Hans-Paul Burkner, Chairman, The Boston Consulting Group, speaks to TRENDS and throws light on how technology will create more job opportunities in unconventional areas. European leadership has recently come under scrutiny over the tackling of various global issues. How you view this? All of the current leaders in Europe are as good as the ones…
In a major economic reform, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have agreed on a tentative plan to introduce value-added tax (VAT) across the region in 2018, a top UAE official has confirmed. Younis Haji Al Khoori, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Finance, said the countries will unify their tax policies before the introduction of…
More than 80 percent of business leaders in the Gulf identify corruption as a major issue, but barely 45 percent have anti-corruption policies in place. According to a new report from the Pearl Initiative, titled At a Glance: Anti-Corruption Good Practice, the implementation of solid anti-corruption good practices remains a challenge. This is despite the…
Investments into small and medium scale industries (SMEs) touched $15.3 billion in 2014, representing just four percent of the total industrial investments in the region, a new report reveals. According to the GOIC (Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting), there were around 13480 SMEs in the GCC in 2014, including 10809 small factories and 2671 medium…
The United Arab Emirates has topped the Middle East on MasterCard’s Inclusive Growth Index. With a score of 57.58, UAE is only 6.8 points behind the benchmark set by the ten developed countries and is trailed by Qatar in second place at 55.2, followed by Bahrain (54.5), Saudi Arabia (51.4) and Oman (50.9). Find out…
Despite the slump in oil prices, geopolitical conflicts in the wider region and slowing economic growth, the Gulf countries are able to keep up their pace of hiring. But barring in Qatar, the pace of job creation will mostly be at a lower rate than the previous year. According to Gulf Talent’s Employment and Salary…
People in the UAE waste an estimated 3.27 million tons or AED 13 billion worth of food every year. This according to a report released by rental, fleet and supply chain solutions company Massar Solutions. To put things in context, this quantity of food is enough to fill 136,250 trucks. “The figures speak for themselves…
GCC countries are set to witness an increasing level of Chinese currency transactions, according to Crédit Agricole Private Banking. China is currently the GCC’s largest trading partner and the Economist Intelligence Unit predicts that, by 2020, the largest share of GCC exports will go to China, at around US$160 billion. In turn, China will also…
Switzerland – and Geneva, in particular – is putting noticeable efforts into attracting tourists from the GCC. “Geneva has always been interested in the GCC and the GCC has always been interested in Geneva,” Tamara Tawil, marketing manager for overseas markets at Geneva Tourism & Convention Foundation, one of the country’s official tourism boards, told…
A new study has revealed yet again, that the UAE is the most popular destination for travelers from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The VISA Global Travel Intentions Study 2015 shows that 16 percent of the 1,637 respondents from MENA chose the UAE as their most favored travel destination within the region…
