GULF STATES- ECONOMICS & FINANCE
Revealed: top 10 companies in UAE. do you work for one?
Emirates airline is the top choice of the UAE residents to work for in 2019, reveals a new survey released on Wednesday. YouGov BrandIndex 2019 Workforce Rankings in the UAE revealed that the Dubai-based carrier was the top choice of UAE residents for second time in a row. Apple moves up two places from last year and stands at second, and iPhone remains in third this year as well. Dubai Mall, Samsung Galaxy and Almarai have all stepped up one place year-on-year, to seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively. Samsung and Etihad Airways are new entrants at fifth and tenth, respectively. Last year Samsung promoted its Galaxy S9 and S9+ phones by projecting the campaign on to the Burj Khalifa and set up product experience zones for customers. This not only created a lot of buzz around the brand, but may have also helped in strengthening its reputation among consumers. YouGov also revealed the ten brands that made the largest improvement to their Reputation scores over the past 12 months. Warner Bros. World is the most improved brand of the past year in the UAE, with a change in score of +7.9, enhancing its Reputation score from 7.1 in 2018 to 15.0 in 2019. The theme park opened its doors to UAE residents last year and not only received a positive reception but also managed to strengthen its reputation among people. Netflix’s exciting original content may be a factor in making it the second best improver, with a change in score of +7.0. In addition, smartphone brands have seen a considerable improvement in their Reputation scores over the past year, with two of the biggest brands making up the top ten list and Huawei taking the third spot in the improvers list, improving its score by +6.4.
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Fodel cracks last-mile delivery to boost consumer experience
E-commerce can easily handle the increased traffic online, but handling increased traffic from a logistic perspective is a lot harder, says Soumia Benturquia founder and CEO, Fodel. Fodel (Forward Delivery) attempts to solve the last-mile delivery model and radically improve the consumer experience.
The venture offers a network of pick-up locations as an alternative to home delivery. The startup is live in the UAE with more than 1,000 pick-up locations and has integrated many of the largest e-commerce companies. The firm is currently planning to launch in Saudi Arabia in a few months.
Fodel raised a $2.6 million pre-series A round by a number of prominent investors and advisors including Al Rajhi family members from Saudi Arabia, and Fodel’s Chairman and ex-Fedex senior vice-president Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Indian Sub-continental, Hamdi Osman.
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DH300M eco-friendly My City Centre Masdar opens
My City Centre Masdar, the Dh300-million eco-friendly mall with sustainability at its heart, opened in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
Touted as one of the region’s most sustainable malls, it’s Majid Al Futtaim’s first shopping mall in Abu Dhabi and 25th in the region. The mixed-used development aims to make efficient use of resources including energy and water management.
The mall includes Carrefour Hypermarket’s 100th store in the UAE. It is marking the occasion by becoming the first hypermarket in the UAE to say not to plastic bags.
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Etihad celebrates success of new technology platform
Etihad Cargo, the cargo and logistics arm of the Etihad Aviation Group, is celebrating its position as a market leader in the air cargo digitalisation and innovation space six months after migrating to a new technology platform. The move has helped it achieve a remarkable step change in the way it runs its operations and engages with its customers. Last year, the carrier embarked on a strategy that saw the introduction of several transformation programmes across its fleet and network, commercial and operational processes, and its physical and digital infrastructures. This culminated in the carrier’s successful front-end systems migration to the market leading IBS iCargo solution in October 2018, and celebrated the launch of its online booking portal. Etihad has accepted 14.4 per cent of its total bookings online since the October 2018 “go-live” milestone. Additionally, March 2019 has recorded the most successful performance yet with 16.4 per cent of monthly bookings coming through the online portal, surpassing all records for similar portal launches for any other cargo carrier within the same period. Etihad Cargo now has over 6,000 unique registered users making online bookings every month, and the numbers are continuing to trend upwards – 18.2 per cent of the bookings were made online during the last week of March.
