BOOSTING PRODUCTS

RAKEZ

WELCOMES FOREIGN OWNERSHIP BY

100% HANAN ALFARDAN

BOOKS TO UNDERSTAND DATA

LEARNING A HOST COUNTRY DIALECT ENHANCES YOUR CHANCES OF SUCCESS IN LIFE AND WORK

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS THE KEY TO REGION’S TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY RECOVERY

3

7 QUALITIES TO BE GREAT TOUR GUIDE

SECURITY TIPS FOR THOSE WORKING FROM HOME

RAKI PHILLIP A Certain Commercial Activities to Be Exempt from Renewal Fees

RAS AL KHAIMAH IS THE FIRST CITY TO OBTAIN A “SAFE TRAVEL” STAMP IN THE WORLD

EDITORIAL

Economic Trends because of Corona Pandemic

SUPERVISION

SH. Mohamed bin Kayed Al Qasimi EDITOR IN CHIEF Dr. Abdulrahman Alshayeb AlNaqbi Managing Editor Aisha Obaid Alayyan Editors Maryam Haji Mohammed Nebras Shafik Abo Zidan

EDITING & DESIGN

Khawla Ibrahim Zina Abboud Zainab Shieha Dareen Abualkheer Maher Safyeldin

Contacts and Advertising

050 899 5669

+971 7 222 9995 info@ngmedia.ae

As a result of the continuation of Corona pandemic, its threat to human societies & economies, and the fact that the number of infected people in the world has reached more than 30 million, with positive condition and health status ranging from mild to critical, the trends of that pandemic appear to be unknown precisely in terms of strength & weakness. All specialists who talked about that pandemic as if they said the unseen, from expectations of a breakdown of its severity to waiting for a second wave in light of acceleration of research & companies in providing treatments & immunizations. Although many of them didn’t complete the accreditation procedures required in drug approval protocols, the desire to reserve major market share is the main concern of pharmaceutical companies.

On the economic level, The United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs (DESA) indicated according to its predictions that Corona threats will shrink the global economy in 2020 by 3.2%, which will cause total losses of about $ 8.5 trillion, that will wipe out nearly four years of achieved gainings. From mid-2020, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in developed countries will fall to 5.0%, and in developing countries will shrink by 0.7%. The United Nations Department of Economic & Social Affairs believes that the post-Covid-19 world will be significantly different from the world we have known. The report indicated that despite expectations in 2021 of a slight recovery of 3.4%, most of it will be from restoring missing output. Besides, this report indicated that possibility of a slow recovery appears on the horizon if economic recession became prolonged with increasing poverty and inequality. Also, it indicated that trade & tourism sectors have been damaged completely, while large deficit & high levels of public debt pose great challenges in developing countries and small island states. Unemployment figures in the United States of America & other key indicators indicate that the impact of current crisis and imposition of quarantine measures in the United States led to the fact that nearly 22 million people lost their jobs. In China, the economy decreased by 6.8% in the first quarter of this year, it was the first time to that country not to achieve positive growth in more than four decades.

Moreover, international reports indicated that about 150 countries closed all schools, imposed cancellation of gatherings and events, and more than 80 countries closed all workplaces to control the spread of that virus. Also, travel restrictions were imposed on a large scale. These mandatory closures along with social distancing from consumers and producers had a great effect on activity & trade in the world. In addition, there were severe changes in financial markets and serious falls in prices of oil & industrial minerals. Thus, as a result of devastating effects of that pandemic, governments around the world are facing challenges in having a balance between decreasing numbers of infections and providing livelihoods & opening economic activities. Therefore, some governments began to cancel restrictions cautiously to vitalize economy. But recovery will depend to a large extent on success of public health & financial measures and their combination to stop the spread of that virus, reducing the risk of reinfection, protecting employment, and restoring consumer’s confidence so that people can start spending again.

Opinions expressed in articles are the writer’s own and do not reflect the view of RAK DED Or RAKBusiness Magazine. Although every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information published, the publisher also disclaims any legal responsibility towards other parties.

Dr. Abdulrahman Alshayeb Al Naqbi RAK DED Director General

RAS AL KHAIMAH DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT VISION: PRas Al Khaimah to be the preferred destination for doing business in the region.

MISSION: Planning and organizing economic activities, augmenting investment promotion efforts and the business environment competitiveness to achieve sustainable economic development in the Emirate by relaying on qualified staff and intelligent integrated systems that are hinged on knowledge and innovation to achieve society happiness.

w www.ded.rak.ae

STRATEGIC GOALS: ֺ Positive Citizenship: Taking responsibility and meeting all customers’ needs and beyond- If possible. (Serve with a Smile) ֺ Institutional Happiness: Continuously strive to win the happiness of our employees, customers, partners, and the community (Make Everyone Happy) ֺ Creativity and Innovation: We want our employees to take initiative with every new, creative and innovative idea. (Be Proactive and Innovative) ֺ Integrity and Transparency: Develop an institutional governance framework and adopt it as an integrated ideology ֺ Sharing Knowledge: One team with unified knowledge we all share (share your knowledge)

E info.ded@economic.rak.ae

Rakded_ae

​ RGANIZATIONAL VALUES: O ֺ Promoting diversified and sustainable economic growth by attracting and encouraging investments. ֺ Developing a business environment according to the global competitiveness standards. ֺ Developing functions of business control and protection and consumer protection. ֺ Developing services, enhancing the customer’s experience, and providing an added value ֺ Expand and enhance the institutional efficiency of institutional support services ֺ Boosting the culture of creativity, innovation, knowledge dissemination and institutional excellence

WHERE

BUSINESS

STARTS AND DEVELOP

Ras Al Khaimah Transport Authority (RAKTA) has provided the first e-hailing service for taxis and limos in the emirate through Careem Application, which gives customers a range of features such as:

Knowing your driver’s profile, location, and contact details

Choosing to pay by cash, credit card as well as in-app wallet (Careem credit)

Collecting reward points on every eligible Hala ride, which can be spent on rewards like discounts, vouchers, or donations to those in need

A GPS routed trip for trustworthy navigation

The ability to rate your trip and driver

CONTENTS

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16 RAKEZ

RAKI PHILLIP Ras Al Khaimah... is the first city to obtain a “safe travel” stamp in the world

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Welcomes 100% foreign ownership in mainland with FDI company set-up

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Ras Al Khaimah has accomplished a remarkable achievement as the first safe global destination for travel.

Companies setting-up under this FDI structure will be considered national companies, and will have full confidentiality of technical, economic and investment information.

34

HANAN ALFARDAN Learning a host country dialect enhances your chances of success in life and work

Ayurvedic organizations provided their recommendations during the Pandemic period, and the Dabur Chyawanprash product was at the top of the list of recommendations.

Alramsa institute is the first project to teach the Emirati dialect as it is part of the spoken life in the Emirates and establishes the values of tolerance and rapprochement with otherse.

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3 SIMPLE SECURITY TIPS FOR THOSE WORKING FROM HOME

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26 To

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KRISHAN KUMAR CHUTANI Corona pandemic has increased the demand for health and immunity boosting products

46

3 steps SMEs can take to ensure that their business-critical information are kept secure even while implementing the WFH setup.

RAS AL KHAIMAH TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY INVESTMENT PLANS FOR JEBEL JAIS

The emirate’s new phased investment strategy will focus primarily on developing Jebel Jais as a standalone destination.

46

ECONOMIC PANORAMA

Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah Orders Certain Commercial Activities to Be Exempt from Renewal Fees ‫ـــــــــ‬ His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, UAE Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, has ordered that certain commercial activities that were especially hit by the lockdown and other precautionary measures enacted to curb the spread of COVID-19 will benefit from reduced trade license renewal fees and full exemption from fines incurred during the lockdown.

H.H. Sheikh Saud directed Ras Al Khaimah Department of Economic Development (RAKDED) to offer 6 | RAKBUSINESS

nurseries a 50% exemption from their annual trade license renewal fees. In addition, establishments that closed to allow their facilities to be used for quarantine purposes will benefit from a 25% exemption, while facilities located at Ras Al Khaimah International Airport that had no alternative locations to divert operations to will benefit from a 50% exemption on license renewal fees. These exemptions will be in place for a year, in addition to full exemptions being granted from penalties for violations incurred during lockdown.

ECONOMIC PANORAMA NEWS

AROUND 1.8 MILLION FAKE PRODUCTS SEIZED IN RAS AL KHAIMAH THIS YEAR0 A staggering 1,779,477 duplicate products with fake trademarks of three internationally famous brands were confiscated this year by the department of economic development in Ras Al Khaimah.

The seized counterfeit items included household items, personal care stuff, detergents, disinfectants, hand sanitisers, bags, handbags, watches, glasses, pencils and wallets, a senior official revealed.

“Up to 1,777,072 duplicate detergents were confiscated from warehouses in collaboration with the Ras Al Khaimah Police in March this year,” said Yusuf Al Balooshi, director of the commercial protection section at the department.

“Around 2,058 hand sanitisers were seized in another raid against a big shopping centre,” he disclosed, while adding

that 347 personal care products were confiscated from other shopping outlets.

“These outlets exploited the consumers by selling them fake sanitisers and disinfectants amid the Coivid-19 crisis.”

Al Balooshi said more surprise inspections and raids are to be carried out to ensure public safety and compliance with prescribed rules and standards.

“Some customers do not check the authenticity and originality of the products they buy, and are, therefore, easily fooled by such unscrupulous dealers.”

The department has organised several workshops to help customers differentiate between original and fake products, he pointed out.

“Awareness messages are posted on the department’s social media channels to

Yusuf Al Balooshi

make people wary about fake products.”

Figures show that the commercial protection section had received 30 complaints about duplicate brands.

Rak Public Services Converts 90% Of Its Services To Electronic

RAKTA Launches The 2nd Phase Of E-Hailing Service Through Careem App Ras Al Khaimah Transport Authority announced the second phase taxi and limos e-hailing service across all major areas in the Emirate.

The launch follows a successful pilot phase of 5o taxis, where the average arrival time for a taxi to the customer has reached under 5 minutes - a number expected to reduce as the taxi fleet now increases to 500 taxis equipped with Careem technology, allowing them to be booked easily and from anywhere, at the touch of a button.

This service will provide customers with a smarter way to travel, giving them access to several benefits, including knowing their rides ETA, fare estimate and route upfront, along with their driver’s details.

App booking also enables a host of payment options, with cash, card, or in app payments possible, while riders will automatically collect Reward points for each trip which can be redeemed as ride credits or against partner offers.

H.We are excited to be able to announce the second phase of the service, and have the opportunity to serve the people of the unique City, enabling residents to enjoy the affordability of taxi at the touch of a button, from anywhere in the Emirate.’

These services come as part of the Department’s constant and continuous efforts to launch distinctive services that facilitate all segments and segments of society, where the Department has carried out 13,069 electronic transactions since the beginning of the year until the end of July. H.E. Eng. Ahmed Al Hammadi, Director General of the Department, confirmed the department’s keenness to move forward in the path of electronic transformation by converting all its services to be available to the customer wherever and at any time and in line with the department’s adoption of the government accelerator methodology.

adoption of the government accelerator methodology. The Department offers 47 electronic services via the smart app mRAK.

RAKBUSINESS | 7

UAE LEADS ARAB REGION IN COVID ECONOMIC RECOVERY INDEX RANKING The UAE has been ranked first in the Arab World in the post-COVID economic recovery index published by the Horizon Research Group. The index assesses the capabilities and competitive advantages possessed by various countries that helped them effectively deal with the crisis and drive recovery.

The index aims to contribute to the development of effective policies to navigate the associated challenges and to further support the efforts that have been undertaken to achieve a complete recovery in all sectors.

According to the findings of the report, which covers 122 countries, the UAE is at the forefront of Arab countries, supported by many factors and areas of strength including a strong institutional framework and advanced digital capabilities across various sectors, in addition to the high educational level of the population. The strong performance of the country’s various institutions in dealing with the pandemic since its onset until now is evident in the UAE’s success in navigating the crisis.

As a result, the country ranked 15 in terms of labour market strength, fifth globally in the area of public health, 17th in terms of debt level, 19th in terms of governance and social capital and 21st in terms of digital economy strength.

Thanks to its long-term economic agility, robust, adaptive institutional system, and high literacy rate, the UAE occupies prominent places among advanced countries assessed by the Group in terms of health resilience, highly educated workforce, low debt levels, governance & social capital, and digital economy, where it comes 5th, 15th, 17th, 19th and 21st respectively.

8 | RAKBUSINESS

COVID-19 PANDEMIC WILL LEAD TO INCREASED DEMAND FOR BUSINESS AVIATION The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise for the need of physical distancing will lead to an increase in private flying and growth in business aviation – that is according to Ali Ahmed Alnaqbi, founding and executive chairman of The Middle East & North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA).

Discussing the future of business aviation both globally and specifically in the Middle East, Alnaqbi highlighted that there are significant opportunities for development of the sector and advised companies to invest carefully in aircraft type in the future. With smaller, private terminals with fewer staff on board the aircraft that have a limited number of crew serving passengers – business aviation can deal with the impact of COVID-19 more effectively.

“Business aviation has always had some degree of natural physical distancing in place and as such it is less difficult for companies within this industry to adapt to the new normal,” said Alnaqbi. “We expect to see an increase in demand in private flying and we will see opportunities open up. We are witnessing new groups of people who usually used to fly on commercial airlines now choosing to fly privately.”

Alnaqbi did however highlight that 2020 has been a tough year for business aviation in general. Many companies have gone through difficulties this year, to the point where some of them have been close to shutting down. He added that no one is able to properly predict what is going to happen until the end of this year as it depends on the decisions of governments in different countries and the changes in processes and procedures.

