DUBAI // The UAE might not yet have a badminton federation, but the sport’s international governing body is confident the staging of their season-ending BWF Destination Dubai World Superseries Finals in Dubai for the next four years will give the sport a boost and lead to the formation of a national association.
The Finals is the culmination of the 12-stop Super Series, with the top eight from the Destination Dubai rankings in five categories – men’s and women’s singles and doubles, and mixed doubles – making it to the finale.
This year’s Finals will take place at the Hamdan Sports Complex from December 17 to 21 with US$1 million (Dh3.67m), the sport’s biggest purse, up for grabs. It will mark the first time the final will be held outside east Asia.
The Super Series has four events still to be contested, but Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei is almost assured of his place in the final, given his 18,560-point lead over the man who beat him in the World Championships final last month, China's Chen Long.
The 2012 Olympic champion Li Xuerui, who lost to Spain's Carolina Marin in the World Championships finals, leads the women's singles, with former world No 1 Wang Shixian trailing by 6,060 points.
With leading stars such as these coming to Dubai for the next four years, Thomas Lund, secretary general of the Badminton World Federation (BWF), is confident the sport is ready for lift-off.
“There is a lot of work being done now at the grass-roots level with the ‘Shuttle Time’ programme that takes the sport into the schools,” he said on Tuesday.
“We’ll build that into competition level and at some point, there will be a UAE player who will be so good that he wants to go out and compete on the international circuit.
“That’s when we need to have the national set-up in place, a UAE association that is connected to the national Olympic committee.
“But I think we are doing pretty well. We signed a contract [with Dubai Sports Council] in March of this year, and I have been totally blown away by the work that has been done in respect of actually creating awareness around our sport. Participation is growing and I think we will get there, one step at a time.”
Ahmed Sharif, the secretary general of Dubai Sports Council, said the decision to bring the event to the country was made after a survey of residents showed badminton high on their list of favourites.
“We are working towards forming a badminton association,” he said. “The number of players and the competitions that are being organised in the country will decide when we are going to be expanding on the badminton organisational structure.”
arizvi@thenational.ae
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
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“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
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- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
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