Financial security?

by Isla MacFarlane

All internet banking security seems to do is make it harder for me to access my own money...

I read recently that the Middle East is set for a new wave of cybercrime. I feel sorry for any cybercriminal who wants to hack into my internet bank account – I can barely access it myself. The process seems to involve cracking more passwords, codes and devices than a James Bond movie.
First, I have to dig out my ‘customer relationship number’ (which I have scribbled on a scrap of paper buried at the bottom of my handbag) and key in my identity as eight soulless digits while wondering why I can’t just give my name, or a clever user name if they fear duplication – something I wouldn’t have to dredge my handbag for.
Next, I’m asked for my password, which must be eight characters with at least two numbers, so my childhood pet or mother’s name – or anything that I might have a hope of remembering – is out of the question. Naturally, I end up resetting my password nearly every time I log in. If that wasn’t bad enough, they insist I change my password on a regular basis. So if I have managed to formulate a password that I actually remember, no sooner is it etched into my memory than it’s time to start the taxing process again.
Then I have to dive back into my handbag to find my ‘secure ID’, a little box which spews out random codes I need to access my money. The numbers change every sixty seconds, meaning I have to frantically key in the code before the countdown is up. The time constraint wouldn’t matter so much if I could type out the numbers on a keyboard. Instead, I have to navigate the bank’s ‘virtual’ keyboard, which the bank insists is more secure despite the fact that anyone looking over my shoulder will have a much better view of the numbers I’m clicking than they would if I was typing.
By the time I’ve clicked in the code, which takes twice as long as using a keyboard, the numbers have almost always changed forcing me back to square one. It’s as frustrating as fumbling for your keys only to find that the locks have been changed.
While I appreciate the investment that must go into shoring up defences against cybercrime, if they spent a fraction of that on usability and customer experience I wouldn’t have to feel like a computer hacker every time I try to access my account. If Apple can invent a device even a self-confessed technophobe like me can operate without an instruction manual, surely there is an easier way of doing secure internet banking?
What’s really depressing is that after I’ve finally cracked the security and accessed my account, the effort hardly seems worth it when I see the balance… I’m pretty sure that any cybercriminal would feel the same!



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As the bird flies

by Sarah Owermohle
 
Portland Communications’ second How Africa Tweets study has come out right as a massive Twitterstorm rages in South Africa over the Oscar Pistorius trial.
 

I’ll admit, at the risk of sounding like I’ve been anything less than totally productive these past two weeks, that I have been obsessively following the Oscar Pistorius murder trial. It wasn’t exactly my plan, but as all of my Twitter regulars—Sky News’ Alex Crawford (@AlexCrawfordSky), The Guardian’s David Smith (@SmithinAfrica) and BBC’s Andrew Harding (@BBCAndrewH)—posted trial updates by the minute, the conversation quickly consumed my Twitter feed. By the end of day one, I had my #OscarPistorius page fixed open as I watched the conversation flow. I wouldn’t miss a thing.
So I was more than a little intrigued when I saw that Portland Communications had released new data on How Africa Tweets last week. Portland’s last report, collating and analysing tweets from the last three months of 2011, had been an interesting snapshot of twitter usage on the continent in the face of the Arab Spring.
The newest study found that in the last quarter of 2013, the top five most active cities were in South Africa (Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Durban) and Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria). Regionally, Nairobi, Kenya was the most active city in East Africa and the sixth most active on the continent, with 123,078 geo-tagged tweets in Q4 2013, while Accra, Ghana was the most active city in West Africa and the eighth most active on the continent, with 78,575 geo-tagged tweets in Q4 2013.
Geo-tagging means precisely what it sounds like: a tweet is embedded with the latitude/longitude location of the tweeter. If that sounds a bit terrifying, it’s because it is; a lot of people don’t use the geo-tag feature. Seeing as the Portland study was based solely off of geo-tagged tweets, I began to wonder if we weren’t getting the full picture: apparently football was talked about more than Mandela, and Johannesburg’s Orlando Pirates more than any international team. I asked Nanjira Sambuli, a Nairobi-based mathematician and researcher with iHub, her thoughts on the study.
“Now, globally, less than two per cent of tweets are geo-tagged…it follows that few Twitter users in Africa activate this feature. It has privacy implications, for instance, something that frequent users are likely to be aware of,” Sambuli said. “Geo-tagging easily creates a sampling bias issue.”
Not that geo-tags aren’ valuable, she pointed out, it’s just that they’re not used all that often in Africa.
“Geo-tagging is a useful tool, but highly unreliable, especially as a primary or sole metric for analysing tweeting activity in any context. For instance, it was super useful in analysing the Occupy Gezi protests in Turkey last year, because Twitter users consciously geo-tagged their tweets; approx. 90 per cent of 2 million tweets generated within the first 24 hours were geo-tagged. But there’s much more that should go into analysing whether tweeting activity is based in a location at any given time,” she said.
“I must say, I also find it surprising that in the two reports released by Portland Communications, none has acknowledged or disclaimed the shortcomings or limitations of geo-tagging. From an academic perspective, this is something that should accompany every mention or citation of their findings,” Sambuli added.
But when I asked Portland account manager Matt Gould about the geo-tag method, he argued it was in fact the most reliable assessment: “Using geo-location allows us to be certain about each tweet’s true location. Some studies use a tweeter’s stated location (in their bios) but this doesn’t allow any level of certainty since there are no rules or limits about stating one’s location—an individual can note a different city, country or even planet if they want.
“While tracking geo-located tweets does not enable us to capture every single tweet coming out of each city, as many users do not enable locations services, it allows us to develop an indicative picture of overall activity,” he said.
Which brings us to event-inspired tweets, like the drama-filled Oscar Pistorius trial or the harrowing Westgate Mall attack. Could these tweets give us a window into twitter usage in Africa? While the How Africa Tweets study was limited to the last three months of 2013, it did indicate some twitter behavior on incident-based conversation.
“Major local or regional events will definitely have an impact on the level of Twitter activity in any given location,” Gould said. “The death of Nelson Mandela did occur during the period of time we were tracking and we saw a great amount of related activity. The day of Mandela’s death [showed] the largest peak in activity across the continent and his passing was one of the most talked about issues overall, with hashtags like #MandelaMemorial, #Mandela and #RIPNelsonMandela appearing across the continent.”
While the Pistorius trial and the Westgate attack fall outside the scope of Portland’s study, each has proved a window into Twitter activity in Africa: this analysis of the Westgate attack by Sambuli herself found that the incident was first reported by citizens on the scene, mirroring Twitter use in other disasters such as the Boston Marathon attack. iRevolution eventually reported more than 740,000 Westgate Mall tweets during the four-day hostage situation. Tweets were not limited to geo-tags, but rather hashtags (#Westgate, #Westlands, etc.) and other metrics (iRevolution’s full regional breakdown is here).  
The Pistorius trial, playing out in real time under the hashtags #OscarPistorius and #OscarTrial, is interesting in another way. The trial—in an unprecedented decision, the first to be televised in South Africa—has generated massive debates on the guilt of Pistorius, the weakness of witnesses, and the ruthlessness of lead defense lawyer Barry Roux.  South Africa-based digital media company Fuseware reported that there had been a total of 19,809 mentions of Pistorius from 9,213 South Africans on Twitter by the second day of the trial, and that half of them had been made the first day. The company estimated that there were more than 100,000 conversations on Twitter by the end of the week, and we have about a month of trial to go. Fuseware, it appears, also did not limit themselves to geo-tags.
There is definitely huge interest in the future of Twitter, and social media in general, in Africa. As smartphones become more affordable and internet more readily accessible, Twitter usage on the continent is rising. It’s a matter of time until brands jump in on the buzz—Portland already found that Adidas, Samsung, and Mangum ice cream ranked among the top hashtags at the end of 2013.
In the meantime though, we are still scrambling to find an entirely accurate tool for analysing Twitter use in Africa. However it’s worth noting that this is an international challenge—while we can all agree that everyone uses Twitter a lot, it’s a notoriously unruly social media site, and misleading numbers (or straight-up hoaxes) abound.  Gould’s point about geo-tagging is an entirely valid one, as checking someone’s true location when analysing tweets is still a pretty big issue.
Nonetheless, geo-tags don’t give the full picture. “In the future, it would be great if other factors were considered before such findings are put out and cited widely. There’s an appetite for statistics from Africa, and even more so on social media use/number of social media users, but we have a responsibility to apply properly devised methodologies to surface these,” Sambuli concluded.