The MEBAA Chairman expects there to be a slow recovery this year and is hoping that we see the end of the pandemic by the end of 2020. He is optimistic about the prospects of business aviation for 2021 and highlighted that ensuring health and safety is the number one priority for the industry.

ECONOMIC PANORAMA NEWS

Emirates Angels Investors Association launches to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship in UAE Bringing together some of the most prolific young investors in UAE, the Emirates Angel Investors Association has officially launched, with the lofty intent of ‘accelerating entrepreneurship’. To be more precise, a press release by the new nonprofit states that it aims to ‘facilitate investors’ investment and entrepreneurs’ activities in the country’.

Supported by the Ministry of Economy and registered with the Ministry of Community Development, the Emirates Angel Investors Association board is made-up of Masaood Rahma Al Masaood (Chairman), Masaood Rahma Al Masaood Sameh Al Qubaisi (Vice Chairman, and Ali Sajwani, Mohammed Al Nowais, Yousif Al Mulla, Mohammed Al Owais, and Tarek Al Nuaimi as board members. The team hopes to pool their experiences and best practises, while developing a network that will attract investments.

“The Association envisions to transform innovative and creative ideas into feasible investments in vital sectors and empower innovators and thought leaders by providing them with an interactive platform, training and investment opportunities that contribute to boosting entrepreneurship and startups,” Al Masaood said. “We are keen to build a wide network of investment advisors that are committed to working together in enhancing the UAE business environment to become one that encourages creativity and invests in science and technology, as well as research and development. We are confident that, in partnership with the government and private sectors, we will extend the needed support to startups, SMEs, and entrepreneurs.”

STEVIE MIDDLE EAST AWARD CEREMONY HONORING 153 INNOVATORS AND WINNERS FROM 17 COUNTRIES Sponsored by Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Stevie Awards Middle East honored the winners of the 1st edition of the award in the Middle East and North Africa in a virtual ceremony, because of the COVID-19, the ceremony has been broadcasted today in the afternoon through the social media channels, and honored 153 winners and innovators from 17 countries.

H.E. Mohamed Ali Mosbeh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry said “what we are experiencing is not crisis only, it H.E. Mohamed Ali Mosbeh Al Nuaimi is a global ordeal and a very rare pandemic, from which we learn new lessons and experiences, and a consequence of it, and we are having this virtual award ceremony. Al Nuaimi congratulated the winners of the award different categories, he welcomed sponsoring the award in Ras Al Khaimah with the support of His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Member of the Federal Supreme Council; Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Saud Al Qasimi, the Crown Prince, he stressed that Ras Al Khaimah shall host the program and award ceremony for the next two years.

Ingelheim, based in Istanbul, the leading pharmaceutical company, which has been honored with award of the best establishment for this year, winning six gold, and two silver and one bronze awards, as well as other government organizations from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Pakistan and India, were among the top winner of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards in the different categories.

ADCB, VISA TRANSFORM MERCHANT SMARTPHONES INTO PAYMENT TERMINALS bu Dhabi Commercial Bank, ADCB, is launching UAE’s first virtual Point of Sale, POS, payment terminal, in partnership with Visa, the world’s leader in digital payments. ADCB PACE PAY facilitates card payments through the merchant’s smartphone, empowering traditionally cashdriven SMEs to continue doing business despite social distancing.

Developed by payment service provider Paysky Inc, ADCB PACE PAY is the only virtual POS available on both Android and IOS platforms. The app is compatible with all smartphones and tablets, eliminating the need to invest in a physical device. In addition to scanning a credit or debit card in-store, ADCB PACE PAY allows remote payments for home deliveries by generating payment links that can be shared via social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS and email.

The solution is pre-integrated into a payment gateway, making it easier for smaller merchants to transition to eCommerce without the long and expensive integration process. They simply need to login to start using ADCB PACE PAY. Having multiple users on the same account enables greater home delivery coverage. An interactive dashboard of all transactions encourages business owners to develop data-driven strategies to enhance their business.

RAKBUSINESS | 9

Raki Phillips, CEO of the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority 10 | RAKBUSINESS

ECONOMIC PANORAMA SPOTLIGHT

RAKI PHILLIP

RAS AL KHAIMAH IS THE FIRST CITY TO OBTAIN A “SAFE TRAVEL” STAMP IN THE WORLD Corona pandemic affected all aspects of social and economic life, and the tourism sector was one of the sectors most affected due to its dependence on human activity and communication. Tourist destinations closed their doors, planes turned off their engines, airports were disrupted, hotels closed, and tourism and leisure activities of all kinds ceased, but there are many destinations Measures have been taken to address this pandemic and prepare for what comes after, Ras Al Khaimah one of this destination which has emerged as the first city to obtain the Safe Travel Seal as a result of a set of remarkable initiatives taken by the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority in cooperation with its partners to ensure the resumption of tourism activities.

By: Khawla Ibrahim

RAKBUSINESS magazine met with Mr. Raki Phillips, CEO of the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, to highlighted on the effects of the Corona pandemic on the tourism sector in the emirate, and the recovery plan it adopted to confront this crisis, and the following dialogue was: The Covid-19 crisis disabled the whole world, now nearly six months after the global shutdown, where does RAK stand? and how did the crisis affect the Emirate’s tourism sector’s impressive recovery?

We must acknowledge that the travel and tourism sector is experiencing unpresented times, both visitation and hotel occupancy numbers were affected during the lockdown period. However, as restrictions eased Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) took quick action to ensure the resumption of hotel operations while ensuring that the safety and wellbeing of visitors, residents and hospitality sector employees remained the utmost priority.

As soon as the crisis hit, we launched a range of far reaching support initiatives, aimed at our hospitality, leisure and development partners to lay the strong foundations for future recovery. We also shared a comprehensive contingency plan with our industry partners, which mapped out short- to mid-term solutions to mitigate the negative impact of coronavirus on travel to Ras Al Khaimah. Our four-step road to recovery places initial focus on the domestic market, followed by the GCC and wider Middle East, to then be extended to Asia and Europe.

Through our strategic partnership with Bureau Veritas, we have led the way in implementing stringent health,

safety and hygiene measures across all Ras Al Khaimah hotels to mitigate any possible risks for employees and guests and providing complete confidence in the destination.

As a result of these strict precautionary measures, Ras Al Khaimah became the first city in the world to receive both the Bureau Veritas Safeguard Assurance Label and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Safe Travels Stamp which recognize the heightened safety standards, training and hygiene protocols in place across the Emirate. This naturally boosted visitors’ confidence and the demand of short getaways within the local market.

RAKBUSINESS | 11

Moreover, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority’s ongoing collaboration with International tourism organizations such as the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), enables it to shape the future of the travel industry in the Emirate and ensure its long-term competitiveness, inclusivity and sustainability What can we control when everything gets out of control?

Every crisis has a timeline and what we can control is our response. Recovery planning therefore becomes critically important, ensuring our strategies are relevant to ‘the new normal’. Anticipation and adaptation are the new rules of the game whether for the short or long term.

Ras Al Khaimah became the first city in the world to be certified as safe by Bureau Veritas and the first emirate to receive the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) safe travels stamp, unlike many other global destinations. how did you achieve this?

This remarkable achievement was accomplished through our quick action in securing our strategic partnership with Bureau Veritas, which happens to be one of the first of its kind between a Tourism Board in the Middle East and a global leader in testing, inspection & certification. together we launched the ‘Safeguard Assurance Program’ as part of the RAK ‘Stay Safe’ Hotel campaign – an initiative to ensure that all operations within the hospitality sector resume safely and efficiently. Bureau Veritas supported us in implementing stringent health, safety and hygiene measures across all Ras Al Khaimah hotels to mitigate any possible risks for employees and guests and provide complete peace 12 | RAKBUSINESS

Ras Al Khaimah has accomplished a remarkable achievement as the first safe global destination for travel to be certified by both the Bureau Veritas Safeguard Assurance Label and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) of mind. The auditing process involved sharing a checklist of measures to be implemented across Ras Al Khaimah’s 45 hotels, an onsite inspection and unannounced visits.

Individual properties were assessed on factors including commitment to the program; respect for social distancing guidelines; compliance with hygienic practices and measures; as well as surveillance and management of any issues. upon the completion of the ‘Safeguard Assurance’ programme, it was announced that Ras Al Khaimah became first city in the world to receive both the Bureau Veritas Safeguard Assurance Label and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Safe Travels Stamp which recognize the heightened safety standards, training and hygiene protocols in place across the Emirate.

How did RAKTDA cooperate with its strategic partners in the government and private sectors to face this crisis?

It is inspiring to see how we are very much ‘in this together’, and the cohesiveness of the industry brought about by the situation. From working closely with the Ministry of Economy who launched a series of government initiatives, as

ECONOMIC PANORAMA SPOTLIGHT

well as with developers in Ras Al Khaimah, who have taken it upon themselves to support the community where possible, we were able to efficiently lay the groundwork for a strong recovery process. Through coming together and following the federal directives, we continue to prioritize the safety of our community through these uncertain times.

What are the main difficulties that the sector faced, and what were support initiatives you introduced?

The biggest challenge the sector faced was navigating operations amidst the dynamic situation. Looking to trusted sources of information for regular updates allowed us to keep abreast of the latest developments and ensure that our team is well equipped to support partners and stakeholders with information accordingly. With regards to operations, we kept eye on the World Health Organization’s (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC), and UAE federal authorities’ platforms for the latest developments, to tailor actions accordingly.

Our tourism support initiatives helped support our industry partners and complemented UAE government initiatives, these included offering a six-month waiver of all touristic licenses; waiver of tourism dirhams, a complete exemption of tourism licensing fees and tourism licensing fines until September 30th. This support was further enhanced by a dedicated Financial Incentive Package aimed towards non-government owned touristic entities, including budget, midscale and 4-star hotels as well as attractions, golf courses and other tourism establishments.

You have launched your recovery plan and started implementing it, what was the base of this plan? what are the initial results you’ve seen since lifting restrictions specially during the holiday season?

Our recovery plan for the Emirate’s tourism sector places initial focus on the local market, followed by regional then international markets once bilateral agreements resume and flight corridors open. We have already started implementing phase one of our recovery plan targeting the local market, with the launch of our ‘Shortcations’ campaign in collaboration with our hospitality partners, offering guests staying at any of the participating hotels for three nights or more two complimentary passes to attractions including those on the Jais Adventure Peak and the Suwaidi Pearl Farm. As part of the campaign, children (age 12 and under) were able to enjoy complimentary dining and hospitality, encouraging UAE based families to experience Ras Al Khaimah’s diverse offering.

Ras Al Khaimah’s key performance highlights during the initial phase of recovery include: • Despite the regional effects of the pandemic, Ras Al Khaimah leads year-to-date in RevPAR in the UAE and GCC region.

• The ‘Shortcation’ Campaign, which ran from 7 June – 31 August, targeting domestic travel, drove bookings of almost 15,000 nights.

• The Jais Adventure Peak which has welcomed over 52,000 thrill seekers to date, reopened with strict sanitary measures

To encourage families to visit Ras Al Khaimah, RAKTDA in cooperation with its partners provided offers to visitors in the event that they book three nights in one of the Emirate’s hotel, to win two free tickets for tourist destinations such as Jebel Jais, and Al Suwaidi pearl farm and continues to receive visitors.

• The Authority reported an average ADR increase of 12.9% increase over Eid Al Adha break, the highest average room rate, compared to the last three years under normal (non-pandemic) travel circumstances.

• During Eid Al Adha holiday, Ras Al Khaimah hotels and resorts welcomed over 18,000 guests who chose the Emirate as their preferred staycation destination.

What approach did you adopt when the Emirate welcomed visitors back again and following the reopening of hotels? what are the occupancy rates and number of visitors in RAK hotels during the past few months?

We worked very closely with our hospitality partners and Government Authorities to safely welcome guests back to the Emirate as restrictions gradually eased, and hotel pools and beaches become accessible to visitors. To ensure the wellbeing and safety of visitors and employees, we were (and still are) in ongoing dialogue with hotel partners to ensure RAKBUSINESS | 13

they are strictly adhering to government and public health guidelines and complying with all social distancing advisories from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the UAE Federal Authorities.

In Ras Al Khaimah, current hospitality standards and procedures include testing of all hotel staff for COVID-19, provision of masks and gloves for all guests, allocation of separate entrances and exits for guests and staff and mandatory thermal screening at all entrances on arrival. RAKTDA inspectors are also undertaking daily spot checks to ensure the measures are being adhered to.

To ensure guests have confidence in their stay, we worked closely with the Public Service Department (PSD) to oversee a dedicated certification process – the RAK ‘Stay Safe’ Hotel Certification – whereby hotels are required to fulfil a detailed set of measures to attain the certification. The certification assesses all the measures in place across all areas of the hotels including reception and concierge areas, guest rooms, restrooms, restaurants and lounges, pools, beaches, spas fitness areas, kid clubs and retail spaces.

Experts expect a sow return for the MICE sector, what are your views on this, and have you thought of alternatives?

We are currently working on setting the necessary plans to reactivate the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector, in addition to the sporting events hosted by the Emirate once events resume across the UAE. We are also working on the required preventive and precau14 | RAKBUSINESS

tionary measures that must be applied during these events in accordance with international health and safety standards, to ensure a safe experience for all participants, as part of the continuous efforts to enhance Ras Al Khaimah's position as a preferred destination for events and business travelers.

Since April 2020, the Authority has organized a series of online training courses (Webinars) for more than 4,000 partners in the tourism and travel sector, to introduce them to the Emirate and its diverse tourism offering in preparation for the next phase. Moreover, Al Hamra International Exhibition and Conference Center, the 50,000 square foot meeting facility, became the first conference center in the Middle East to be certified by Bureau Veritas.