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UAE Airline to serve 1 mn dates in Ramadan; issue Iftar menu
Emirates’ signature Ramadan service is expected to begin on May 5th to coincide with the start of the Holy month. During Ramadan, the airline expects to serve 1 million dates to customers during iftar and suhoor, both on board and on the ground in Dubai. Emirates’ Ramadan service consists of specially crafted iftar meals on board, relevant programming on its ice inflight entertainment system, and the distribution of dates and water on the ground. Customers breaking their fast on board will be offered iftar boxes with a nutritional meal. Each box consists of couscous salad & grilled chicken or moudardara & roasted chicken, sandwiches, spinach fatayer or tomato and onion fatayer, assorted sweets, dates, laban and water. Over 150,000 iftar boxes will be served during the holy month, ensuring customers are well catered for in addition to the usual Emirates meal services on board. The iftar box menus will be refreshed mid-Ramadan. These special meals will be available to passengers across all cabin classes on select Emirates flights that coincide with iftar times. This includes flights to and from the Gulf region as well as flights catering to Umrah groups travelling to Jeddah and Medina during the month of Ramadan. During the holy month, cold meals will be served in lieu of a hot one on all flights to Jeddah and Medina, including Umrah day flights.
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New UAE body to create opportunities for youth
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, inaugurated the headquarters of the Federal Youth Authority, FYA, at the Emirates Towers, Dubai, Wam reported on Wednesday. Sheikh Mohammed also approved FYA’s operational plan and initiatives that aim to utilise the youth’s capabilities and creativity so that they can become active participants in the country’s sustainable development efforts. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister of UAE and Minister of Interior, also attended the event.
Sheikh Mohammed affirmed that empowering youth and engaging them is essential for the future of the country. He also said that equipping the youth to enhance their participation and contributions is one of the government’s top priorities.
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Expo 2020 to drive UAE’S travel, hospitality industries
While the upcoming Expo 2020 Dubai event is set to drive the travel and hospitality sectors in the UAE, experts have also stressed the importance of focusing on the opportunities that the legacy of the event will create after its conclusion. Speaking at a press conference ahead of the upcoming Arabian Travel Market (ATM), travel and hospitality experts shared their thoughts on how the UAE is gearing up for the mega event. “Less than two years away, the Expo 2020 Dubai event is set to drive growth in industry, as the various emirates aim to complete 160,000 hotel rooms in time to welcome 20 million visitors annually by 2020 – plus an additional five million visitors between October 2020 and April 2021; 70 per cent of which will come from outside the UAE,” said Claude Blanc, WTM portfolio director, Reed Travel Exhibitions. The growth of the Arabian Travel Market, he said, is reflective of the growth in the industry. The 2019 edition of Arabian Travel Market will open its doors on Sunday, April 28 for four days of business networking opportunities and insightful seminar sessions at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Now in its 26th year, ATM 2019 will welcome over 2,500 exhibiting companies and an expected 40,000 industry professionals, with over 150 countries represented, 65 national pavilions, and more than 100 new exhibitors set to make their ATM debut. Blanc also spoke about the changes in the industry that are in line with the latest travel trends. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the direct contribution of travel and tourism to the UAE’s economy is predicted to rise 4.1 per cent per annum to Dh108.4 billion by 2028. Visitors from China, Blanc said, have been a steadily growing segment, with Chinese travellers set to account for a quarter of international tourism by 2030.
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Dubai chamber smart transactions reach 96pc
The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has revealed that smart transactions accounted for 96 per cent of all customer transactions processed by the non-profit public organisation in the first quarter of 2019. As a result of this uptick, an 85 per cent drop in the number of visitors to Dubai Chamber’s service centres was recorded over the same period as customers shifted towards smart services to complete their transactions. A total of Dh3.6 million worth of transportation costs was saved by customers who processed transactions electronically, according to estimates by Dubai Chamber. In addition, an 84.3 per cent reduction in paper consumption was observed during the quarter as Dubai Chamber scaled up its effort to support the Dubai Paperless Strategy which aims to eliminate over one billion papers annually used for Dubai government transactions. Currently, Dubai Chamber customers can request Certificates of Origin (CO) by either using the organisation’s smart kiosks, e-Certificates of Origin, and in-house printing services, or visiting one of its services centres. Hamad Buamim, president & CEO of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, explained that Dubai Chamber’s smart transformation was inspired by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and noted that the recent uptick in smart transactions signals a growing awareness of the benefits of using e-services among businesses in Dubai.