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The cost of an online payment gateway for an SME in the UAE

Teeny tiny business owner Tamara Pitelen is feeling her way blindly through the process of getting an online payment gateway for her website… in this blog, she is horrified to discover the fees charged by the banks… will it bring everything to a crashing halt?

I feel like such a fool. I really should have known there would be another truck-sized spanner about to hit me in the head in my ongoing mission to get an online payment gateway for my website.
Am I surprised? No. Am I bitter? I’m bitterer than a mouthful of coffee grinds laced with lemon juice.
I’ve just been slapped down by the latest obstacle in the story of my attempt to first open a business bank account and then get a payment gateway for the website of my very small magazine publishing business. To read the story so far, click here.
So, here’s the latest chapter in the tale. I’ve just had my meeting with Imran Zaidi, my relationship manager from Mashreq Bank. The idea was that we would meet up so I could sign and stamp about 12,000 documents (ok, about eight documents) and show Imran the original copies of items like my trade license, my passport, etc. It should be mentioned that Imran had traipsed all the way to my offices in Media City, saving me a trip to his office in Dubai Outlet Zone. Gold star for that kind of service, Mashreq.
We had met in a café, I had a green tea, Imran had a cappuccino and things were going fine. That was until I noticed something on an addendum document that read, ‘One time set-up fee: $2,500’.
“What’s this set-up fee Imran, do I need to pay $2,500?” I asked.
“Yes, that’s right…” he said.
“Why is this the first time I’ve ever heard about this fee?”
“Did Hassaan not give you the details in a proposal?”
“Nope.”
Imran gets on the phone to Hassaan and a brief discussion takes place regarding my not having been told about the fee schedule – apparently some documents were meant to be sent to me but they weren’t. While Imran whispered into his mobile, I worked out that $2,500 is just under AED 10,000. And guess what, it turns out that the set-up fee isn’t the only fee I’d not been told about. Imran gets off the phone and tells me there is also an annual fee of $2,500 (AED 9,200) as well as a security fee of $10,000 (AED 37,000), which is refundable but that is a moot point if you don’t have it in the first place.
I’ll spare you the tears and histrionics that ensued over the next few minutes as the icy fingers of disappointment gripped me about the throat and squeezed. Silly me had assumed that taking a three per cent cut of every transaction would be sufficient payment for the bank’s efforts, how naïve and innocent that belief seems now. It was going to cost me about AED 60,000 to get this payment gateway set up – even though I was not even certain it would generate any revenue.
“Stop everything then Imran,” I said bitterly [and dramatically]. “I don’t have the money to do this. I’m going to have to forget the whole thing.” [Sob.]
“No, wait,” Imran said. “I will talk to my compliance department and put a special case forward that would waive the annual fee and the security deposit. But the set-up fee is non-negotiable because this is passed onto us from the credit card agencies…”
So, I may be able to get the gateway for about AED 9,200 that’s if Imran can get the other fees waived. And that is a monumentally huge ‘IF’, he tells me.
Still, that’s AED 9,200 that I didn’t think I’d need to find. This is on top of the AED 25,000 I need to pay this week to renew my trade license. What to do? The outgoings for a shoestring budget start-up seem never-ending, I’m beginning to see why so many fall at the first few hurdles. Just FYI, Imran tells me that in general, a small business should expect to pay the bank a minimum of about AED 15,000 to get an online payment gateway up and running. After that there is an ongoing transaction fee of 3.5 per cent (but they will reduce it to three per cent).
By the end of this meeting, three things are set in motion. First, Imran has gone off to make the argument to his compliance department that the Mashreq Bank-generated fees should be waived in my case. Second, I’m deciding whether I can come up with AED 9,200 assuming the compliance department feels sorry for me and obliges. Third, I’m back to square one on the ‘there must be another way’ thinking process.