Many hotels were scheduled to open in Ras Al Khaimah, did the crisis affect these opening plans? how will you continue to attract investments under these circumstances?

These plans are still in place, and the dialogue is still ongoing with the concerned parties. However, it is difficult to determine now how long the pandemic will affect the sector, especially with regards to the opening of new hotels in the Emirate. We have great confidence in the tourism sector’s resilience, have no doubt that we will be able to take advantage of this period to focus on recovery plans and come back stronger than before.

How will the ‘new normal’ affect your marketing strategies for the Emirate and driving demand once restrictions are lifted?

While Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority

ECONOMIC PANORAMA SPOTLIGHT

The tourism sector will gradually recover as travel restrictions continue to be eased and visitors feel confident enough to resume their tourism plans.

For the time being, our focus is on supporting local tourism and investing in new projects had been making strides towards achieving its destination strategy goals and increasing the number of visitors to the Emirate, it is still too early to map the exact effect of the pandemic on our wider three-year strategy. We are in constant dialogue with our international offices and partners and assessing the best approach to reactivate our promotional efforts to drive demand once international travel restrictions are lifted.

Travellers needs and preferences have changed, health and safety have become a major necessity, how are you planning to create a balance between tourism and precautionary measures and social distancing? and how will this affect product development while rebuilding visitors trust?

The safety of visitors, residents and hospitality sector employees remains the Authority’s utmost priority. Reevaluated hygiene standards serve to reinforce wider trust in hospitality and travel offerings, proving vital for successful operations moving forward.

Ras Al Khaimah is known for the diversity of its offering and for its nature based, outdoor adventure experiences mainly at the “Jais Adventure Peak” which serves a gateway to the various attractions on the iconic mountain, including the Jebel Jais Viewing Deck Park , the Jebel Jais Flight: The World’s Longest Zipline, the Jais Sky Tour and the Jais Sky Maze.

We anticipate and increase in demand for this type of activities post the pandemic due to the changes in visitors’ preferences, which will require higher levels of precautionary measures and social distancing, making Ras Al Khaimah an ideal destination for them.

Technology took on a leading role during the crisis across all sectors and transformed from a convenience to a necessity. did the tourism and hospitality sector invest in this aspect?

Innovation will play a fundamental role in reactivating the tourism sector, specifically the use of technology in showcasing the tourism offering and attracting visitors. Many touristic destinations around the world have started using Virtual Tours and Virtual Reality technology to promote their destinations and drive demand once international travel restrictions are lifted.

Likewise, the Authority has provided a series of online training courses (Webinars) to more than 4000 travel partners in the tourism sector of experts and specialists, to introduce them to the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah and the diversity of its tourism offering. These markets included: Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom and India. These virtual experi-

ences do not substitute real travel and experiences, therefore our focus now is on our road to recovery and coming back stronger than before.

How has the crisis affected the tourism industry standards and hospitality policies, and when do you expect a full recovery for the industry?

The pandemic has changed the world in unprecedented ways affecting all sectors, with the travel and hospitality sectors amongst the ones hit the most. Both industry standards and policies will have to adapt to the “new normal” and what comes with it in terms of travellers’ new requirements and expectations.

Trust and transparency will play a vital role in the industry’s recovery. For travellers to feel confident, the hospitality and travel sectors will have to put in place strict health and safety measures, and these will have to be communicated as part of the marketing messages to assure guests/ travellers. Cleanliness, hygiene and fewer person-to-person interactions will be major selling points.

The diversification of tourist experiences will also become important to attract a wider segment of visitors, travellers won’t take travel for granted again and will want to make the most of their upcoming trips.

Recovery is a gradual process, and as travel restrictions continue to ease, we expect to see more travellers gaining confidence to resume their travel plans. In the meantime, we are placing our focus on boosting domestic tourism and investing in enhancing our offering with the introduction of several new projects in the pipeline

RAKI PHILLIPS Chief Executive Officer Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority • Phillips holds US citizenship and speaks fluent Arabic • He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a Master’s degree in Organizational Management.

• Former Senior Vice President, Development, International Hospitality Consulting Group.

• CEO and Co-Founder of SugarMoo Sweets.

• Founding partner of Earth Hotels, a sustainable hotel concept that is advanced in technology and design.

RAKBUSINESS | 15

INVEST

Dr. Abdulrahman Alshayeb Alnaqbi, Ramy Jallad

RAKEZ welcomes 100% foreign ownership in mainland with FDI company set-up

‫ـــــــــ‬

Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ) announced its latest addition to company set-up offerings, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The new formation structure allows a 100% foreign ownership of companies in Ras Al Khaimah’s mainland, enabling investments in various booming sectors, such as industrial, agricultural, and service sectors, while owning and controlling all shares in non-free zone companies.

Companies setting-up under this FDI structure 16 | RAKBUSINESS

will be considered national companies, and will have full confidentiality of technical, economic and investment information. FDI companies will also be eligible to make financial transfers outside the country for project returns, and will have their assets protected from being claimed by the state for public use or benefit through a guaranteed no expropriation.

Other benefits include ease of adding partners and

INVEST

OPPORTUNITIES

Companies setting-up under this FDI structure will be considered national companies, and will have full confidentiality of technical, economic and investment information transferring ownership to new investors.

“The easing up of foreign ownership procedures in the mainland is definitely a game changer in the UAE and Ras Al Khaimah’s investment landscape, offering enhanced ease and freedom for investors when setting up their businesses. As always, we are here to embrace great developments as such, hence, we are happy to introduce FDI company set-up to the range of solutions that we offer,” said Ramy Jallad, Group CEO of RAKEZ. “The FDI formation structure is going to further increase Ras Al Khaimah’s appeal as a regional investment hub and we are excited to welcome new ventures across different sectors.”

RAKEZ will be collaborating with Ras Al Khaimah Department of Economic Development (RAK DED) in the setting up of FDI companies where RAK DED will receive and approve applications ensuring that they fall under the ‘positive list’ of eligible sectors issued by the UAE Cabinet under FDI Law, where 100% foreign company ownership is permitted. RAK DED will then reserve the trade name and issue the FDI licence, according to the mechanism set by the UAE Cabinet. After which, RAKEZ will issue its licence and documentation to the investor.

Dr. Abdulrahman Alshayeb Alnaqbi, RAK DED Director General, said: “The UAE continues to be a progressive country and the introduction of 100% foreign company ownership in the mainland is a significant move that strengthens its commitment to providing a supportive platform to international investors. We are glad to work closely with RAKEZ in helping businesses take advantage of this opportunity, which will make Ras Al Khaimah’s investment landscape more welcoming and dynamic”

RAKEZ unveils midshore company set-up

‫ـــــــــ‬

Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ) continues to increase Ras Al Khaimah’s international appeal with the introduction of its Global Product, an innovative midshore free zone set-up that allows investors to redomicile or incorporate a new company through one of RAKEZ’s authorised Corporate Service Providers (CSPs).

Since RAKEZ Global Product (RGP) is midshore, it merges some of the key offshore and free zone company set-up benefits into one offering. Among its exceptional features include: remote company set-up with e-documents and no physical presence required; ease of domicile migration from within the UAE or globally; and premier facilities options, such as co-working spaces, offices, warehouses and land for development. In addition, investors benefit from zero corporate taxation and access to UAE’s 100+ Double Taxation Treaties, and eligibility to apply for a residence visa and corporate bank account in the country.

“With RGP as our latest addition to our company set-up structures, investors can easily expand their investment horizons with the help of our trusted CSPs while enjoying a selection of combined benefits from offshore and free zone settings. It’s the best of both worlds in one product,” said Ramy Jallad, Group CEO of RAKEZ. RGP set-up starts from AED 10,535 with two visa eligibility and is suitable for holding companies, trading and general trading, e-commerce, media, consulting, shipping, transport, logistics and investment activities. The economic zone offers more attractive rates for multiple year licences

RAKEZ Service Centres in Al Hamra and Dubai are now ready to serve clients

‫ـــــــــ‬

RAKEZ, has re-opened the doors of its service centres in Al Hamra, Ras Al Khaimah and Downtown Dubai, welcoming clients to avail all kinds of services, including renewals and business support services, among many others.

The decision of resuming operations in the service centres came in response to the growing number of service requests being received by the economic zone.

With the re-opening of these locations, RAKEZ clients can now avail various types of services by visiting the premises, which can conveniently be done through pre-scheduled appointments for a more efficient experience.

RAKBUSINESS | 17

SWIFT ADAPTATION TO POST-COVID TRENDS & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION KEY TO REGION’S TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY RECOVERY The recovery of the region’s travel, tourism and hospitality, arguably the most affected sector globally by COVID-19, will be slow and could take up to 24 months, opined experts during a webinar that took place in Dubai recently. The session titled ‘Post-COVID Travel, Tourism & Hospitality: Marketing Challenges, Trends and Opportunities’ underlined the need for companies operating in the sector to revamp marketing strategies and harness the potential of data to effectively address the needs of post-COVID travelers and guests, in order to accelerate recovery and drive growth.

The webinar was organized by Orient Planet Group in partnership with Al Ketbi Tourism and Hospitality Consultancy.

18 | RAKBUSINESS

“With countries progressively easing travel restrictions and border controls, proactive efforts are needed from the side of travel, tourism, and hospitality companies in the region, especially in terms of marketing to get their businesses back on track,” said Gamal Sadek, General Manager, Al Ketbi Tourism and Hospitality Consultancy, and a speaker at the webinar. “Data analysis must be utilized to narrow down target audiences and design marketing strategies specifically for them. By following this approach, brands have a better chance of attracting the right customers and better ROI. For instance, the integration of Yield Management enables travel/hospitality companies to sell the right service to the right customer at the right time.”

“The pandemic has led to a paradigm shift in the consumer behavior, changing the way they think, work, shop, travel and holiday. Health safety is now the number one priority of customers and marketing strategies should reflect this,” said Nidal Abou Zaki, Managing Director of Orient Planet Group and a speaker at the webinar. “A recent travel sentiment study revealed that 43% of tourists now look for brands with a clear and thorough sanitization plan. Given the global impact of the pandemic, it is safe to assume that this reflects the collective sentiments of travelers all over the world.”

“Although GCC’s travel, tourism and hospitality markets are likely to recover at a faster pace in comparison with their global counterparts, this could still take up to 18-24

INVEST

REPORT

Companies operating in the tourism field must harness the capabilities of data analysis to more accurately define the target audiences and produce creative and interactive content to communicate with them and actively involve them in the marketing process

months. Therefore, businesses operating in these sectors must prepare themselves for continued losses in revenues, renegotiation of contract terms with suppliers, placing more employees on unpaid leave and even partial suspension of operations,” continued Abou Zaki.

Measures to flatten the COVID-19 curve such as community lockdowns, social distancing, stay-at-home orders, travel and mobility restrictions as well as rising health safety concerns of people have given rise to new trends in travel and tourism.

Apart from an increasing demand for domestic tourism/ hospitality experiences, a large majority of consumers are currently spending more time on in-home media consumption. These shifts present an ideal opportunity before travel and tourism marketeers to change their focus to domestic audiences and roll out creative and interactive content to effectively engage with them. Moreover, coming up with imaginative ideas such as the launch of ‘work from hotel’ deals for those who are looking for a change of scene from ‘working from home’ could also pay off.

Some leading travel and tourism brands in the region are already exploring innovative digital campaigns such as streaming of live events, virtual experiences, influencer partnerships, wellness and cooking vlogs and social media contests using User Generated Content (UGC) to engage audiences in meaningful ways. Apart from these, they are also generating buzz around enhanced sanitization and disinfection around their properties through digital platforms and

launching innovative welcome-back promos that offer free staycations and travel. However, a majority of them are still lagging behind in terms of accelerating the shift from traditional to digital marketing tools.

As the easing of travel limitations unlikely to immediately restore the sector’s activities back to pre-pandemic levels, travel and hospitality players that are reluctant to adapt to these changes might find themselves losing out to their competitors. This is particularly important as more than 50% of customers surveyed are reluctant to travel and stay in a hotel any time soon. While only around one-third are prepared to go on vacation and book a hotel room in the next few months, 17% of customers are willing to travel and stay in a hotel only after a vaccine becomes available. In terms of the expectations of the post-COVID customers, they now prefer brands that effectively address their safety concerns, give them individual attention, offer integrated experiences and great value for money.

In light of the evolving market trends, the webinar further discussed the priorities of post pandemic customers, and how travel and hospitality players can in fact turn these challenges into opportunities to gain competitive advantages and build brand loyalty. Furthermore, participants agreed on the need to adapt quickly to the shifting trends and customer preferences; create innovative virtual experiences; implement flexible cancellation policies; and create campaigns that encourage tourists to plan their future travels now RAKBUSINESS | 19

Krishan Kumar Chutani, CEO Dabur International 20 | RAKBUSINESS

INVEST MADE IN RAK

KRISHAN KUMAR CHUTANI

CORONA PANDEMIC

HAS INCREASED THE DEMAND FOR HEALTH AND IMMUNITY BOOSTING PRODUCTS Companies faced great challenges during the Corona pandemic, which prompted them to take quick measures to contain the crisis and reduce the large losses, therefore emerging trends appeared in the field of consumer goods as a result of changing consumers behavior and the increase in the need for natural products that enhance immunity, pushed for the trend towards accelerating the adoption of e-commerce solutions, Dabur International was an ideal model for a rapid and advanced response to changes, as its e-commerce grew after the emergence of Covid-19, its products were listed on more than 50 e-commerce platforms in 22 countries.

By: Khawla Ibrahim

RAK Business magazine met with Mr Krishan Kumar Chutani, CEO Dabur International, to highlight their experience in this field, and the following dialogue was: Are you seeing a demand for a new range of products in the “new normal”?

