Business Extra

Regional sovereign funds backed local economies amid pandemic while investors have also shifted their strategies to focus more on equity markets and ESG opportunities. This is according to the latest report from US asset management firm Invesco, which surveyed 141 chief investment officers, heads of asset classes and portfolio strategists at 82 sovereign wealth funds and 59 central banks across th...

Automation, e-commerce and the push for sustainability all have major roles to play in the future of retail. That's according to Majid Al Futtaim chief executive Alain Bejjani. He joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner this week to talk about how the Middle East's biggest mall operator is catering to changing consumer behaviour - and why cinema will never go away. In this episode: MAF and...

Opec and oil-producing allies are at a new impasse. But what does it mean and why is it happening? To unpack a historic convergence of market dynamics, The National's energy correspondent Jennifer Gnana joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner. They explain Opec's current role in the energy industry, why US oil and Brent, the international oil benchmark under which two thirds of the world's...

The Basrah Gas Company is a 25-year joint venture between Iraq’s South Gas Company, Shell and Mitsubishi. It was established in 2013 to process associated gas produced from three huge oilfields in the south of Iraq, that otherwise would be flared off. This gas then supplies power to the domestic market as well as to those manufacturing products for export. On Tuesday, it was announced that the Wor...

Abu Dhabi plans to invest $6 billion over the next five years in its cultural and creative industries to create new jobs and attract talent. One of the mega-projects at the heart of the plan is the Yas Creative Hub, a 27-hectare development expected to create 16,000 jobs over the next decade, tripling the number of people employed in the sector in the UAE capital. Michael Garin, chief executive of...

Poland hopes its role as a central and eastern European technology hub will help create cross-investment opportunities in the financial, healthcare and food sectors for Gulf investors, according to a senior official. Pawel Jablonski, Poland’s undersecretary of state for economic and development co-operation, for Africa and the Middle East, was in Abu Dhabi this month to explore ways to expand the...

With a new Iran nuclear deal on the horizon and the possible lifting of US sanctions, up to 1.5 million barrels per day of oil exports could return to the market. However, the country's energy sector is in dire need of both cash and international equipment. The National's columnist Robin Mills discusses what is still an uncertain outlook for Iran's oil and gas industry with host Mustafa Alrawi. In...

More than 13,000 businesses in the Middle East have expressed interest in using Stripe since the payments platform announced its regional debut and office in Dubai last month. “There's just so much momentum in the UAE and the surrounding area,” said Matt Henderson, the business lead at Stripe for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, regions where the company is rapidly expanding. Stripe offers prod...

The future of travel in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic will be characterised by higher air fares, cheaper hotel rooms and fewer but longer trips, according to industry expert Sadiq Gillani. Speaking to the Business Extra podcast’s Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner, Mr Gillani, a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, outlined what we are likely to experience when travelling as the rec...

The chief executives of the world’s largest companies are showing a “strong appetite” for in-person conferences taking place in the final three months of the year. Justin B Smith, chief executive of Bloomberg Media, which organises hundreds of events a year, speaking exclusively to The National and the Business Extra podcast, said that the company has "identified a very, very strong appetite for e...

Heading into summer, airline bookings in April and May were "pretty positive" for domestic travel while bookings for international journeys remained "exceptionally weak" as travel restrictions continued in many countries due to new cases of the Covid-19 virus, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata). To determine if summer will provide a lift, a patchwork of issues are in p...

The long-promised new era of technology is taking shape, from the quantum computing race between nations, to the battle over fair competition being fought in a US court between Apple and Epic Games.   While the future remains uncertain, developments in recent days and months reveal a path that will change the way consumers and companies interact online and who will be the guardians of our digital...

Bitcoin mining now uses enough electricity annually to power a country equivalent in size to the UAE. Can warnings over cryptocurrencies' carbon footprint challenge - and help us reimagine - how we utilise energy resources? And amid a rising tide of digital assets, what can be learnt from Bitcoin's shift to renewable energy? Host Mustafa Alrawi, assistant editor-in-chief, and co-host Kelsey Warner...