THREE WEEKS LATER, ‘COME BACK PAYPAL, ALL IS FORGIVEN’

I haven’t heard a word from Imran since the meeting described above so I’m assuming his compliance department laughed in his face at the suggestion of waiving fees. So I am back to the start and still asking the question, ‘how will I take payment from people via my website?’ It looks like it’s going to have to be our old frenemy Paypal. Apparently, you can link a Paypal account to a credit card and retrieve funds that way if you’re in a country like the UAE where you can’t link it to a bank account. We’ll see. I’m having another meeting with my web developer next week to discuss. I’ll let you know how that goes.

THREE WEEKS AND ONE DAY LATER

I have to take back what I said about not having heard a word from Imran since our last meeting. He just called me and surprised me with the news that the Mashreq compliance department has agreed to waive all the usual fees for setting up my online payment gateway except the AED 9,200 one. I did not expect that! According to Imran, they have never done this before for anyone. Before me, the cheapest price for this was AED 15,000. So, next step is that my developer will test the integration link (Notice how I write that like I know what it means?). But there is a twist to this tale... I've just been told about another option, called Payfort. I'll be looking into that and writing another blog about it, so stay tuned if this is the kind of thing you're interested in.



For more blogs form CPI Financial, Visit our website.http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog

Tarnished reputation?

Gold maintains its lustre without tarnishing in air or water and is one of the least reactive of chemical elements. It is insoluble in nitric acid which otherwise dissolves metallic elements, a particular property that has been used to confirm the presence of gold and gave rise to the term ‘acid test’. However, while gold does not tarnish, the same may not necessarily be said of the reputations of those that handle it. Dubai’s reputation is under attack and, in particular, that of Dubai-based gold refiner Kaloti Precious Metals, the largest gold refinery in the Middle East.

UK newspaper The Guardian claims that in 2012 Kaloti ‘paid more than $5bn in cash for the metal and accepted gold from more than 1,000 customers who walked in off the street with no paperwork’.
The regulations of the Dubai Multi-Commodities Centre require gold refiners to make detailed checks of cash deals worth more than AED 40,000. However, it appears that Kaloti did not have a system in place to do this in 2012. The paper’s story is based on leaked documents from Ernst & Young (E&Y), which had been brought in to review Kaloti’s business practices.
Among specific allegations by The Guardian, Kaloti was said to have ‘taken millions of dollars of gold knowing it was plated in another metal and seemed to have been smuggled out of Morocco’.
The refiner has responded, “There is absolutely no evidence that Kaloti falsified any documentation. In its audit report, E&Y clearly stated that ‘findings were inadequate documentation in the supply chain’.
“Kaloti had full KYC documentation on all its Moroccan clients and had proper import documentation and invoices stating that this particular consignment was gold from Morocco. 
“Kaloti accepted it had a shortcoming in the initial audit, quickly remediated it, and is now fully compliant.”
The Guardian also claimed that Kaloti had ‘accepted 2.4 tonnes of gold in more than 1,000 transactions with customers who provided no paperwork’; and ‘paid cash to Sudanese suppliers who had hand-carried gold to Dubai – sourced from small-scale, artisan mining operations – but did not check whether they had approved mining licences’.
The refiner has responded, “All cash transactions mentioned in the report were conducted for clients that were on boarded by Kaloti and have full compliance KYC documentation. Each transaction was monitored by E&Y and each of the suppliers were checked by E&Y. There is no evidence that Kaloti was involved in money laundering; or any of our clients for that matter…”
The paper admitted that, “The Guardian has seen no evidence that published reporting of Kaloti failings was out of line with regulatory rules or industry practice.” It also said, “While there is no evidence that the refinery accepted conflict gold, major breaches in new guidelines were uncovered, raising concern about the history of huge volumes of shipments.”
In its public statement responding to the international media reports, the refiner said, “Kaloti would like to take this opportunity to reassure that these allegations are false and without any substantiation. Kaloti has strongly denied these claims and any implication relating to regulatory non-compliance in the gold trade.”
It added, “In all of Ernst & Young’s reports and findings during the process, Kaloti was never found to be sourcing from conflict zones. Any non-compliance during the initial audit stage was related to specific documentation anomalies, which were swiftly rectified, and not to any findings of conflict gold within the supply chain. There has been no evidence in any of E&Y findings that Kaloti sourced gold from conflict zones…
However, the refiner admitted, “As stated in the audit’s Consolidated Report, published on our website in accordance with the requirements of the regulator, Kaloti had shortcomings in the initial stages of the multi-staged process. However, as per DMCC Guidelines, Kaloti submitted a corrective action plan and immediately started the remediation process. The company received a fully compliant final audit result, which was confirmed by Ernst & Young.”
Unfortunately, it is perhaps not enough to be in a position to refute the allegations that have been made. Better by far to have systems in place that preclude them from ever being made in the first place. Gold is a key factor in Dubai’s trade, the gold business in the emirate is estimated to be worth around $70 billion a year.
The row centring on Kaloti is not over claims that it imported gold from conflict zones but that the systems it had in place meant that it was impossible to determine the origin of some of the gold it imported.
There are now strict international rules regarding so-called ‘conflict diamonds’. The global community is attempting to put in place similar rules regarding ‘conflict gold’. Kaloti could perhaps restore the lustre to its reputation and indeed boost its business by ensuring that not only are its systems and business practices correct but also that they are clearly seen to be correct, obviating the need to defend itself against any future claims otherwise – that would perhaps be the refiner’s own ‘acid test’.