With the emergence of Covid, we have seen a significant increase in demand for hygiene products, immunity support health supplements and a renewed interest in natural products, as they have less chemicals and they are considered safe. Our immune building Ayurveda based supplement Chyawanprash has seen a huge rise in interest from the GCC during Covid, as people give increased importance to personal hygiene now.

in eCommerce platforms also increased, giving us a greater access to our customers in MENA countries. We focused on improving our e-commerce distribution network and even engaged with food delivery platforms like Talabat to take advantage of new opportunities.

-Optimising our manufacturing process to maintain cost synergies was also an important focus.

-As for marketing, we rolled out innovative and bold digital marketing campaigns emphasizing consumer wellbeing.

-We also decided to give back to the community during this time through the launch of #DaburCares. We distributed hand sanitisers to UAE’s front-line heroes and essential products to the needy through various NGOs and to front line heroes of Talabat.

What were your focus areas as a company during Covid -Our focus when Covid crisis began was first and foremost, the safety and well-being of our employees. We ensured work from home policies and implemented renewed hygiene and safety policies in our factories. Once the lockdown was lifted, our employees returned to work in a phased manner and we followed UAE government guidelines on safe work practices during pandemic -During this period, we invested in new product launches in the hygiene space, like hand sanitizers, sanitizing body wash and lotion, sprays and we gave a fresh push to market to our immunity building healthcare products like Chyawanprash. With more than 135 years of experience in personal care and health care products, we accelerated the process of manufacturing hand sanitizers to meet increasing demand.

- As consumers shifted to online shopping, our investments RAKBUSINESS | 21

INVEST MADE IN RAK

DABUR INTERNATIONAL

4000000000 MARKET VALUE

100

NUMBER OF COUNTRIES TO PRODUCE THE INTERNATIONAL DABUR PRODUCTS

100

THE NUMBER OF SCIENTISTS WHO WORK IN THE COMPANY

Dabur International launched an online campaign to provide advice to naturally boost immunity. Ayurvedic organizations provided their recommendations during the fulfillment period, and the Dabur Chyawanprash product was at the top of the list of recommendations Did FMCG companies utilize their existing facilities to produce sanitizers and hygiene products that are the need of the hour?

As an FMCG company, we quickly shifted our products line to cater to the sudden increase in consumer demand for hygiene related products. Since March, we diversified into hand sanitizers, sanitizing body wash, home cleaning products, vegetable and baby accessories cleaning solutions and institutional sales of large cans of hand sanitizing lotions to factories and large corporates. Keeping our consumers and their homes safe is our priority now.

Has consumer behavior changed in the pandemic era?

In the GCC region, the Covid-19 pandemic in addition to a sluggish economy due to weaker oil prices of the last few years, has led to reduced disposable incomes and lower purchasing power. Consumers are now more focused on value for money, more than ever.

Since the region already had a reliable internet connectivity and a mature e-Commerce ecosystem, when staying home became the norm, the digitally savvy population in the GCC quickly shifted online for their shopping needs. Research reports show that carts are first filled with Hygiene products, and then food essentials followed by personal care essentials such as Shampoo, Toothpaste, Hair Oils, Hammam zaith, 22 | RAKBUSINESS

Hair Creams and so on.

COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the importance of building a healthy immune system to fight infections. We rolled out an online campaign providing expert tips to boost immunity naturally, while staying at home. Scientific research has proven that the body’s natural immunity can be boosted through the consumption of herbal supplements which are abundantly found in Dabur’s Chyawanprash. In fact, AYUSH- an organization dedicated to the science of Ayurveda (Government of India), released its recommendations for building a healthy immune system during Covid and Chyawanprash was placed high on the list.

What has been the impact on e-commerce and supply chain during covid?

Digital automation across manufacturing, distribution, supply chain and marketing has helped us to adapt and respond to overcome the challenges caused by Covid. We took an aggressive approach to expanding our e-commerce reach. Since March, we have listed our products in more than 50 platforms in 22 countries within three months. And as a result, our online sales grew by 700% from March-July this year compared to entire 2019.

You will find our products on a variety of e-commerce stores such as Amazon, Noon, Sprii, Talabat, Instashop, El grocer, Lulu Webstore, Carrefour Online, and others What is the reason you choose to set up your factory in Ras Al Khaimah? What do you think of the investment environment in the emirate?

The most significant reason for establishing our factory in Ras Al Khaimah is certainly the business-friendly policies of the RAK government and lower operating costs. I think the investment environment in RAK is friendly, efficient and the infrastructure is excellent. It is the perfect gateway to rest of the Middle East and many other parts of the world

INVEST A POINT OF VIEW

COVID-19 AND FORCE MAJEURE

BY: KARIMA YAHIA

COVID-19, A GLOBAL PANDEMIC March 11th, 2020 further to the rapidly developing events taking the world by storm, the World Health Organisation (“WHO”) declared the novel coronavirus infection, COVID-19, a pandemic.

Given its impact on the global economy, The COVID-19 pandemic presents severe and unprecedented challenges across all industry sectors.

More and more businesses found that they, or their business partners, are prevented from fulfilling their contractual obligations toward each other.

WHAT IS A FORCE MAJEURE EVENT? Typically, a force majeure event is defined as an event that is beyond the reasonable control of the affected party, as a result of which such party’s performance of its obligations, under an existing contract, is prevented or rendered impossible.

Generally speaking, a force majeure provision provides that such non-performance might be excused, or certain reliefs may become available (e.g. extension of time for performance or discounted price for goods).

In certain cases, to the extent the force majeure event continues for a given period of time, the affected party and/or the non-affected party, may also have the right to terminate the contract in its entirety.

FORCE MAJEURE IN DIFFERENT JURISDICTIONS (CIVIL LAW VS COMMON LAW) Unless there is an express provision in the contract, force majeure does not exist as a standalone defense in common law jurisdictions (such as the U.S. and the U.K).

In civil law jurisdictions (such as France and Germany), however, force majeure is implied into every contract, unless the parties agree otherwise.

In both cases, and in order to minimise unexpected consequences, it is common for contracting parties to include force majeure provisions in their agreements.

Force Majeure under UAE law While there is no specific definition under UAE law, The UAE Civil Code (Federal Law Number 5 of 1985) sets boundaries of a force majeure event, as well as the consequences it may trigger.

In essence, Article 273 of the UAE Civil Code specifies that an event is qualified as a Force Majeure if: (a) claimed in a bilateral agreement; and (b) makes the performance of the obligation impossible (not just in hardship).

The UAE courts have been interpreting the force majeure clauses very narrowly, where it is mandated that the underlying events must make performance of the contract literally impossible, unforeseeable and uncontrollable.

The reason behind that is the consequences of the application of a force majeure, as the defaulting party (usually the one claiming Force Majeure) are excused and released from performance.

Under UAE law in general, the force majeure clause is interpreted in the same way as any other clause (in a given agreement). Its wording is given its plain exact meaning. Alternatively, the intention of the parties while drafting the clause, will be considered should such interpretation become not possible.

It is very important to note that any contractual notice provision(s), as agreed by the parties, is to be applied and followed strictly.

HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? DIFC Contract Law provides that non-performance by either party is excused “for such period as is reasonable, have regard to the effect of the impediment on performance of the contract”- Article 82(2) While the impediment on performance of the contract is key element to identify the non-performance limit in time, it is equally crucial to identify the following elements: • is the virus the impediment? Or is the impediment the specific consequences arising from the virus?

• Considering the impediment is the virus itself, at what point does is come to an “end”? is it when the risk of infection drops to below a certain level, or when the infection curve is flattened?

• How will the effect of the impediment on performance be measured, and at what point such effect, allows the performance to be resumed?

The more specifically a party identifies and frames an impediment, the better placed it will be.

Given the current situation and pandemic statistics, it is anticipated that the force majeure claims will be on the rise over the near future. However, as the World Health Organization (“WHO”) declared the threat of the Coronavirus since it was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019, any defaulting party to a contract that is concluded afterwards is unlikely to succeed in invoking a Force Majeure claim.

As for contracts preceding the WHO declaration, it will be examined on a case-bycase basis in order to determine whether the underlying events meet the criteria set by law and courts practice RAKBUSINESS | 23

BUSINESS

By Gerhard Hartman, VP, Medium Business – Africa & Middle East at Sage

Three ‫ ـــــــــ‬major trends for reshaping the finance function CFOs and senior finance professionals in the Middle East recognise that the world is changing, with a perfect storm of technological and social forces transforming the rules of business. So how do you thrive in this new world? It starts with looking at the three main trends driving the corporate finance function – the digitalisation of the finance industry, more demand for strategic decision-making, and a younger workforc.

DIGITALISING FINANCE CFOs understand that technology has an important 24 | RAKBUSINESS

role to play in elevating efficiency. As a senior finance professional, you’re always looking for ways to improve efficiency so that you can serve the business better. Datadriven insights and automation can help you achieve this. Automation is a reliable way of improving the quality of financial data that can increase the productivity of your finance/accounting team members.

The benefits of automation include: •Minimising manual intervention in financial operations and other accounting-related tasks, such as

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Financial managers should ensure that the organization accurately manages and analyzes data, and improves the flow of information to reach key performance indicators, with the aim of strengthening the position as a strategic company leader ledger entry and reconciliation.

•Auto-population using data from ERP and other systems.

•Reducing the potential for human error.

•Faster turnaround times.

•More efficient use of staff time due to cutting down on manual processes.

Automation allows you to aggregate vast data volumes to unlock insights. With data-driven insights, CFOs are better equipped to serve as strategic advisors for their businesses. It’s also a good idea to identify which metrics you can track in real time, as this improves data quality and offers greater visibility into the business.

Building a culture of automation can increase your productivity through a reduction in manual processes, fewer errors and faster processing times. Automation enables quicker enterprise-wide decision-making while improving regulatory compliance and ensuring accurate financial statements.

MORE DEMAND FOR STRATEGIC DECISION-MAKING Finance decision-makers are now seeing themselves transform from number crunchers to business strategists. As a finance leader, you now have a new mandate – to move beyond the traditional role where you measure past performance to leading your business as a gatekeeper of data and analytics.

You can use data insights to create a vision for the future, for which you can then start to plan and forecast. The CEO may expect you to guide the business through an uncertain future and provide strategic direction on digital spending, managing risk, imposing governance

and responding to regulatory change.

A YOUNGER WORKFORCE WITH NEW PRIORITIES With millennials taking up more senior roles in businesses and more members of Generation Z moving into the workforce, technology priorities are starting to emerge. There is a divide between senior accountants and new-breed accountants who use technology to automate number-crunching and admin. Most new-breed accountants will have implemented cloud-based technology three to four years ago, while their older counterparts will only have acquired cloud-based systems in the past two years.

Finance is becoming increasingly technical and strategic. To strengthen your position as a strategic business leader, look at a few ways to ensure your organisation manages and analyses data thoroughly, optimising information flow to hit its KPIs. To achieve this objective, you

can leverage a young tech-savvy workforce that will naturally support what you’re trying to do.

Your team may well start to take on responsibilities around IT and regulations, and learn to master actionable business intelligence. Harness this wave of millennial creativity and embrace innovation across the business. However, it’s still sensible to have seasoned finance professionals on the team, whose experience will be invaluable.

THE FUTURE OF FINANCE To lead finance in a digital world, creating a diverse team with a mix of backgrounds and experience is essential. Alongside newer technological and analytical skillsets, financial fundamentals and corporate stewardship are still relevant, and experienced people are well-equipped to take a long-term view when it comes to the business

Digital transformation paves way for closer Arab-Brazilian collaboration ‫ـــــــــ‬

Characterized by an increased adoption of technological advancements and modern communication tools to bridge gaps and strengthen partnerships, the pandemic period has in fact brought Brazil closer to the Arab region, said Nidal Abou Zaki, Managing Director of Orient Planet Group, during his participation at the Brazil-Arab Countries Economic Forum 2020. This period following the outbreak of COVID-19 has added more flexibility and agility to the way business is conducted around the world and is set to pave the way for further strengthened Arab-Brazilian collaboration across multiple sectors, he said.

Hosted by the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) and inaugurated by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the special online edition of the forum themed ‘The Future is Now’ convened high-level authorities, business executives and other dignitaries from Brazil and Arab League member countries.

“There are more than eight million Arab Brazilians who are capable of playing a unique economic, social and cultural role in enhancing Brazilian-Arab ties, and this is an area that must be leveraged in order to strengthen relations and promote exchanges not only in the trade and businesses spheres, but also in the areas of art, culture and people to people relations,” said Abou Zaki. “The Arab World is the fourth largest destination of Brazilian products abroad and these imports play a significant role in ensuring the region’s food security. However, it is high time that we diversify our partnerships beyond food products and enhance cooperation on other strategic fields such as innovation, science, technology, e-commerce and energy.”

As the Arab World continues to accelerate the transition to a knowledge-based economy, the region’s markets present lucrative investment and partnership opportunities for companies from the vast South American nation. The potential of advanced communication tools must be harnessed in this regard, and possible business and investment collaborations must be explored through the creation of focused groups from both markets to facilitate technology transfer and exchange of experiences RAKBUSINESS | 25

TOURISM IN RAS AL KHAIMAH

POTENTIAL AND REALITY Presented by Dr. Talib Hassan Hayali, Economic Expert RAK center for statistics & studies

26 | RAKBUSINESS

Year

2017

2018

2019

No. of Hotels

43

48

47

Total Available Rooms

2.189.628

2.351.900

2.393.270

Guest Nights

3.325.799

3.451.903

3.576.405

No. of Guests

975.823

1.070.693

1.113.702

Total Rooms Occupied

1.501.157

1.524.662

1.579.839

Occupancy Rate

86.60%

64.80%

66.00%

Ref: Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority

Total Available Rooms

Total Rooms Occupied

No. of Guests 2,393,270

2019

A) TOURISM AS IT IS IN RAS AL KHAIMAH: The tourism sector witnessed remarkable development during the years 2017-2019 due to the care and attention paid to it by the Ras Al Khaimah Government. The government believes that the Emirate has all of the conditions and capacities needed to make it a distinct sector, including its heritage sites, historical monuments, marine and mountain environments, and its distinctive climate in the winter and spring seasons. Those opportunities constitute all of the attractions looked for by tourists in their choice of destination.

