Business Extra

IEA’s Fatih Birol on the opportunities for Iraq's economy

This week, The National's Editor-in-Chief, Mina Al-Oraibi, talks to Mustafa Alrawi about her interview with the International Energy Agency's executive director Dr Fatih Birol regarding efforts to diversify and reform Iraq's economy.

In this episode:
Mina on Iraq's future (0m 30s)
Dr Fatih Birol about the investment environment in Iraq (4m 20s)
Gas flaring and Iraq's government (5m 35s)
Headlines (14m 25s)

Read more on our website:
• Energy and legal framework reforms will usher stability into Iraq, IEA chief says

• Gold hits record high as haven demand rises and dollar slips

• DP World expands with 60% stake in South Korea's Unico amid pandemic-induced volume drop

• 'Groundswell of interest' among ESG investors in disability rights

Sovereign wealth funds hunt for opportunity amid Covid-19 crisis

It seems that despite the market volatility caused by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic that many sovereign wealth funds had learned the lesson of the last financial crisis and were nimble enough and cash-heavy enough to seize the opportunities out there.

On this week's episode, Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talk to Zainab Kufaishi, head of Middle East and Africa at Invesco.

In this episode:
Intro (0m 08s)
Zainab Kufaishi on Invesco's annual global sovereign asset management study (1m 11s)
How are sovereign funds investing now? (3m 42s)
What is a good investment opportunity? (11m 04s)
Headlines (19m 54s)

Read more on our website:
• Middle East sovereign funds go bargain hunting as pandemic hits asset values

• Siemens Energy to invest more in renewables, CEO says

• Mubadala's aerospace unit seeks opportunities in health technology

• Global giants Microsoft, Nike and Unilever announce carbon-neutral group

Economic stimulus in Dubai to get business back to normal

This week, hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner discuss a third wave of economic stimulus for Dubai as signs of a rebound in commercial activity emerge and the emirate pushes to return business to normal as soon as possible.  

In a new book, the World Economic Forum's founder Klaus Schwab asks if there can even be a return to normal as the pandemic reveals a collective desire for change.

Haider Ali Khan, chief executive of property portal Bayut, joins to talk about the company's future plans.

In this episode:
Dubai's new economic stimulus (0m 40s)
Covid-19: The great reset (7m 01s)
Bayut x Dubizzle merger (12m 13s)

Read more on our website:
• Dubai government boosts economic stimulus to Dh6.3bn

• Coronavirus: world 'must reset or risk violent shocks', says Davos founder

• Tie-up of Bayut parent company and OLX testament to Dubai’s resilience

• Google to invest $10bn in India to accelerate digital economy

• Emirates to slash up to 9,000 jobs due to Covid-19 but airline better off than others

• Neom moves forward with second batch of payments to property owners

Google’s Lino Cattaruzzi on how ‘online became a lifeline’

For Google, it’s what you search for, what you watch on YouTube, the directions you prompt in Google Maps, that make it one of the biggest advertising juggernauts on Earth. Selling advertising spots across these channels made up 82% of Google parent company Alphabet’s first quarter revenue this year, $33.8 billion. 

While advertisers are expected to have spent less in Q2 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, analysts say the world jumped five years ahead in tech adoption in just 8 weeks as we moved to remote working and learning. That’s good news for Google. In the words of Lino Cattaruzzi, Google’s regional director in the Middle East and Africa, “online became a lifeline”.

On this week's edition of Business Extra, Kelsey Warner and Mustafa Alrawi talk to Lino about everything Google.

In this episode:
Intro (0m 06s)
Google's role in a recovery (1m 08s)
The relationship between business and user data insights (9m 21s)
What is it like working remotely at Google? (17m 43s)

Iata’s Muhammad Albakri on Middle East airlines and how we will risk losing them

How will we fly again? That is the question as the UAE and other countries in the Middle East grapple with loosening Covid-19 related travel restrictions. Airlines have been in survival mode these past few months. Now they must take to the skies again…

This week, Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talk to Muhammad Albakri, VP Africa & Middle East at the International Air Transport Association, about the future of flying.