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Thoroughfares, tweets and property prices

by Zoya Malik
 
There’s a lot to be said in favour of a smooth daily commute for a healthy and positive start to one’s work and school day.

 Traffic gridlock in The Gardens, in Dubai.

Residents at master developer Nakheel’s Discovery Gardens, The Gardens Community and Al Furjan Villas have been up in arms this past month due to the appalling traffic gridlock faced by Dubai commuters and school drop-off parents in its surrounding areas. A development that serves up to 30,000 residents and boasts 95 per cent occupancy has seen its roadways strained with bottlenecks due to a sudden RTA move to close a temporary dirt-path leading off from the Ibn Battuta Mall to the Sheikh Zayed Road. It seems this path has served as an informal fourth exit used by hundreds of cars every day for a swift getaway during morning and evening rush hour. The abrupt cut off that served as a lifeline for a number of years has frustrated commuters and children on buses servicing three local schools. Last week, the matter was made worse due to the rains and flooding, bringing greater pressure to bear on The Gardens’ historically poor drainage that caused accidents and left cars and vans abandoned in the flood water.
In the daily press, travellers’ have tweeted their travails as “being trapped” in vehicles from 45 minutes to two hours to reach school and work. Anxiety levelled at the RTA and Nakheel has been over children’s health and safety on buses, left without snacks and access to bathrooms.

 

On 13 February, Nakheel advised, “Today’s traffic congestion at Discovery Gardens is the result of a road closure by the RTA for safety reasons.  We continue to liaise with the RTA, impressing upon them the urgent need to address traffic congestion in the area.  Meanwhile, to help ease the situation, Nakheel has today opened up a temporary route between Discovery Gardens, Al Furjan and the E77 (Al Yalayis Road), which connects Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road and Sheikh Zayed Road”. Since then The RTA announced, “As regards to the traffic congestion at Discovery Gardens the RTA  is about to undertake further road works in the area with a view to providing two additional entries and two exits for the Discovery Gardens and Ibn Battuta Mall at Interchange 5.5 on the Sheikh Zayed Road and the Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road. Works in these solutions are expected to be completed by the end of this year 2014. These works are undertaken as part of the next 5-Year Plan, which provides for completing parallel roads in that area”.
This lack of foresight in proper urban planning in a growing city creates headaches for the community at large and property owners. Many residents renting properties are thinking of moving out of the area. In speaking to Sohair Elmeniawi, Client Manager at Exclusive Links Real Estate Brokers responsible for The Furjan Villas, she commented, “We are finding that the absence of the originally promised exit to the Emirates Road, standing water and lack of a security gate in this prestigious development is scaring buyers away. While traffic issues are a main-stay of this area, property prices had risen in 2013 for three bedroom villas from AED 2.3 million – AED 2.9 million. Although Nakheel has done a good job with quality at Al Furjan, now prospective buyers are shying from such serious infrastructure issues. So access particularly is affecting property movement and so communities will get affected. It’s the RTA’s responsibility to sort out immediately, especially in view of the area’s proximity to the Jebal Ali Airport, Abu Dhabi and EXPO 2020 pavilions that will be located in this area.”
As a school mum to the area, the daily challenge puts undue pressure on the morning run to work. The school is accommodating and so are my bosses in their understanding, of matters far beyond one’s control. Patience is a virtue, yet the consequences of ad hoc planning should not be left to the good graces and acceptance of helpless residents.
Perhaps this raising of exigent petitions through social media and the show of reluctance by home- buyers to commit, may make the case and the endorsement for change and propel local agencies to cooperate in the planning and development of living spaces that are amenable for ease and safety of movement and peace of mind for all. 

For more blogs form CPI Financial, Visit our website.http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog

A real-estate of affairs

by Zoya Malik

Suffice it to say that property buying can be a very dizzying experience. While researching Dubai’s housing sales market recently, I discovered the numerous perplexing challenges and limitations that house hunters are currently facing, in a lopsided market (expatriates can only buy in certain ear-marked developments), inflated by Dubai’s economic recovery.

 

 Rents surged by 40 per cent last year, boosted by the Expo 2020 excitement and are now forcing tenants to re-assess renewing their leases. Due to these extreme hikes, many long-standing Dubai residents are deciding to take the plunge and enter the property market. However, the UAE Central Bank’s highly anticipated and imminent new regulation on banks’ mortgage-lending caps has caused anxiety among purchasers. Under this regulation, based on a loan-to-value ratio for the first investment up to five million dirhams, expatriates will be limited to borrowing up to 75 per cent of the property value – the challenge being to gather a minimum down payment of 25 per cent. (Currently most banks require a 15 per cent deposit and will finance the balance on various interest-rate terms).

So borrowers, otherwise confident about meeting monthly repayments, will immediately feel the burden of having to find a larger deposit that may effectively price them out of the market. Buyers must also calculate for paying an additional 6 per cent on top of the property price to include the Buyers fee at 2 per cent, the Sellers fee at 2 per cent and the broker’s commission at 2 per cent, which shouldn’t apply if buying directly from the developer. There is also a handling charge by the Land Registry on the purchase. As market pressure bears down, so momentum abounds and prices are rising to squeeze out as much juice and mileage for all interested parties. New projects are now coming on-line at a steady pace in Dubailand, Sports City and Jumierah Village South, but it seems not quickly enough to satisfy this pressing demand. And everyday prices for the same properties are being pushed up due to several unprecedented factors.
In new developments, buyers may be delayed in securing the property of their choice having to await the seller acquiring the title deed to the property from the Land Registry.  Sellers in possession of a title deed have turned this to their advantage and are charging a premium on the advertised prices for their new builds, to take advantage of this time lag. In view of the looming mortgage cap, buyers are submitting to these higher charges as competition heats up between units’ bona fide handovers. Many buyers are even buying properties unseen, in a bid to clinch the best deals of the moment.
Banks are challenged to step up lending at attractive rates to capture this new buyer interest and brokers equally to secure the best price, close the deal before regulation comes in and earn their commissions.
The only other hope is that the rental market also comes to heel, giving residents more options to suit their lifestyles and wallets.