From Table (1) below, provided by Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, the following can be noted:

Table (1): Hotels, Rooms, Beds and Occupancy Rate 2017-2019

1,579,839 1,113,702 2,351,900

2018

This support helped bring about a quantum leap in the tourism sector. Tourism is now one of the major sector’s in Ras al Khamiah’s economy, thanks to the significant increase in the number of tourists. The one million mark was crossed by the end of 2018 and it reached 1,114,000 tourists in 2019. This compares to 975,000 tourists and visitors in 2017.

Ras Al Khaimah has established its presence as a prominent and attractive destination for many different groups of tourists, because of its natural and historical diversity, its rich heritage, its globally pioneering hotels and resorts, as well as its excellence in adventure tourism. Ras Al Khaimah has the highest mountain in the country, Jebel Jais. It also has the longest zip line in the world.

Both of these entice adventure tourists from all over the world. In addition, it has leading hotels and resorts and is able to compete on the global market. This all led the Emirate to being crowned as the Gulf Tourism Capital in October 2019.

1- The number of operating hotels increased to 47 hotels in 2019 compared to 43 hotels in 2017, an increase of 9.3%, although there was an increase of 11.6% between 2017 and 2018.

2- The number of visitors from different countries increased from 976,000 visitors in 2017 to 1,114,000 visitors in 2019, an annual growth rate of 7%.The number of tourists exceeded the million mark by the end of 2018. The opening of a number of hotels and hotel apartments in 2018 and 2019 and the developments that took place in Jebel Jais and other tourist areas boosted tourist numbers in 2019 by a further 4%.

3- The occupancy rate increased to 66% in 2019 compared to 65% in 2018, a result of a 4% increase in the number of rooms occupied but only a 2% increase in the number of available rooms.

4- The number of guest nights increased to 3,576,000 nights in 2019, compared to 3,325,000 nights in 2017, an increase of 8%.

1,524,662 1,070,693 2,189,628

2017

The Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, like other Emirates, has supported the UAE tourism trend by the diverse environment it provides, including facilities, archaeological sites, ancient castles, and historical guard towers scattered throughout the various coastal and interior areas of the Emirate.

1,501,157 975,823 0

600,000

1,200,000

1,800,000

2,400,000

BUSINESS STATISTICS STUDY

B) VISITORS TO RAS AL KHAIMAH: Tourism in Ras Al Khaimah provides unlimited options to meet the tastes and interests of visitors from different countries and continents of the world. Visitors in Ras Al Khaimah enjoy the security, the pleasant climate, and the diversity of tourist activities, such as mountain, water, desert and cultural tourism. In addition, they benefit from the tourism exchange between tourism companies operating within the country with their counterparts in other countries.

Table (2) concerning the number and nationalities of tourists in Ras Al Khaimah, shows the following: 1- The total number of tourists coming to Ras Al Khaimah increased to 1,113,700 tourists in 2019, compared to 975,800 tourists in 2017, an annual growth rate of 4%. This is led by tourists from the GCC countries, who comprise 42% of the total number in 2019, with an annual growth rate of 8.8% between 2017 and 2019.

2- European tourists came in second place, with 30% of the total tourists last year and an annual growth rate of 1% for the same period.

It was followed by non-Arab Asians, especially from Southeast Asia, in third place, at 17% and a growth rate of 16%. This is the highest growth

rate for tourists coming to the Emirate by nationality. This was followed by non-Arab African citizens, who reached 11,000 tourists per year, showing a growth rate of 14%.

3- As for Arab and American nationals (the two Americas), they came in the 4th and 5th places, respectively, as their average number for the three years reached 86,000 tourists and 14,000 tourists per year with an annual growth rate of 3% and 8%, respectively.

4- It is noted that there is an increase in the number of tourists from Non-Arab Asian countries and Non-Arab African countries, in addition to citizens of the GCC countries, with high annual growth rates of 16%, 14% and 9%, respectively, as mentioned. The tourists from the three groups represent about two-thirds of the Emirate’s tourists in 2019, with a growth rate of 67%.

Table (2): Visitors to Ras Al Khaimah 2017-2019 year

2017

2018

2019

Annual Growth Rate %

GCC Countries

395.8

429.2

465.8

8.8

Other Arab Countries

82.4

87.2

87.7

3.2

Africa (Non-Arab)

8.8

12.8

11.3

14.2

Americas

13.2

15.9

15.2

7.6

Asia (Non-Arab)

142.6

173.9

189.3

16.4

Europe

325.3

342.8

332.6

1.1

Oceania

2.9

3.1

3

1.7

Others

4.8

5.8

8.7

40.6

Total Guest

975.8

1070.7

1113.7

7.1

Ref: Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority

2017

500.0

2018

2019

465.8 429.2 395.8

375.0 332.6

325.3

250.0 173.9

189.3

142.6

125.0 82.4

0.0

87.2

87.7

8.8

GCC Countries

Other Arab Countries

12.8

14.2

Africa (Non-Arab)

13.2

15.9

34.8 7.6

Americas

2.9

Asia (Non-Arab)

Europe

3.1

Oceania

3

4.8

5.8

8.7

Others

RAKBUSINESS | 27

BUSINESS STATISTICS STUDY

C) PERFORMANCE OF RESORTS AND HOTELS 2017-2019: Table (3), the data of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority for the accommodation and food services sector, shows the following: 1- The number of occupied rooms in tourism establishments increased from 1,501,200 in 2017 to 1,579,800 in 2019, with an annual growth rate of 2.6% compared to an annual growth rate of 4.7% in available rooms.

2- The number of rooms occupied increased by 3.6% in 2019 compared to 2018, which led to an increase in the occupancy rate to 66% in that year compared to the previous year. Room occupancy also increased by 1.6% in 2018 compared to 2017, despite a decrease in occupancy rate of 5.5% compared to 2017 due to a 7.4% increase in the number of available rooms, a rate greater than the number of occupied or rented rooms.

3- As for the revenues from rooms and food in hotels and resorts, they decreased at an annual rate (1%) during the period 2017-2019, despite the increase in the number of occupied rooms at an annual rate of 2.6%.

Table (3) Performance and analysis of Resorts and Hotels 2017-2019 year

2017

2018

2019

Occupied Rooms

1501.2 1524.7

1579.8

Occupancy Rate

68.6%

64.8%

66.0%

Total Revenue 1186.1 1238.2 Rooms, F&B Revenue

1159.6

Ref: Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority

2017

2018

2019

69.0% 68.6%

67.5% 66.0% 64.5%

66% 64.8%

63.0%

D) FUTURE TRENDS FOR TOURISM IN RAS AL KHAIMAH: 1- Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority is currently implementing the first phase of its tourism recovery plan. The Authority is focusing on the local market and then on the GCC and the Middle East markets, and will 28 | RAKBUSINESS

expand later to include Asia and Europe. It continues its efforts towards achieving the “Destination Strategy” for attracting visitors and tourists from within the country to the Emirate. This is through the launch of a summer campaign for short holidays and perhaps winter holidays later, whilst ensuring that stringent standards are applied to ensure the health and safety of visitors and give them the reassurance needed to spend an unforgettable vacation in Ras Al Khaimah.

2- The short holiday campaign targeted the residents of the United Arab Emirates of all nationalities to encourage local tourism in light of the restrictions imposed on international traveling. The campaign granted visitors who stayed for 3 or more nights in four and five-star hotels two free tickets and free accommodation, inclusive of meals, for two children below 12 years. Moreover, it organized a summer raffle draw to win a Mercedes-Benz C-Class 2020. The raffle may be repeated at later date to include visitors from outside of the country as well.

3- Ras AL Khaimah becomes the first city in the world to be certified as a safe destination by Bureau Veritas and the first Emirate to receive the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Safe Travels Stamp. The Authority will leverage this achievement to enhance confidence in RAK as a destination and bring visitors back to the Emirate. This award recognizes the impressive efforts of the Authority’s partners in the hospitality sector and their keenness to apply the highest international safety standards to adapt to the new situation in the sector.

4- The Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah was selected as the ‘Gulf Tourism Capital’ on October 10, 2019, during the fourth meeting of tourism ministers of the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This selection confirms the leading position of the Emirate and the country as a tourist destination characterized by attractiveness, diversity and competitiveness. It will be leveraged to enhance confidence and bring visitors back to the Emirate.

5- The Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah has the natural and cultural advantages of topography, peaks and mountain slopes that can be used as tourist attractions for adventurers and those looking for thrills and excitement as well as practitioners of various adventure sports, such as mountain climbing, cave trekking and hiking. The Emirate provides trails that encompass stunning views, whatever one’s taste, in Jebel Jais, Jabal Yibir and Wadi Shawka in the south of the Emirate. Wadi Shawka is located on the edge of Al Hajar Mountains and includes a diverse area with many options, including walking, running and cycling paths.

It is an ideal place for those wishing to experience camping in the arms of nature and away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

6- Four archaeological sites in Ras Al Khaimah, namely Julphar Commercial City, and Pearl Trade City in Al-Jazirah Al-Hamra, Shamal, and Al Dhayah Cultural Scene, were included in the preliminary list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites on September 9, 2020. This will be promoted to enhance confidence and bring visitors back to the Emirate, in addition to enhancing the country’s presence on the map of global cultural tourism. It is an important step for the sustainability and preservation of cultural heritage and can make it an effective tool for economic development.

CONCLUSION Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority is implementing the first phase of its pandemic recovery plan. The Authority is concentrating on the local market and then on the GCC and the Middle East markets, and will expand later to include Asia and Europe. It is making efforts towards attaining the “Destination Strategy” for attracting visitors and tourists from within the country to the Emirate. This is through the launch of a summer campaign for short holidays and perhaps winter holidays later, whilst ensuring that stringent standards are applied to ensure the health and safety of visitors and give them the reassurance needed to spend an unforgettable vacation in Ras Al Khaimah. The Authority continues the implementation of its 2019 plan, which aims to increase the number of available hotel rooms to 20,000 rooms and to welcome 3 million visitors per year by 2025

RAKBUSINESS | 29

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BUSINESS LEGAL OPINION

READING IN FEDERAL DECREE-LAW ON FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT (FDI) & THE CABINET RESOLUTION ON DETERMINING THE POSITIVE LIST 3/3

CONSULTANT IHAB AL-KONI Judge and Legal Advisor, Department of Economic Development, Ras Al Khaimah

THE POSITIVE LIST AND THE PERMITTED PERCENTAGE OF OWNERSHIP: The Positive List of the resolution above comprises 122 economic activities cover agricultural sectors, manufacturing industries, renewable energy, and e-commerce. The list consists of 19 activities from the agricultural sector, 51 activities from the industrial sector, and 52 activities from the services sector.

These activities have been classified and named based on the Directory of the Economic Activities, which is approved by the Ministry of Economy.

The foreign investor may own 100% of the list activities. We believe that this percentage meets the objectives of the Law by Decree No. (19), especially concerning the added value of the national economy. It would attract successful international companies that may not desire to have a partner sharing their activities.

Accordingly, successful investment opportunities will be enhanced, and specific sectors or economic activities that are not sufficiently available in the State will be augmented. This contributes to building a strong competitive economy that drives the State’s sustainable economic development through the flow of foreign direct investment to priority sectors, increasing job opportunities, raising Emiratization rates in the Private Sector, and achieving the best return for the available resources.

THE SHARE CAPITAL OF THE FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT PROJECT: The Cabinet Resolution set the minimum share capital of some sectors mentioned in the positive list. According to activity, the minimum share capital ranged between two (2) million dirhams to one hundred (100) million dirhams. The purpose of which is achieving seriousness and efficiency in these sectors, delivering the added value that we referred to, and leaving the decision to some industries or other activities in determining the minimum legislation in force as it is based more on experience than on capital.

RESTRICTIONS AND CONDITIONS FOR LICENSING POSITIVE LIST PROJECTS:

The Cabinet Resolution stipulated some restrictions and conditions for licensing the foreign direct investment project mentioned in the list. In Agriculture and Industry sectors, it is necessary to use modern technologies and achieve added value.

Legal consulting offices under the Services Sector shall not plead in the UAE courts or take judicial procedures before courts, arbitration tribunals, and judicial and administrative committees. They shall not carry out certifying functions and shall obtain the approval of authorities concerned with licensing the activity. As for accounting activities, tax planning, consulting, and tax auditing are only permitted.

This will include but limited to the restrictions and conditions set by the licensing authorities for conducting activities and the controls and requirements contained in the legislation in force.

AN EXCEPTION TO THE PROVISIONS OF COMPANIES LAW: Provisions of articles (71), (151), and (209) of the Federal Law No. (2) of 2015 on Commercial Companies shall not apply to the foreign direct investment project.

Hence, the FDI Company is not bound by a higher limit of partners and is not restricted by the necessity that the chairman and all board members must be nationals.

Shares may be disposed according to the mechanism agreed upon by the partners without being bound by the provisions contained in the Companies Law, or the decisions of the Ministry of Economy, or the decisions issued by Securities and Commodities Authority regarding the mechanism of share dispositions.