Archegos Capital Management's spectacular failure over a couple of days in March has cost Wall Street's biggest banks billions of dollars. So far, the losses are being chalked up to one bad apple: the fund’s founder, Bill Hwang. Mr Hwang’s record-breaking loss of an estimated $20 billion fortune in two days is a cautionary tale. But this is not only about how far any one investor may fall during a...

The year 2020 has been declared a “breakthrough” one for electric vehicles, with sales of EVs up around the world, even in the petrol-happy US. With tax breaks, new infrastructure plans and Covid-related discounts on zero-emission autos, the market may be at a “tipping point”, according to the World Economic Forum. But host Mustafa Alrawi, assistant editor-in-chief, says not so fast. “There’s hype...

More than a century in the making, a genomics revolution is now unfolding. The extent of the Covid-19 outbreak has prompted nations and biotech companies to pour billions of dollars and emergency resources into the field, spurring it to new heights of potential. Within a month of the first novel coronavirus case reported in Wuhan, the 29,903 letters that make up the pathogen’s genome were publishe...

Attitudes of trust towards governments, employers, chief executives, the traditional media and social media companies have been in flux over the past 12 months. Globally, employers have become more trusted than any other institution, according to the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer index. In the UAE, government is the most trusted. For all, however, the experience of Covid-19 has included increased a...

"We want to inspire creativity and create joy." That's what it's all about at TikTok, according to Shant Oknayan, general manager for the Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Pakistan region at the social media platform's parent company ByteDance. As the wildly popular short-form video sharing app grows, Mr Oknayan tells The National it has no plans to grow up. The joyful content its users generate is...

Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has been on the front line of the capital’s pandemic response and is at a critical juncture as it appoints a new chief executive. Dr Rakesh Suri, the hospital’s current CEO, hands over the reins this month to his chief of staff, Dr Jorge Guzman. Dr Suri will return to Ohio to head up Cleveland Clinic’s international operations. They both join co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and...

Anghami, Spotify’s rival in the Arab world, will be the first regional technology start-up to list in New York by merging with a blank-cheque company in the second quarter of 2021. Anghami co-founder and chief technology officer Elie Habib tells The National's Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner how the streaming service is changing the music scene in the Middle East. He also talks about Anghami's pl...

An ‘entitlement gap’ between men and women in the UAE – a feeling of not being as deserving as men when it comes to pay rises, promotions and career progression – remains a hurdle in workplaces, according to a new survey from LinkedIn.  To discuss the impact of this phenomenon, the new ‘penalty’ of flexible working during Covid-19 and the path forward, LinkedIn editor Lynn Chouman joins host Kelse...

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Adnoc recently hosted more than 30 chief technical officers from the oil, gas and petrochemicals industry to discuss decarbonisation and future fuelsat a virtual roundtable. Adnoc's chief technology officer Alan Nelson joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner to discuss his view of the online conference takeaways and the path forward for an industry in transit...

The UAE and US relationship is in focus against the backdrop of the Middle East's biggest defence show. American Embassy in Abu Dhabi's charge d’affaires Sean Murphy joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner this week to discusses the 'special relationship' between the two nations in matters of military exports and diplomacy on the sidelines of Idex. While big-ticket deals grab the headlines...

The latest in military technology on land, air and sea will go on display in Abu Dhabi from February 21. More than 500 exhibitors from 50 countries will convene at the International Defence Exhibition and Conference, the biggest defence show in the Middle East, as the UAE capital returns to in-person events amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Deena Kamel, The National’s aviation correspondent, joins co-ho...

To air a 30-second commercial spot during Sunday night's Super Bowl LV costs a minimum $5.5 million in what is the world’s most expensive sales pitch.  Although the advertising spend remains eye-watering, this year's crop will look a bit different amid the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Brands in the US have 'leaked' their Super Bowl commercials ahead of time even as some of the biggest legacy b...