 Ref: http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/25144/a-real-estate-of-affairs

Getting a business bank account and online payment gateway for a start-up

by Tamara Pitelen
 

Tamara Pitelen chronicles the journey to opening a bank account for a small business that also offers an online merchant payment gateway.

It is three months since I first attempted to open a business bank account for my new born company, Awakenings Media.

You can read my first blog about this journey here.

I have succeeded in opening a Rakbank business account. The process took about eight weeks and involved the hapless staff of Rakbank paying me a visit to my office at least five times. Three of these visits were because someone back at their head office did not think my signature was suitably consistent across the various documents they required me to sign. So, a number of young gentlemen were forced to make the trek from their office in Deira to my office in Media City – via public transport – so that I could have another go at signing my signature 25 times in the same way. I ended up telling the last man that I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t write my signature the same way 25 times. He said, “please Madam, please, just print the letters, it must be the same.” So, I ended up dropping the usual flourishes, strikes and swirls that one makes when doing their signature and reverted to primary school block printing of the letters in my name. I know this is going to come undone. I know that in, say, six months or so, I’ll forget and sign a cheque with my usual flourish, which will be rejected by the bank and involve weeks of back and forth trying to sort it out.

Anyway, I do want to give full credit to Rakbank for being so obliging. In stark contrast to various other banks that couldn’t be bothered even emailing me more than one word answers (Citibank), banks with random fees for nothing in particular (ENBD) and banks I’ve long decided to avoid for a long and bitter list of reasons (HSBC Middle East), Rakbank went far and beyond the call of duty to help me open my account. It just took quite a long time. However, I’ve since found out that Rakbank can’t offer me a merchant payment gateway for my website. As a small publishing company, I’d need to take payment from people through my website in return for subscribing to my magazine. We are not talking Donald Trump levels of transactions here but I do need to be able to take payment by credit card or Paypal from people who want to buy my magazine. It turns out that only four banks in the UAE have the license to offer an online merchant payment gateway. This big four are Emirates NBD, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Mashreq Bank and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. Why can't a UAE-based start-up just use Paypal? Mainly because you can't get the money out of Paypal unless it's linked to a bank.

I’ve already decided against ENBD because of their random AED 200 a month fee for just having an account. So I just called Mashreq Bank and they tell me that yes, I can open a Business Value Account that will get me a merchant payment gateway, the main conditions include maintaining a minimum balance of AED 10,000 (falling below gets you a AED 250 per month fee) and a standard monthly fee of AED 50. I can live with that.
Within half an hour of my inquiry call on 24 December 2013, I got a call back from a gentleman who is emailing me the initial set-up documents for the payment gateway.
By early January, I had my account set up and activated, my Visa debit card and chequebook couriered to me and I was told the set up of my online payment gateway was on the way. It all took about 10 days and nobody said anything about my inconsistent signature.

So, if you’re a start-up looking for a UAE bank that can offer you a business account with an online payment gateway for your website, I recommend Mashreq Bank.

Next step, getting the payment gateway integrated into my website. I’ll do another blog about that.

Given the choice?

by Isla MacFarlane

Banks in Malaysia are insisting their Muslim clientele avail Islamic banking products – even when they don’t want them

Every time I have interviewed Governor Zeti she has given me the same quote about Malaysia’s dual banking system; it gives choice to the consumer. Muslims have the option of banking in accordance with their faith – but what if they don’t want to?
“If you are Malay, they will assume you are Muslim and the banks will insist on giving you an Islamic product,” a lady from Malaysia told me today. “Few consumers are aware they have a choice, and if you try to object the banks aren’t helpful.”
Not wanting what she deemed to be a more restrictive product, the woman was annoyed to be given an Islamic credit card by her bank. “I did not want it,” she said. “I asked for a conventional credit card but they gave me an Islamic one anyway. I had to go down to the branch and put up a real fight to be given a conventional one.”
This practice is apparently widespread in Malaysia, where Islamic consumer banking has lagged behind the commercial sector. Although many of the large banks operating Islamic subsidiaries boast an equal number of Islamic and conventional clientele, the consumer is often unaware they have been given an Islamic product.
“They will simply receive a Takaful policy instead of an insurance one, and few question it. Many don’t understand what it is or that there was a conventional insurance policy on offer,” said the woman, who did not wish to be named.  “At the end of the day I want a product that best suits my needs, and I should be allowed to choose that for myself. Non Malays are given the choice, why aren’t I? It’s unethical.”
Ironically, Islamic banking is often promoted by governments as a way of granting the power of choice to the consumer. Nearly every central bank governor I have interviewed gives this as a reason for introducing an Islamic banking framework. And nearly every observer says Islamic consumer banking must be competitive to win over Muslims, and indeed non-Muslims. Nearly everyone agrees that being Islamic is not a selling point on its own.
American writer Mark Twain once said, “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.” Malaysia’s Islamic banks seem to have taken this to heart, and clearly don’t have enough faith in their products to let the public decide for themselves. Sadly, it is the power of choice that ultimately drives up standards, and if Malaysia’s Islamic banks allowed this they would end up with Islamic banking products customers wanted to choose. 

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.

Bitcoins - the debate rages

by Tamara Pitelen

A couple of people have sent me emails after reading my blog Bitcoin for Beginners a couple of days ago. One of them was a bit mad at me. I'll get to him in a minute.