New Incentives for the Foreign Direct Investment Project: The resolution stated that the competent local authority might add other incentives to the direct investment project and those included in Decree-Law No. 19 of 2018. Thus, the competent authority in each emirate can add new impulses to the project under this resolution to stimulate, attract, and enhance competitiveness RAKBUSINESS | 31

retary at the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs.

AL ZEYOUDI:

UAE IS KEEN TO DEVELOP COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH CHILE Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, highlighted the strong economic relations between the UAE and Chile, noting that their commercial and investment ties recently witnessed significant development.

Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, highlighted the strong economic relations between the UAE and Chile, noting that their commercial and investment ties recently witnessed significant development.

The UAE is keen to develop its commercial relations with Latin American countries, he added, explaining that Chile is characterised by its open economy, varied resources 32 | RAKBUSINESS

and an attractive investment environment, making it a leading business destination.

Al Zeyoudi made this statement during a virtual meeting with Rodrigo Yanez Benitez, Under-Secretary for International Economic Relations at Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was attended by Jorge Daccarett, Chilean Ambassador to the UAE, and Abdullah Al Saleh, Under-Sec-

COORDINATION AND COOPERATION During the meeting, both sides stressed the importance of reinforcing their future cooperation, especially in light of the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the global economy and trade. They also highlighted the importance of increasing their mutual trade exchange and exploring promising investment opportunities in their markets and priority sectors.

Al Zeyoudi pointed out that the non-oil trade exchange between the countries has significantly increased in recent years, increasing 21 percent between 2018 and 2019 from US$271.2 million to $329.2 million. During the same period, UAE exports to Chile grew by 65 percent from $17.9 million to $29.5 million.

Both sides also stressed the impor-

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UAE, Singapore explore prospects for partnerships in advanced technology

‫ـــــــــ‬

21% growth in non-oil trade exchange between the two countries in 2018-2019 and about 65% growth of UAE exports to Chile during the same period tance of operating direct flights between the two countries, which will help facilitate communication between their business communities, establish successful investment partnerships, and promote trade, tourism and cultural exchange.

Benítez lauded the UAE’s comprehensive economic development while affirming his country’s keenness to create sustainable partnerships with the Emirati business community, and calling on Emirati business leaders to explore opportunities in Chile’s market for foreign investors

Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and Dr. Tan See Leng, Singapore’s Second Minister for Manpower, Trade and Industry, during a virtual meeting, explored the opportunities for partnership in areas of innovation, research and development, investment in advanced technology and food technology.

The two sides reviewed several priority issues on the development agenda of the two countries while discussing opportunities for bilateral cooperation, most notably the attraction of skills and ways to develop mechanisms between the two countries in this regard.

They also discussed new areas of cooperation at the governmental and business community levels by taking advantage of the active commercial standing that the UAE and Singapore enjoy as international centres of trade and business.

Al Zeyoudi stated that the UAE-Singapore economic and trade relations are “strong and witnessing an increasing growth”, especially since the two countries have many commonalities in terms of having a strategic geographic location linked to many promising markets, as international trade centres and global destinations for capital, business and tourism, in addition to possessing advanced, flexible, and attractive legislative and technological infrastructure that attracts foreign investments.

The volume of non-oil trade exchange between the two countries recorded US$5 billion in 2019, achieving a growth of 28.2 percent over the previous year, while the total non-oil trade for the first half of 2020 was about $1.7 billion.

In terms of investments, the cumulative foreign direct investment balance between the two countries until the beginning of 2019 amounted to about $5.9 billion, and Singaporean companies’ investments in the UAE focused on a wide range of sectors, most notably wholesale and retail trade, building, construction, financial services, insurance, manufacturing industries, real estate, mining, transportation, storage, education, information technology and the food sector.

The Singaporean minister expressed his country’s desire to develop prospects for cooperation with the UAE in all developmental areas, diversify the basket of trade exchanges, and work to attract quality investments in sectors of mutual interest.

He said that the two countries have many economic and trade potentials and have a clear vision regarding investment in building and developing capabilities in areas based on innovation and modern and advanced technology, indicating that the next stage will witness further progress, diversity and growth in levels of economic and investment partnerships between the two sides.

$ 5 billion in non-oil trade exchanges between the two countries in 2019, about $ 1.7 billion for the first half of 2020, and $ 5.9 billion balance of cumulative foreign direct investment between the two countries until early 2019

RAKBUSINESS | 33

Entrepreneurs

Hanan Alfardan

In the UAE, the country that hosts nearly 200 nationalities from different parts of the world, coexisting with each other and Emirati citizens with love, Therefore, you feel a lot of warmth everywhere in this hospitable country, and there have been many initiatives to bridge the gap between everyone and strengthen the bonds of interconnectedness and communication between different nationalities, The language may be among the most prominent factors that increase the strength of communication, hence the idea of the Institute Al-Ramsa, for

34 | RAKBUSINESS

Emirati dialect and culture.

RAK Business magazine met Ms. Hanan Alfardan, co-founder of Alramsa institute, to talk about the project, and she said “Al Ramsa Institute is a language center dedicated for Emirati dialect and culture. Our aim is to serve our learners to speak the Emirati dialect and interact with Emirati community in and outside UAE. We want Arabic language learners to have a unique learning experience by learning. Emirati dialect from Emirati native

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speakers and have better insights of Emirati culture.

AlRamsa is an accredited educational organization by the Knowledge & Human Development Authority, Dubai Government.”

was a huge problem for us like how do we make people know more about us. We know there is demand, but how to keep how to attract more students so those were all the challenges we had”. Hanan explained.

“I used to work with a lot of non-Arabic speakers, I had one Scottish lady told me Hanan I want to learn Emirati dialect, I told her learn standard Arabic ( AL-Fusha), but she said :I want to learn Emirati dialect because whenever I attend I want to understand what’s given on, I am ready to pay you for this, so since then the idea came to my mind and I started to teach as a volunteer to my colleagues, they were so happy and I noticed how our relationships got really good.” Hanan continued .

CHALLENGES “ Because we were the first who teach Emirati dialect, we had a lot of challenges, but we were so persistent and we have passion, the challenges are part of life, so we should face it, therefor we read more, went and listened to different seminars, workshops, so until today we are trying our best to be educated as much as we can about entrepreneurship, marketing, managing start up , now it’s almost been six years, and there are still some challenges and we just have now the right mindsets to be entrepreneurs and enjoy being entrepreneurs.” She continued.

THE START-UP IDEA: “In 2011, I started to teach, and I met a lot of businessmen which they said to me: you need to make this idea as an institute to make it more Sustainability. In 2013 I met my partner Abdula AIKaabi then we established Al Ramsa institute in 2014. government supported us to transfer our idea to make it legal startup business, we got the support from Dubai Chamber also from Dubai SME mainly in guidance which I think is the most important thing for entrepreneurs is to have the right guidance from the beginning, so they save a lot of money, a lot of effort and a lot of time to do their business.”she added.

“Our first course had 8 students, and the maximum number was 10 so we were really happy about that number and that was our first course with our minimum marketing, we know that there was a demand for learning Emirati dialect. We faced a lot of challenges, one of the main challenges that we didn’t have a lot of resources in Emirati dialect, there is no books, no audios, no videos there is nothing. So we have to do our own books we have to do our own like type of levels for the students who finish for example beginners then have to do the next level, what type of content we need to add, the other administration part like we didn’t know how to run a business, marketing

Alramsa institute is the first project to teach the Emirati dialect as it is part of the spoken life in the Emirates and establishes the values of tolerance and rapprochement with others “Some people ask: why you do not teach them the standard Arabic? which is used officially in the schools, universities, and government entities, we always say that the Emirati dialect is part of the spoken life in the UAE, so people who learn Emirati dialect they were our real ambassadors, whenever they speak to the locals in the Emirati dialect the people get so impressed Oh, how do you know this well? Who taught you this? So, I think that methodology or that way helped us to grow more and it also helped them in two ways, like those Emirates who knew that there is an institute that teaches Emirati dialect, also for the students they saw the impact and they saw that the Emirates are impressed. So, there are RAKBUSINESS | 35

more people coming there, more that we teach the more that we have people coming back to us or new people because of the word of the mouth. “She explained.

“We do have about 2400 students from different nationalities I would say 40% of them are Indians Pakistanis or Asians in general and we have 25% from Europe including Russia and especially the UK and also we have from America and Australia as well and almost 20% are Emirati so we have the children from mixed marriages, and they don’t know how to speak Arabic, they work in places where they need to use Arabic and especially that they are already locals This is another problem for Emiratis if they do not learn the dialect at home they will find it difficult to learn it outside the home, but now it is at least now part of the solution that we try to help and support these people as much as we can” Hanan said.

MOTIVATION: There are three different reasons push people to learn Emirati dialect: one is for the social life; they are married emirates, or they are the children of emirates or they have friends, and they want to interact with their friends or even the parents if they go to an Emirati house to have the basic greetings and interactions in Emirati dialect. Another reason is for business life, we have a lot of people who want to attract more Emirati customers or even work with Emirati clients or as well because we have for example people who don’t know English and they don’t want to miss huge maybe say potential customers because of the language barrier and that’s why 36 | RAKBUSINESS

they learn Emirati dialect, at least the basics and main terminologies they can use at work. WE even have doctors who would like to speak with their patients just to make them feel more relaxed though there are always translators in hospitals but when you speak the language of the locals you reach more into their hearts that’s why I think there is awareness about this. Another reason we notice that some people are here for some years and they feel shy that they have been here 8 years 10 years or 20 years and still they cannot speak Arabic so they always use these words I feel ashamed because I have been here since 20 years, or that I have been born and raised here but still I don’t know the language so I want to learn, this is mainly to make them feel that they are part of the community or to make them appreciate being here by learning the language which again is one of the noble reasons like people could learn languages to feel like this is a way to be a part of the community.” Hanan explained.

“Here our focus is to teach Emirati dialect and with different levels. So we do have about 9 levels like 3 levels for beginners 3 levels for intermediate and 3 levels for advanced, Although we have people who are mainly residents, we do notice that there are people who are tourists came to the UAE and they fell in love with the country and they want to learn Emirati dialect so they are here for one week and they of course want to enjoy going to the tourist places but at the same time they have at least 3 to 4 hours to study Arabic and meeting with Emirati teachers “.she said.

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MAHRKETING CHANNELS: “We mostly use social media to market our courses so now we are doing well in Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. We are the first channel to be dedicated entirely to teaching the Emirati dialect, and we do have more than 200 educational videos, free for people who are interested in learning the Emirati dialect. And at the same time, it’s a marketing tool.

Some people find out about us through YouTube, and the second social platform that we excel in is Instagram we do have a weekly live session where we teach a lot content we teach and put daily lessons for at least one minutes so people can learn Emirati Arabic. Sometimes programs sometimes poetry but mainly for the words and vocabulary they need in their daily live. We have also started an account on tiktok that we were so impressed and shocked by the number of people following us we got now about 2 million views on our videos and those videos are very simple and they are only one minute, and we noticed that there is a demand and especially for free content to help people learn Emirati dialect.

“Hanan said.

FUTURE PLANS: With Covid-19, our marketing strategy didn’t change majorly, but its more focused, we noticed that we had more number of students that wanted to learn since they had a lot of free time and before we always targeted students mainly in Dubai and little bit in the UAE because they cannot drive for example from Fujairah to Dubai or Abu Dhabi to Dubai but now because of covid-19 everything turned online and

We are working on finding creative solutions to teach children the Emirati dialect, and it is considered a challenge for us, but based on our belief as Emirati youth in the need to work on creating distinctive readable, visual and audible content focusing on the Emirati dialect and spreading the customs, traditions and heritage of the UAE now 80% of our students are online students and we have students from across the UAE and that was very unexpected and so amazing we did of course have challenges in the beginning like how to use zoom and those kinds of software applications but it only took us 2 to 3 weeks of training to work it out, and thankfully we are now better in this field. we know there is a of people, a lot of kids who have the desire to learn Emirati dialect but there isn’t much creative content for them yet, so we do have this issue, we have to do everything ourselves and work to create an attractive content for the Emirati dialect along with the culture and traditions, which is a bit difficult, especially as we are a small team, but at the end of the day at least we try to make a change and we always say that even if we move one step a day today we will still be grateful” Hanan confirmed

HANA ALFERDAN Founder of Alramsa Institute • Hanan specialized in international studies at the beginning of her career, which allowed her to learn about different languages and cultures.

• She obtained a master’s degree in educational policy administration.

• Worked for the Knowledge and Human Development Authority for six years.

• Founded Al Ramsa Institute 5 years ago.

RAKBUSINESS | 37

3

SIMPLE SECURITY TIPS FOR THOSE WORKING FROM HOME

BY ALIBABA CLOUD HEAD OF SECURITY INNOVATION LABS YURIY YUZIFOVICH

The UAE is slowly opening up its economy by easing quarantine protocols across the country. Recently, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, gave instructions to develop a national strategy for the post-COVID-19 era. His Highness called on the ministers, undersecretaries, members of the executive councils and experts to collaborate to produce the strategy and establish short-term and long-term policies to reactivate the economic activities in the country.

38 | RAKBUSINESS

A good number of sectors have restarted operations, however, the government still encourages employers to continue implementing health and safety measures such as social distancing, lessening the need for travel, and the implementation of a work-from-home (WFH) set-up.

WFH will likely have a long-term impact on the way people work and collaborate even after the pandemic because of its many benefits. It has enabled businesses to maintain lower running costs, with some moving to smaller spaces to accommodate the few office-bound people. WFH also provides greater flexibility for workers.

Of course, WFH does have some drawbacks such as technical challenges, particularly in the area of online security. This is a critical concern for businesses now pursuing a WFH model.

