Is winning Expo really so great?

by Tamara Pitelen

Will I get deported for even asking that question? Has there been a law rushed through in the last few hours making it illegal to even suggest an alternative view to the one currently being screamed from the rooftops about how winning Expo 2020 is the most awesome thing ever?

Last night, the world learnt that Dubai had won the bid to host the World Expo in 2020. The expectation of this win was so feverish that Dubai property and rental prices had already gone up in anticipation of it months before the win was even announced. Will daily life in the host city be so great for us ordinary folk living and working in the sector of Dubai where questions like, "has your wealth manager suggested a greater exposure to gold in your portfolio for 2014" don't get asked at our parties?
I know that Dubai's economic fundamentals are in a much stronger position than they were in 2008. At least, that's what I hear from the various economists I talk to about these things. So, we should not be heading for the kind of spectacular crash of that year. Still though, doesn't all this high-pitched 'Oh my gahd, we'll all be rich!' hysteria have a certain pre-crash feel to it? One of the daily papers this morning ran one of those vox-pop stories that where they asked a load of people what they think about the Expo win. One girl said it means: 'Money, money, money and party, party, party!'
If that's not a call out to the world's biggest speculators and scam merchants, I don't know what is.
On the flipside, I've already talked to a lot of people today who are worried about rent rises. One of my colleagues said to me, 'I got quite depressed about it [the Expo win], I don't know how we'll cope if property prices go up.'
Yes, I know, World Expos are wonderful things. They've given the world the typewriter, the zip, the Eiffel Tower, the ice-cream cone... etc etc and yes, I'm sure lots of amazing inventions and creations will be presented to the world at Dubai's Expo in 2020 but all the excitement and hysteria currently sweeping back and forth through Dubai isn't because people are anticipating the creation of a great monument or accessory that revolutionises fashion. No, people are excited because they know a truckload - many many truckloads - of cash are going to be spent on building the infrastructure for Expo 2020 and they are hoping that some of this cash gets into their pockets by way of pay rises, more job opportunities, richer people chucking their wealth about.
People are excited about the excitement and I think daily life in Dubai will involve a lot more time stuck in traffic jams and figuring out how to avoid all the new construction noise and mess. 
For the first time, moving to Abu Dhabi has appeal.

Worth its weight in gold...

by Robin Amlôt

It has been a hectic few weeks in Islamic finance for conferences and reports. It seems you can’t move without somebody offering you opinion and analysis about the Islamic economy, opportunities in Africa, why Bahrain is still the GCC hub, how Dubai plans to take a global role in the future, etc., etc.,

But the story that has caught my eye in particular was the news that Dubai Islamic Bank is partnering with global human resource consultancy Aon Hewitt to develop a talent management platform for the bank and revamp its employee competency framework ‘in line with its vision and mission’ (whatever the latter part of that sentence may mean).
Talent is important, talent is expensive. Indeed, the word talent comes to us from the Ancient Greek as a measure of worth and quite a substantial amount of worth at that. A talent, according to Homer, was roughly the mass of water required to fill an amphora (Greek urn) and thus equivalent to around 26 kilogrammes. Count your gold in talents and you are talking serious money. Which probably means that the old music hall joke which begins, “What’s a Greek urn [earn]?” is probably even older and more whiskery than originally thought and may well have had them groaning in the aisles in Ancient Greece itself!
But I digress. The point of the excursion into the etymology of ‘talent’ is a roundabout way of saying that properly nurtured and managed talent is indeed worth its weight in gold. Aon Hewitt’s role with Dubai Islamic Bank is to develop a programme to improve the bank’s assessment of its employees’ performance and ensure they possess the required knowledge, skills and abilities to excel at their jobs.
The bank aims to ‘build the career path of our employees and focus on the development of high potential employees’, according to Obaid Al Shamsi, Chief of Human Resources and Administration.  The bank will, he said be ‘able to institute practices to train and motivate our employees, retain the best amongst them and build a succession plan for leading the bank in the future’.
No matter how exciting the prospects for the global Islamic economy, and the potential certainly is exciting; it will not be realised without the help of a dynamic financial sector. That necessary dynamism is, let us be honest, sometimes a little difficult to spot. It is a given that there appears to be talent shortage in Islamic finance. Yet this should not be the case. Institutions of higher learning in several continents are churning out graduates with Islamic finance qualifications.
However, too many of them appear, still, to be unable to find employment in their chosen field of endeavour. Others find jobs but find themselves stifled. The resource, it would seem to me, is being squandered. Against that backdrop, I find myself cheered by the commitment by Dubai Islamic Bank to its programme of ‘Employee Engagement’. Talent is precious. Talent should be nurtured. The junior employees management engages with today are the management of tomorrow who will face the greater challenges, and one hopes, realise the yet greater opportunities of the global Islamic economy.