A couple of people have sent me emails after reading my blog Bitcoin for Beginners a couple of days ago. One of them was a bit mad at me. I'll get to him in a minute.
My first email correspondence over the bitcoin issue was with Julian Tosh, who lives in Las Vegas and has a website called www.bitcoinsinvegas.com. He said: "Trying to earn bitcoins online is less profitable than mining. Offer a good or service and you'll have more luck - or simply buy them from someone or a business like CoinBase.com.
"If you'd like to buy them from an individual, you also might benefit from their experience and learn some easier or more secure ways to do things. I recommend trying to meet someone through localbitcoins.com or bitcoin.meetup.com."
Julian also holds weekly bitcoin lunch mobs in Las Vegas so if you're in town and interested, go and say hi from me. I asked Julian if he earned and spent bitcoins on a regular basis and did he see  future when we'd all be paid in bitcoins, pay our rent and buy our groceries in bitcoins?
He said: "I earn bitcoins, buy bitcoins, and spend them just about every day. There is a growing community of adopters in many major metropolitan areas. In Las Vegas, I have a group of about 60 people who meet regularly to keep up to date and participate in the Bitcoin economy. Here in Vegas, there is a dentist that works for bitcoin, a real estate agent that will let you buy/rent/lease properties for bitcoin, a mechanic will fix your car for bitcoin, and numerous food establishments that will feed you for bitcoin.
"I see bitcoin as a competitor to all money systems. It has properties that are better at times, and not so good at times. But where it shines is its frictionless ability to transfer value/wealth over distance. It is impossible to send 10g of gold to someone in another country for payment. It is expensive to send the same value in fiat due to banking fees. But it is very easy and inexpensive to send that same value in bitcoin to any location in the world. There is no counterparty risk with bitcoin, no way to regulate maximum amounts you can send, and no way to reverse a payment.
"This is a brand new globally accessible currency and the world is only now beginning to understand its properties and benefits. It's not surprising it's not ubiquitously used. But due to the ease at which it can be used once you learn it, I'm confident that it will be accepted everywhere eventually - just like credit cards were not always accepted at all merchants 20 years ago."
Thanks for that Julian! Very interesting.
Second, there was Mike Gehl - I don't know where he's from - who emailed me and wrote:
"I think you're missing the point of digital currencies if you think the only way to acquire them is by filling out surveys and watching videos. People aren't going to just hand you an ounce of silver - you need to  dig it from the ground, earn it, or exchange something of value for it. Bitcoin is the same.
"The most important part of the Bitcoin system is the payment network - not the currency aspect. Currently, one of the most pervasive problems with credit cards & online transactions is identity theft and fraud. A consequence of this leads to 2-3% credit card processing fees along with charge-backs levied on merchants. This results in overall higher prices to consumers. "
"The Bitcoin system solves this problem and this should be your story. Bitcoin enables near Instant, secure, global transactions facilitated by minimal processing fees on a network trusted by its users (no banks, no governments required)."
My reply to Mike was, yes, I know I'm missing the point... endeavouring to get the point is the idea behind the experimentation. Theoretically I understand that having a global payment network that bypasses the banks and finance houses has masses of advantages but I'm taking it to the realm of the common woman and man. How do I get these things in everyday life. My boss won't pay me in them, my landlord won't accept them for rent, I can't buy my groceries with them.
I can envisage a future of a global digital currency - I'd love that to manifest actually. I do wonder though if Bitcoin needs to work on its reputation though, when you start investigating them, you end up with a lot of gambling opportunities and links to dodgy websites.
However, here's another interesting development in the last few hours. Germany has just officially recognised Bitcoin as legal tender, calling it 'private money' - which basically means they're going to tax it like any other income source.
Finally, a mystery. I checked my Bitcoin account balance this morning and it's grown! I now have BTC 0.010012. I don't know where that BTC 0.01 came from but it's equivalent to about 72 pence! I'll be getting that Mr Zombie Geek mug in no time.
Keep the emails coming if you want to continue chatting about bitcoin - write to me at tamara@cpifinancial.net - if someone can explain this 'mining' concept to me, awesome. I've read many explanations but still I don't get it.

Reff: http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/22595/bitcoins-the-debate-rages

Bare necessities

 

by Isla MacFarlane
 
Is Islamic finance merely a luxury the majority of the Muslim world can't afford?

The head of an angel investor fund from Egypt laughed when I asked her if there was any demand for Islamic loans. “No,” she replied firmly. “There is demand for money. They don’t care where from.”
In fact, ninety five per cent of the Muslim world does not have access to Islamic finance. And they don’t seem to mind. I’m not talking about Muslims living in non Islamic territories – out of the countries which boast a Muslim population of 98 per cent or more, the vast majority, including Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Comoros, Jordan, the Maldives, Morocco, Niger, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Somalia and Yemen either have no domestic Islamic finance industry, a pocket-sized or an embryonic one. Only Iran, Iraq and Turkey feature on the list and have an industry to speak of.
The world’s largest Muslim countries don’t fare much better. Indonesia, home to 12.7 per cent of the world's Muslims, has a tiny domestic industry which pales in comparison to its neighbour Malaysia’s. Pakistan, the second largest, has been making progress but its conventional banks still dwarf the few Islamic institutions. India, the third largest Muslim country, has yet to open one Islamic institution.
It seems Islamic finance is not considered a necessity in the majority of the Muslim world, especially in countries where a sizeable number of the population does not have enough money to open a bank account. It is born out of business needs, rather than fundamental ones.
As one of my contributors, Rushdi Siddiqui, pointed out to me recently, this is the opposite of Islamic finance’s much larger cousin, the Halal industry. All must eat, and Muslims will only eat Halal.
With its surplus liquidity, it seems a good way for Islamic finance to make itself relevant to the wider Muslim world would be to invest in the capital-hungry Halal industry. As Siddiqui pointed out, with so little access to Islamic finance, many Halal businesses are reliant on conventional funding. Ironically, this means that Muslims may eat a Halal burger but may not be able to invest in a Halal burger chain.

Tried and tested - Bitcoin for beginners

by Tamara Pitelen

Are bitcoins the future of money or are they a bit of a con? Tamara Pitelen tries them out for size. 