While large enterprises have in-house security experts and policies to help ensure security remains top-notch, SMEs and their employees may need some help. With more businesses adopting the cloud, users have to be extra vigilant in protecting data and know what to do when faced with

suspicious activity meant to steal their information.

Here are some steps SMEs can take to ensure that their business-critical information are kept secure even while implementing the WFH setup: 1 RUN UPDATES FREQUENTLY All home electronic devices should be maintained in an updated firmware state and all security patches need to be applied quickly. Many IoT devices such as home cameras, routers and smart appliances present easy targets for hackers. Many inexpensive devices purchased several years ago no longer receive firmware updates from manufacturers that have switched their resources to support newer releases.

Such IoT devices should be discarded through a proper and responsible recycling method. Routers, in particular, present a serious potential threat as hackers can control the traffic going through the routers and implement various strategies to attack home users.

DNS hijacking, for example, redirects users attempting to go to banking websites to phishing destinations that look exactly like the attacked bank’s

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log in page. Updated firmware, therefore, can significantly limit the success of such cybersecurity threats.

2 BE SKEPTICAL WITH EVERY URL YOU CLICK Phishing in general has increased since everyone started staying at home. Users need to be extra careful when clicking on links in emails and social media messages.

Without the option to approach the sender of the link in person to verify its authenticity, users may fall victim to fraudsters pretending that the email is coming from another employee. The fraudster may then ask for a wire transfer or ask users to open an attached invoice where the attachment is a malware. This type of phishing is called “whaling phishing.”

The most important requests should always be verified by an independent communication channel such as a phone call. While technical protections are important, social engineering attacks are as popular as ever, with humans still being the weakest link. Hackers often trick users into downloading software with embedded malware. Crafty attacks can ask employees to download malware camouflaged or embedded as a teleconferencing software or a game. Users then should never execute updates and downloads from links sent through emails or pop-ups, but instead download any updates or new installs from official locations or online app stores.

3 PROTECT YOUR VIDEO CONFERENCES With most team meetings now happening through video conferences, it is important to have passwords to limit the conference to only the intended audience. This will protect businesses against fraudsters eavesdropping on corporate meetings. A passcode can be used for connecting from both a computer and a phone. It’s a minor inconvenience but a worthwhile one for ensuring the privacy of the team’s meeting.

When WFH becomes the new normal for many companies – including SMEs – it is important that users always stay cautious in the digital realm by doing the simple things: set up and update passwords on a regular basis, update firmware and always go to an official site for new installs. It is our responsibility to stay alert as we, large enterprises and SMEs, collectively adapt to the new normal in the post-pandemic world

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4

This book is an essential primer for those who want to use cutting-edge machine learning to have a real impact on the direction of their business, they will learn: the key ingredients that make ML work, without getting lost in the hype, and a playbook for how ML and AI can be used to solve business problems. With Business Data Science you have everything you need to connect business problems to data and drive decisions with data analysis. You’ll understand your customers better, make more informed business decisions, achieve maximum value-and thrive in today’s data-driven economy.

DATA SCIENCE FOR BUSINESS – BY FOSTER PROVOST AND TOM FAWCETT Data Science for Business provides examples of realworld business problems to illustrate these principles.

You’ll not only learn how to improve communication between business stakeholders and data scientists, but also how participate intelligently in your company’s data science projects. You’ll also discover how to think data-analytically, and fully appreciate how data science methods can support business decision-making.

DATA SCIENCE STRATEGY - BY ULRIKA JAGARE With this book, you’ll learn how to incorporate data science as a strategic function into any business, large or small. Find solutions to your real-life challenges as you uncover the stories and value. Over half of all businesses are using data science to generate insights and value from big data. How are they doing it? Data Science Strategy For Dummies answers all your questions about how to build a data science capability from scratch.

DATA SCIENCE- BY JOHN D. KELLEHER AND BRENDAN TIERNEY It has never been easier for organizations to gather, store, and process data. Use of data science is driven by the rise of big data and social media, the development of high-performance computing, and the emergence of such powerful methods for data analysis and modeling as deep learning. Data science encompasses a set of principles, problem definitions, algorithms, and processes for extracting non-obvious and useful patterns from large datasets. It is closely related to the fields of data mining and machine learning, but broader in scope RAKBUSINESS | 39

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QUALITIES TO BE GREAT TOUR GUIDE

As both the front line and backbone of the operation, tour guides carry a huge responsibility to make the guest experience memorable, entertaining, informative, and seamless. The job is much more than reading facts off a sheet. So whether you are looking to hire a tour guide or thinking about pursuing this career, there are a few must-have qualities of an effective tour guide you need to know, here top seven characteristics of a great tour guide : 40 | RAKBUSINESS

1 STRONG COMMUNICATION SKILLS Communication is one of the most important skills of a tour guide. Guests rely on tour guides to provide direction, share facts and information, and keep them entertained throughout the tour. As such, a tour guide must speak fluently and coherently. Not to mention, be able to command attention despite the inevitable distraction of surrounding sights and sounds.

2 KNOWLEDGE OF THE TOUR AREA Anyone can memorize and recite facts.

Though it’s not a requirement, some of the best guides are locals themselves.

What’s great about this quality is that in addition to the planned facts and statistics, they can bring their own knowledge, experience and personal anecdotes to the tour. This can make a tour feel particularly special for guests who are looking for a genuine experience outside the typical tourist attractions.

Outside of the fact that tour guide should know where he is going, he should also be able to help direct guests.

3 ENGAGING STORYTELLER AND ACTOR

Delivery is everything when it comes to tour guiding. Anyone can regurgitate a script word for word, but an exceptional tour guide can add a little bit of zest, make it their own, and take guests on a journey through storytelling.

In fact, storytelling in tourism helps bring life to the subject matter, captivate an audience, and give guests something to remember/pass on to their friends for years to come.

Guides simply can’t get the information wrong, spend extra time trying to remember it or spend the whole tour reading from a piece of paper. Their memory should be so good, that it seems as if they’ve just always known these facts when they recite them.

4 A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR Just like being outgoing and enthusiastic, humor can be the perfect tool to cut any tensions and as always add an extra layer of entertainment for guests.

No one wants to stand or sit through a dry, boring, humourless history lesson — they zone out, get bored, so you shoud make guests laugh out is a surefire way to show them a good time and land a super positive review.

ENTREPRENEURS SKILLS AND TALENTS

4

APPS FIOR VIDEO EDITING

FILMORAGO ... TIt provides you with the basics like crop, rotate, and video playback. Supports video shooting in (1: 1) mode for Instagram and (16: 9) mode for YouTube, and it can perform slow motion, add music, compose and convert.

5 HARISMATIC PERSONALITY Your tour guide should be entertaining, and able to engage charismatically with numerous tourists. It is a plus to have natural charisma. Each day and every tour will be unique, so tour guides must consistently find opportunities to be charming, interesting, delightful, funny and friendly, also real charisma comes out in conversation, when a tour guide has the chance to build rapport with guests — like asking where they’re from and what they do for a living.

6 FLEXIBILITY AND QUICK-WITTED At times, tour guides will need to go with the flow. They may need to use various approaches based on the audience they will be entertaining. A flexible approach to a situation can make a good tour even better. Great tour guides are flexible when it comes to unexpected issues and schedule changes. This skill takes communication to the next level. Guides shouldn’t just be able to communicate well, they have to be great conversationalists with outgoing personalities; what we call the “Star of the Show” quality,

which isn’t something you can teach.

There can be a bit of social awkwardness when a new group of strangers show up, and a guide should be able to break that immediately to help people feel comfortable talking to each other and their guide. This ensures later on they feel open to add comments or add questions along the way.

7 MORAL RESPONSIBILITY Tour guides assist people from all over the world. For this reason, it is vital to be able to communicate effectively. Tourists may come from various walks of life, age groups, cultures, nationalities, and backgrounds, or speak different languages. The ability to handle social norms and expectations is key to being an effective tour guide. The best guides are empathetic to cultural differences and prioritize making each delivery unique to their guests, so the tour guide has a moral responsibility to respect cultural differences, all abilities, and language barriers, tailor their deliveries accordingly, demonstrate a hospitable attitude on behalf of the destination, inspire tourists to leave a positive social impact

KINEMASTER ..It is a suitable application for YouTube and contains a multi-clip time bar with integrated clouds support for the issuance of many audio and video files, the use of the application is available for free for a temporary period and then subscribes at $ 4.99 per month.

QUIK... It can add up to 50 images and video clips and then analyse them all to create a short video, as it provides about 12 video styles and can be rearranged and customized your video before its release.

VIVAVIDEO... This app uses a storyboard style, where clips can be uploaded, trimmed, and edited, provides around 200 advanced motion effects with fast and slow motion support.

RAKBUSINESS | 41

TECHNOLOGY

ALIBABA DEBUTS CLOUD COMPUTER, DELIVERY ROBOTS AT CLOUD COMPUTING CONFERENCE

‫ـــــــــ‬

The cloud arm of Chinese tech heavyweight Alibaba unveiled new hardware at its biggest technology event of the year, including a personal cloud computer.

The 60-gram, palm-sized Wuying computer is aimed at replacing the need for powerful desktop machines.

Connectable to any computer screen, the device leverages Alibaba’s backend clout to allow users to perform compute-intensive tasks and “more easily enjoy the benefits of cloud computing anytime, anywhere, in a cost-effective yet secure way,” according to Jeff

42 | RAKBUSINESS

Zhang, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence.

Cloud computing was Alibaba’s second-biggest source of revenue last quarter, according to the firm, driven by growth in its public cloud and hybrid cloud businesses.

The tiny cloud-native device could offer greater power than PCs for certain applications. Alibaba says the rendering time for one frame of high-resolution animation on the device is just 10 minutes, which is nine times faster than traditional machines.

TECHNOLOGY STUDIES

The device leverages Alibaba’s backend clout to allow users to perform compute-intensive tasks and “more easily enjoy the benefits of cloud computing anytime, anywhere, in a cost-effective yet secure way “Wuying is not only designed for home – use but can also be used as a replacement for computers across government agencies and enterprises. All you have to do is connect it to a screen, then you can use it to do anything you would use a PC to do,” Alibaba Cloud president Jeff Zhang said during the online event.

Channeling the famous words of Bill Gates, Zhang said that with the evolution of cloud technology, “everyone will have a cloud computer.”

“You can purchase resources anytime you want, scale the computing power as you need, and release the resources whenever you are done with them,” he said. “No more moving information around from one storage media to the next.”

Alibaba’s Wuying (which means “cast no shadow”) differs from Google’s successful cloud-first Chromebook in that it doesn’t require a CPU, and all storage is managed in a data centerlike security environment. Users can also buy and access licensed software including Linux, Windows, and various productivity applications.

The firm didn’t announce details on pricing but said the device would be made initially available for enterprise customers before being rolled out to a consumer market.

Alongside the cloud computer, Alibaba’s Damo research and development arm unveiled an autonomous delivery robot. Aimed at China’s lastmile delivery sector, where 200 million packages are delivered daily, the robot can cover a distance of 100km on one charge and carry 50 packages at one time.

This potential can able Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics division, to deliver up to 500 packages a day within a single community or campus

EMPLOYEES WORLDWIDE CAN’T WAIT TO GET BACK TO THE OFFIC A major survey of white-collar workers around the world, published today

by Barco, global leader in visualization and collaboration solutions, has revealed surprising findings about employee expectations for the workplace in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study – which surveyed 1,750 employees around the world (250 each from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, India and United Arab Emirates) through global research panel provider Dynata – found that only 15% of employees want to continue to work from home full-time after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Nearly half of those surveyed said they enjoy working from home less now than they did at the start of the pandemic, citing challenges in collaborating with colleagues, struggling to contribute to meetings and missing the social side of office life as the main reasons for wanting to return to the office. Instead, employees want a hybrid workplace model, where most of their time is spent in the office but they have the flexibility and freedom to work from home when it works best for them or suits the type of work they need to do. The survey found the ideal balance on average globally to be 3 days in the office, with a maximum of 2 days a week working remotely.

There was a significant demand from workers for their employers to invest in better facilities, and particularly technologies, to enable this hybrid working balance. The most desired investment by employees was for better video conferencing technologies, which

Only 15% of employees want to continue to work from home full-time after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted 1 in 3 of the 1,750 employees globally named as an investment priority. This was perhaps unsurprising, given nearly 8 in 10 employees said they use video conferencing rooms in their office more than once a week, with 1 in 3 using them every day or more.

Working from home has lost its sparkle The survey results suggest many have suffered as a result of being separated from their colleagues, both emotionally and in their work. 49% globally said they have found working from home less fun as time has passed. 37% said they miss office social life and found it harder to collaborate when working remotely. 29% said they found it difficult to contribute to meetings, while 28% said they get easily distracted at home.

Collaboration and socializing were unsurprisingly the main reasons people wanted to get back to the office: 45% said they found it easier to work with colleagues in the office, and the same percentage said they liked the social aspect of office life. 44% also highlighted the importance of those ‘water cooler moments’ – the informal interactions where colleagues spontaneously share information – in not just improving productivity and collaboration, but also in adding to the social side of working life RAKBUSINESS | 43

Social Enterprise Evolvin’ Women Partners with D’NOUR DUBAI to Bring Skills Development to Women Evolvin’ Women, a social enterprise dedicated to the advancement and skills development of women in developing countries, has announced a new partnership with D’NOUR DUBAI, an exclusive Online luxury jewellery brand that celebrates femininity through its creations and giving back to women around the world by supporting them in various professional fields.

The two-year partnership will see D’NOUR supporting women throughout Evolvin’ Women’s skills development program, which focuses on the advancement of women in the hospitality sector.