I’ve been hearing a lot about bitcoin lately. Apparently this is the currency of the future. Fast forward a decade or two and currencies like the euro and swiss franc will be history, we’ll all be earning and spending bitcoins. That’s the theory from what I can gather… but I’m not convinced so far.
What are bitcoins? The first decentralised digital currency, the pundits say. Essentially, they are digital coins you can send and received via the internet into and out of your online bitcoin wallet.
Bitcoin cheerleaders say it’s a new kind of money and ‘the biggest opportunity for innovation that the world has seen since the industrial revolution. An idea whose time has come!’
It all sounds great but how do you earn and spend these bitcoins? I figured the best way to understand bitcoins is to use them. So, to find out what it was all about, I first downloaded the software at www.weusecoins.com to create my online bitcoin wallet. This also gave me a bitcoin address, which is: 1JfhhT1PAW8quKCt4qbbvg61nfS54Y4NVx. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
Ok, I’m ready to spend but my bitcoin bank account is empty, which  begs the question, how do you earn bitcoins?
One way you can earn them is by watching videos at www.cointube.tv which is where I watched someone called Chef Ricardo making home-made Jamaican-style vegetarian pizza. Chef Ricardo’s video was 10 minutes 51 seconds long. I don’t think Chef Ricardo is really a chef. He’s a guy who’s making a pizza in his kitchen using ingredients out of a jar. Frankly, life is too short to watch this stuff.
Worse, despite the website promising to pay me 20 uBTC* for stealing that 11 minutes of my life, the money did not turn up in my Bitcoin Wallet.
I went to several other websites that claimed to offer ways to earn bitcoins but for one reason or another, none of them worked. These included: www.iwantfreebitcoins.com, www.coinvisitor.com, www.bitcrate.com, www.coinad.com, www.netlookup.se... There are hundreds more websites that claim to give ‘free’ bitcoins in return for doing things like filling in surveys, downloading software or Facebook apps, staying on a website page for three minutes, or watching videos but in my experience it just never worked out to be that easy. For example, I started filling in a survey at www.abitback.com but a few pages into the survey – at the nationality question – the survey suddenly stopped and I was basically told I didn’t fit the brief of the people whose details were desired. At other websites, I was told ‘this offer is not available in your country’.
During this afternoon of experimentation, I earned BTC 0.000008 for viewing a website page for one minute at www.earnfreebitcoins.com. So I watched that page a few more times until I’d racked up the mighty total of 0.000012. Next, at www.bitcoin4you.net, I earned BTC 0.000028 for looking at a website page for three minutes.
In the end, after an afternoon’s work, I’d had earned the princely sum of BTC 0.00004. What can you buy with that? One of the online stores that accept bitcoins is UK-based www.somethinggeeky.com where a Mr Zombie geek mug sells for £8.99. I’d need BTC 0.13 to buy that mug since £1 is worth about BTC 0.01. Unfortunately, my BTC 0.0004 is worth less than one pence.
Worse, it turns out the bitcoin network won’t relay transactions that have a payment of less than BTC 0.01 unless you pay a transaction fee of at least BTC 0.0001 (that's 100 uBTC) per kilobyte. So if I earned 200 uBTC, I’d have to pay a fee of 400 uBTC just to send it somewhere! In other words, the rewards of my afternoon’s toil would be spent on transaction fees.
So far, my verdict of bitcoin is ‘a bit of a con’. Am I missing something crucial about this ‘money of the future?’ Tell me where I’m going wrong! Email me at tamara@cpifinancial.net

*1 mBtc is Btc 0.001
1 uBtc is Btc 0.000001

http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/22566/tried-and-tested-bitcoin-for-beginners

Why we should all be sharing our numbers, and the reason that cephalopods don't rule the earth

by William Mullally

Though there are compelling reasons why many companies in the MENA region don't share all of their figures, ultimately there are big benefits for doing so. 

At last month’s Arabnet Digital Summit, a wonderfully successful event in my estimation, one of the more exciting moments happened when the founder of one e-commerce site called out the CEO of another while the latter sat on a panel discussing issues affecting the space. The questioner asked, pointedly, why the panelist’s company, like many others, refused to divulge its exact revenue figures. The crowd was riveted by the confrontation. When the panelist responded, he gave an equivocal answer that didn’t seem to satisfy the question-asker.
When the panel ended, the crowd was abuzz with the moment. Many I spoke to, including those who work in the same space, found it the highlight of the day, and more importantly, agreed with the questioners call for transparency.
Personally, I can understand his hesitation to share exact figures, and the hesitation of other companies in that space. If you have a private company, in this part of the world, you are under no legal or often ethical obligation to share what is indeed private information. Some of the largest and most successful companies in the region see no real benefit to divulging their exact numbers, even if those numbers are overwhelmingly positive. And culturally, this is, for the most part, accepted. This is the way things have always been done.
In the global business world, though, many have the sense that if you don’t talk about your numbers, that’s because those aren’t in fact very good. We all winced when Blackberry didn’t fully reveal the sales numbers on its new line of Blackberry 10 phones last month, as it was clear to most analysts that this meant those numbers were below expectations. Companies tend to boast loudly about success and quietly whisper when things aren’t going their way.
As a result, some view those in the still-nascent e-commerce space in the MENA region who won’t talk about their numbers as a signal of just that—things aren’t going their way. Some I spoke to at the conference said to me that they feel that these companies aren’t doing as well as they would have others believe, and as a result they feel the need to puff out their chest so future customers don’t see them as failures and move along. This is understandable—no one wants to have the whiff of failure attached to them, and in the digital space, companies go from “the next big thing” to “yesterday’s news” every day. (Sometimes when I’m overwhelmed and need to clear my head, I go visit Myspace or Google+, as they are good places to be alone.) So if the numbers are in fact bad, maybe it’s better to stay quiet than to speak up and remove all doubt.
One of the big problems with going public is the need to constantly impress shareholders on a quarterly basis, which sometimes hurts the long term.  Sometimes then, it makes sense to hold your cards close to your chest in the early days, in order to work towards long-term goals rather than focusing on the short-term. But there are huge benefits to sharing numbers, too. If companies are forced to share, they are kept more honest, and this ultimately eases investment. It also allows others to learn from your success and mistakes, which is after all what makes humans so successful in the first place.
To get a bit off topic and sound a bit ridiculous for a moment (but bear with me I’m going somewhere with this): Cephalopods should really be ruling the earth. They have much more basic intellectual potential than humans do. But it is their lack of a natal stage, in which their parents teach them everything they have learned, that stops them from developing as a species. Every cephalopod born is born all alone, and must discover the world on his own having learned nothing from those that came before him. What makes humans great is that we develop, and all that we have learned throughout history is passed on to the next generation. It’s what allows us to better ourselves, and move forward.  The more information sharing the better, I’d say. And if we really want to improve the e-commerce space in this region, so that it can grow to the level that it has in other parts of the world, then we’re going to have to get a lot better at sharing our information with each other, so we can figure out how exactly to make this big experiment work.

Original post : http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/22277/why-we-should-all-be-sharing-our-numbers-and-the-reason-that-cephalopods-dont-rule-the-earth

Electric and hybrid cars in the UAE

by Tamara Pitelen

When it comes to cars, I’m your typical girl. Sadly, I’m not the woman who’s going to be smashing any stereotypes any time soon. However, recently I’ve been investigating the world of ‘green’ cars in the UAE, namely cars powered solely or partly by electricity as opposed to petrol, and it's been quite revelatory.

With levels of air pollution around the world literally killing people – seven million per annum globally at last count, of which 850 deaths are here in the UAEˡ – more people are choosing to buy cars that do not belch out clouds of toxic greenhouse gases.
Electric and hybrid cars like the Toyota Prius and Tesla are an increasingly common sight in countries like the UK and US but here in the UAE you could spend a very long time on Sheikh Zayed Road before you spot one. Why? The main reason is obvious. Petrol in this region is cheap therefore there is not the financial incentive to buy an electric or hybrid car. Interestingly though, I discovered it’s more complex than that. There are several other main factors that are preventing the uptake of electric and hybrid vehicles in this region. I will get to those in a minute because I want to tell you something else I found quite a revelation as well. The sector here in the UAE that is driving (excuse the pun) the move to more environmentally-friendly cars is the High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) end of the market. I know! Who knew all those rich people that often get tarred with the ‘selfish’ brush would be the ones leading the way on green vehicles?
Here in the UAE, it’s extremely difficult, in fact nigh on impossible, to buy an affordable electric or hybrid car such as the Toyota Prius. However if you want to buy a high-end premium brand hybrid, no problem at all! The main hybrids available here are Porsche (AED 485,000), Karma Fisker (AED 500,000), McLaren P1 (AED 3.7 million) and Lexus (c AED 300,000). Of all these companies, it's Porsche that's offering customers the most when it comes to options and servicing.
Managing Director Porsche Middle East & Africa George Wills said, “We have always believed that our customers should have access to the entire model range, including our hybrid offers. We don’t follow the general trend, we want to set it. It is important to start building up the awareness and confidence in customers for hybrid models in this region; only through this, the general acceptance will increase.”
In the UAE, Porsche offers the Cayenne S Hybrid, Panamera S Hybrid and Panamera S E-Hybrid. The world’s first plug-in hybrid in the luxury class, the Panamera S E-Hybrid’s fuel consumption is 3.1 litres per 100km and reaches a speed of up to 135 km/h in pure electric drive mode. This year will also see the unveiling of the 918 Spyder, the first ever hybrid super sports car with a total of 887 hp combined from three engines, an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in less than 2.8 seconds and an average consumption of a mere 3.3 litres per 100 kilometres.
What will it cost you? A Panamera S Hybrid goes for AED 485,000 in comparison to its petrol equivalent, which will cost you AED 462,000. The Cayenne S Hybrid will cost you AED 326,000 while its petrol equivalent goes for AED 307,000.
Let’s get though to why there is little to no electric or hybrid cars available in the more mainstream market. First, where would you top up your battery? Currently, there is one single public recharge station in the UAE, that’s in DIFC. So, unless you live in a villa and have your own exclusive garaging with power points available, you’ve got nowhere to recharge the battery on your nice, environmentally-friendlier car.
Second, where will you get your car serviced? Electric and hybrid servicing is a different skill set to servicing a regular car. A car dealer would need to hire staff that can do it and would need to have different equipment and parts in stock for maintenance and repair of green cars. It seems that no one other than a handful such as Porsche are willing to make this investment unless they start to see increased demand for hybrid vehicles.
It’s a bit ‘chicken and egg’. No one will buy a green car until the infrastructure is available and no one is going to invest in the infrastructure until people start buying more green cars.
What’s the answer? A couple of things need to happen and most of them probably need to be government driven. For a start, there needs to be more financial incentives as have been introduced overseas, for example, carbon and emissions taxes for petrol polluters. This would make companies that have a fleet of company vehicles more likely to consider the emissions component of their vehicles.
In addition, more public solar powered charging stations need to be built. A country where the sun shines almost every day of the year could be an international leader on solar powered cars and technology if the initial investment were made.
I would not be surprised if we do see more legislation introduced in the UAE to cut the nation’s carbon footprint. The UAE authorities understand the issues with air pollution and the government is monitoring air pollution and murmurings have been heard regarding initiatives to cut emissions. Although, in a country where there is such a deep love of fast, powerful cars, this might not happen quickly.
Still though, the seeds are being sown and the winds of change are blowing – we may very well be witnessing the beginnings of the demise of the traditional petrol powered car.

 For more about luxury green cars in the UAE, read the Aug-Sept issue of WEALTH magazine. The digital version is on the website from 5 August at www.cpifinancial.net

Original Post  : http://www.cpifinancial.net/blog/post/22284/electric-and-hybrid-cars-in-the-uae