Three female Ghanaian participants from Evolvin’ Women’s program have already been selected and have completed a five-day professional training program, as well as a two-month online training program which focused on improving customer service skills, enhancing knowledge of the hospitality industry, and developing the skillset needed for administrative work.

Vivo X50 Series: Here’s What’s Different

Arishi Set to Expand the Possibilities of New Technologies in the Middle East & Beyond Arishi – a leading agency of technology experts, specialising in the delivery of nextlevel virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions – has today announced the opening of its brand-new office in Al Khatem Tower on Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi.

Having delivered outstanding results for a diverse portfolio of clients in the Middle East, including Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), Johnson & Johnson, Selecta, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Ernst & Young, and Verizon, to name a few, Arishi aims to expand its operations even further throughout the region from its new hub in Abu Dhabi.

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Through in-depth market research among diverse regional segments, vivo has localized the specs of the X50 and X50 Pro to better cater to consumer demand and preferences in various markets. Here’s a look at some of the top features of the two smartphones. vivo’s X50 series phones are positioned as professional photography smartphones that deliver industry-leading photography experiences to users. The X50 and X50 Pro offer powerful, comprehensive and differentiated photography features.

The X50 series comes with a flexible curved screen and uses chip-on-plastic (COP) bonding technology. Compared to traditional IPS (in-plane switching), the COP screen has a slimmer size and lighter weight, so users can use the phones in a more relaxed manner. The 3D Curved Ultra O Screen is bendable, flexible and more durable than previous screens, and reduces the chance of accidental device damage. vivo’s X50 series has a 5G Seamless Switch – a mode that switches among four networks to help users choose the optimal one in real time. The switch function between 5G and 4G networks is enabled in accordance with network usage to ensure superior internet speed and power-saving.

TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES

Discover the Latest Range of Affordable, Fun-to-Drive Cars at AFM Opel AFM Opel – a member of the ALFAHIM Group – has revealed its exciting range of future-driven sedans, sports utility vehicles and light-weight cars at its brand-new showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road. Featuring the Opel Astra, Crossland X and Grandland X, AFM Opel’s line-up of affordable, approachable, fun-to-drive cars offers customers the very best in German engineering and efficiency, combined with unrivalled comfort and the highest standards of customer service from the Opel team.

The AFM Opel Showroom is located at The Bahwan Centre, Umm Al Sheif, Sheikh Zayed Road) Car Sales Opening Hours: Saturday to Thursday: 9am to 8pm.

Caravan Expands Ground-Breaking Carlift Bus Services across UAE Mobility tech innovator Caravan today announced the expansion of its work commute routes, offering commuters a convenient door-to-door bus service from their homes to their workplaces. While the initial route expansion is focused on Ajman to Business Bay and Dubai Silicon Oasis to Business Bay – significant demand is already being shown for more routes across the UAE. Consequently, the more demand shown, and nominations made for particular routes, the more routes Caravan will add to its evolving network.

Commuters will now be able to take advantage of a much friendlier, more reliable, and all-round higher quality Carlift service – one that transforms the Carlift market in the UAE for the better. Above all, commuters will have the peace of mind of knowing the Caravan work commute service is legal, comprehensively certified, safe, affordable and highly efficient

Al Ansari Exchange tops list of most prominent transfer and exchange companies in Middle East Al Ansari Exchange, the UAE-based foreign exchange and worldwide money transfer company, ranked first in the latest edition of Forbes Magazine’s “Top Exchange Houses in the Middle East” list that includes some of the region’s largest companies operating in the sector.

Mohammed A. Al Ansari, Chairman of Al Ansari Exchange, said: “This achievement is due to the great trust from our customers and all the hard work Al Ansari Exchange employees put in. We are proud to be on top of Forbes’ list, which reflects our strong regional presence and robust performance.

This recognition also supports our success in adopting the highest standards of excellence, while utilizing the latest technological solutions in our services. It is a new responsibility that will inspire us to excel on the path of excellence and growth even further.”

Al Ansari Exchange boasts a network of over 190 branches, employs over 2,500 multilingual staff, who cater to more than 2.5 million customers every month, with fast, reliable and efficient service at very competitive rates. The company also conducts more than 80,000 transactions per day and commands 31% market share among exchange houses, in the UAE, with over AED 40.5 Billion transferred through its network in 2019.

RAKBUSINESS | 45

TOURISM

Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority investment plans for jebel jais Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority has announced a long-term investment strategy designed to boost the growth and diversification of Jebel Jais – the highest mountain in the United Arab Emirates.

The announcement of continued investment underscores the resilience of the emirate and a desire to gather recovery momentum despite the challenges imposed this year by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The news was unveiled at AHIC on the Road, taking place this week in Dubai.

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This year, AHIC will bring together key industry leaders and stakeholders in a new format featuring a combination of physical and virtual sessions, which will be attended by Raki Philips, chief executive of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority, and Alison Grinnell, chief executive of RAK Hospitality Holding.

According to the World Economic Forum Covid Action Platform, travel preferences and patterns have changed, leading to renewed interest in less crowded destinations.

TOURISM NEWS

The emirate’s new phased investment strategy will focus primarily on developing Jebel Jais as a standalone destination by further diversifying its offering through several new nature-based projects including a pop-up hotel, scheduled to open in the second half of 2021 Within this context, a key trend that has emerged is nature tourism, since it offers travellers a combination of social distancing, discovery and connection with nature, all of which aligns seamlessly with the Jebel Jais experience.

From a broader destination perspective, Ras Al Khaimah’s diversity in landscape and offering makes it an ideal for visitors looking for comfort and security in expansive settings and where social distancing is easier to practice in serene surroundings on the mountains, on the coast or in the desert.

Various government sectors of Ras Al Khaimah, including RAK Chamber of Commerce and Industry have worked together to identify a long-term investment strategy that will create ongoing funding for the development of naturebased tourism attractions on Jebel Jais.

All projects and builds will be developed in the most sustainable way possible in order not to disrupt the mountain eco-system but rather to enhance knowledge and understanding of conservation.

The new phased investment strategy will focus primarily on developing Jebel Jais as a standalone destination by further diversifying its offering through several new nature-based projects including a pop-up hotel concept, scheduled to open in the second half of 2021, which will introduce unique cliff side accommodation with unrivalled picturesque mountain views.

In addition, a mountain lodge, located adjacent to the renowned hiking trails will provide luxury accommodation when it opens in 2022.

Tourists will also get to experience the

mountain from a completely different perspective by winding through gorgeous scenery with the Jais Coaster, a summer toboggan/bobsled concept inspired by the Alps, which will open in quarter two of 2021.

Adding yet another first to its diverse offering, Jebel Jais will also be the home Sky High Meetings, the first-ofits-kind highest meeting room in the UAE ideal for business meetings and gatherings against the backdrop of the Hajar mountains, slated to open later this year.

Raki Phillips, said “Seeing the tourism and hospitality sectors unite during this period and pivoting in response to challenges imposed by the pandemic

has been truly inspiring. ““Our road to recovery is still in its early phases, but we have already seen significant uplift in the tourism and hospitality sectors’ performance leading to Ras Al Khaimah having the strongest RevPAR performance in the GCC.” The emirate is also assigning considerable funds to enhance the infrastructure on Jebel Jais and facilitate easier access for visitors and improve their overall experience on the mountain.

Some of the key areas of focus range from public camping spots, night hiking trails to a base jump platform, e-bikes and an electric car charging station.

World First Bear Grylls Explorers Camp to Open in UAE’s Highest Mountain RAK Leisure, (RAKL), the lifestyle subsidiary of RAK Hospitality Holding (RAKHH) recently announced The World First Bear Grylls Explorers Camp to Open in UAE’s Highest Mountain.

Adventurers can expect to be exposed to practical and extreme survival techniques necessary to survive some of the toughest terrains, for half-day sessions (three to four hours), eight-hour and even 24-hour options.

Activities include how to make a fire in the wild, building emergency shelters, learning the best ways to use a knife for survival, dedicated practical instructions on remote medical trauma treatment, navigation techniques and extreme weather survival.

As for the camps, there will be a 20-container accommodation, set to welcome visitors in 2021. Designed to host up to three guests with basic self-catering, it includes a private barbecue on a private outdoor terrace to prepare meals.

“As a tourism destination, Ras Al Khaimah has demonstrated time and time again, a robust identity aligning with current travel sentiment for remote and curated experiences, which is exactly what BGEC offers travellers in a new era of travel,” said CEO of RAK Tourism Development (RAKTDA) Raki Philips.

For Futher information: www.beargryllscamp.ae.

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Al Dhayah’s Cultural Scene

Al Shamal

The Pearl Trade City on AlHamra Island

Julfar City (The Commercial Centre)

UNESCO includes four sites in Ras Al Khaimah in the tentative list of global heritage sites UAE announced the inclusion of four heritage sites in Ras Al Khaimah, which are Julfar City, the Pearl Trade City on the Red Island, Al Shamal and Al Dhayah, to the tentative list of global heritage sites of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, increasing the number of Emirati sites on the list to 12.

Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth and Chairperson of the National Education, Culture and Science Committee said: ”I am delighted that these four important sites from Ras al-Khaimah have now been formally added to the UAE’s Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites Together, they represent around 5,000 years of our history, with a particular emphasis on our maritime traditions...”

JULFAR CITY (THE COMMERCIAL CENTRE) Julfar City, part of the Musandam Peninsula and close to the Hormuz Straiti. Due to its geographical location in a drifting area between Wadi Beeh and Wadi Haqil, it has access to rainwater and sediment pools from the steep mountains, meaning that it has fertile soil suitable for agriculture.

These fertile plains have led to the establishment of Julfar Commercial City.

THE PEARL TRADE CITY ON ALHAMRA ISLAND The original 45-hectare island was located along the Gulf close on the southern coast of Ras Al Khaimah. Its eastern and southern parts were connected to the mainland and constantly accessible. To the east, the island overlooks the 48 | RAKBUSINESS

desert and currently, two surveillance towers protect it. The towers also secured drinkable water wells, and water was previously brought to the island by donkeys. The city’s maritime environment provided marginally-salty water for household use only. The small alleys on the Red Island contain houses with yards, markets, mosques and a fort, along with surveillance towers.

AL SHAMAL Al Shamal is a rich heritage site stretching from Ras Al Jabal for over three kilometres. The cultural site has many settlements and over 100 cemeteries dating back to prehistory, as well as a palace dating back from 1600 to 2000 BC, and other sites dating back to the Late Bronze Age (1600 to 1300 BC) and the Middle Islamic Era (13th to 16th century AD).

The Al Shamal area has contributed to the unique cultural traditions that evolved on the crossroads of the ancient trade routes along the Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the southeastern part of the Arabian Peninsula.

AL DHAYAH’S CULTURAL SCENE Al Dhayah is one of Ras Al Khaimah’s most impressive and important sites in terms of geographic location and culture.

The area is surrounded by steep mountains rising to 850 metres from three directions and overlooking a lake to the west. The Gulf of Al Dhayah has hosted stable communities for thousands of years, and its gravel plains shaped like a crescent has witnessed agriculture activities towards the coast.

TOURISM MY DESTINATION

1484 By Puro – The UAE’s Highest Restaurant Located at the Jais The newest dining offering is the highest in the UAE and provides an elevated experience using locally sourced ingredients paired with extensive vistas of the Hajar mountains.

Located next to the Jais Adventure Centre, 1484 by Puro offers guests magnificent views of the peaks and valleys of the Hajar mountains alongside a refreshingly delectable menu. Ideally positioned on the mountain-facing façade of the Jais Adventure Peak, an entire side of the venue consists of ceiling to floor glass windows that open up to uninterrupted views of the serene landscape, framed by year-round sunny blue skies and breath-taking sunsets, where guests can marvel at the spectacle of warm evening hues and the far-reaching mountains beyond. The dining offering incorporates fresh locally sourced ingredients, expertly crafted into a series of dishes that promise to appeal to the diverse array of guests that make their way up to the Jais Adventure Peak.

For further details, please visit the official event website - puro.ae/1484-by-puro.

The Return of The Highly Anticipated Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon to the Emirate on 19 February 2021 Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) recently announced that the 15th edition of the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon is set to take place on Friday 19 February in 2021.

Officially known as the the world’s fastest half marathon, the race has consistently drawn international athletes and amateurs to attend.

Registration for the 2021 marathon, organized by RCS Sports and Events, will open to athletes in October 2020. The event has proven highly popular both internationally and regionally, with over 5,000 participants registered for the previous edition, held earlier this year on Al Marjan Island.

For further details, please visit the official event website - https://www.therakhalfmarathon.com

Ras Al Khaimah Becomes the First Destination to Provide Free Covid-19 PCR Tests for International Visitors Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA) and RAK Hospital announce a partnership to provide free PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) testing to international visitors staying in and departing from Ras Al Khaimah until 31 December, 2020. Subsidized by RAKTDA, the free PCR test is available for international visitors to avail either at RAK Hospital, one of the UAE’s most renowned private hospitals or RAK Medical Centre in Al Hamra Mall.

The partnership marks the Emirate as the first global destination to provide PCR testing free of charge for its international guests and visitors. Earlier in the year, Ras Al Khaimah became the first city in the world to be certified as safe by Bureau Veritas, the global leader in testing, inspection and certification and the first Emirate to receive the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Safe Travels Stamp, due to extensive hygiene and security measures in place at its hotels and attractions.

This recognition was quickly followed by free COVID-19 PCR testing for hospitality staff across the Emirate’s hotels. All these efforts align with the Emirate’s recovery plans, including far reaching support initiatives aimed at hospitality partners and stringent safety measures implemented to safeguard guests and residents, which in turn, have led to green shoots of recovery for its tourism industry.

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