In this episode:
Muhammad Albakri on the future of air travel (0m 43s)
Will air travel be affordable again? (12m 26s)
Headlines (23m 23s)

Read more on our website:
• Global airlines body outlines alternatives to quarantine

• Global long-haul air travel unlikely to recover to pre-crisis levels before 2023

• Iata's interactive travel map shows which countries are open and where flights are operating

• Chesapeake files for bankruptcy as collapse in energy prices bites

• A merged NCB-Samba bank would be Saudi Arabia's biggest lender 'by some way', says EFG Hermes

• Mark Zuckerberg's wealth plunges by $7bn as companies boycott Facebook ads

• Here is the growing list of companies boycotting Facebook

Amazon’s Ronaldo Mouchawar on charting growth in a crisis

Can there be winners in a global pandemic? For people, certainly not. But businesses can tell a different story - and Amazon is certainly one. With more customers at home and shopping online, Amazon’s e-commerce sales are booming. Remote work has also boosted demand for its cloud computing services - which accounted for three-quarters of its operating profit in the first quarter, with AWS holding about a third of global market share, trouncing its nearest competitor, Microsoft.

Host Kelsey Warner is joined this week by Ronaldo Mouchawar, VP of Amazon Mena, to talk about navigating the Covid-19 pandemic amid record demand.

In this episode:
Will Coronavirus make Jeff Bezos a trillionaire? (0m 07s)
Ronaldo Mouchawar on demand during Covid-19 (1m 12s)
Headlines (17m 52s)

Read more on our website:
• Amazon Mena increases workforce by 30% to meet demand

• Adnoc CFO says previous pipelines deal served as springboard for record $20bn valuation

• Record $20.7bn investment deal for Adnoc's gas pipelines

• Adnoc's $10 billion windfall shows 'UAE attractive as top FDI destination amid pandemic'

• Former Abraaj executive Vettivetpillai consents to US extradition

Business Extra special: Adnoc CFO on record $20bn foreign investment

Six of the world’s leading investors, a total deal value of $20.7 billion, upfront proceeds of $10 billion. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has secured the biggest ever energy infrastructure deal in the region. Also one of the largest foreign direct investments in recent years, all amid a global pandemic.

This week on a special edition of Business Extra, Mustafa Alrawi talks to Ahmed Al Zaabi, CFO at Adnoc.

Read more on our website:
• Record $20.7bn investment deal for Adnoc's gas pipelines

• Adnoc's $10 billion windfall shows 'UAE attractive as top FDI destination amid pandemic'

• Adnoc CFO says previous pipelines deal served as springboard for record $20bn valuation

UAE’s energy minister on the transformation after coronavirus

The new reality for the world’s biggest oil producing countries and companies is being formed as the coronavirus pandemic alters projections for demand and consumption trends change. As UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei alluded to this week no one could have predicted the future would arrive so quickly for the industry. 

Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talks to The National's energy correspondent, Jennifer Gnana, about UAE's energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei statements and the future of the energy industry.

In this episode:
The aftermath of the coronavirus and Suhail Al Mazrouei (0m 41s)
The changes in the energy industry (2m 42s)
How are drones going to help during coronavirus? (14m 35s)
Headlines (18m 06s)

Read more on our website:
• UAE oil output capacity reached 4.2m bpd in April, energy minister says

• BP to write off up to $17.5bn as it lowers long-term oil price projections

• Apicorp slashes five-year regional energy investment outlook by 18%

• Will drones be ready for last-mile Covid-19 vaccine delivery?

• Careem sees signs of recovery from Covid-19 hit as $50m Super App set to lift earnings

• India’s economy set to make robust recovery in next fiscal year, S&P says

• Abraaj former CEO stole $385m from the firm, liquidators say

LinkedIn on in-demand jobs and first signs of optimism for labour market

One of the biggest casualties of the Covid-19 pandemic has been jobs. Lockdowns and travel bans have put unprecedented pressure on the global labour market, with tens of millions of people affected. With a front-row seat to the life of the white collar worker, is LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking platform. In the UAE, about half of adults - 4 million people - are members of the site. LinkedIn crunched the numbers on job postings and new hires. It says there are reasons for cautious optimism as we enter a new normal.

This week, Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talk to Ali Matar, LinkedIn's head of Europe, Middle East and Africa emerging markets.

In this episode:
LinkedIn on emerging markets, job postings and hiring after the Covid hit (01m 00s)
What has changed in Q2 compared to last year? (07m 26s)
Headlines (13m 52s)

Read more on our website:
• Dubai among five best global cities to find a job in 2020

• UAE employee productivity stays on track amid home working shift

• Dubai and Abu Dhabi deflation makes cities cheaper in global ranking

• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority takes Dh2.76bn stake in Reliance Industries' Jio Platforms

• Dubai's non-oil private sector economy starts to recover in May as restrictions ease

Mubadala and Nabta Health on healthtech innovation after coronavirus

Covid-19 has forced rapid transformation for healthcare providers and their patients. Host Kelsey Warner, future editor at The National is joined by Omar Fikree, the acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Telemedicine Centre and a VP at Mubadala Health Care as well as Sophie Smith, founder and CEO of Nabta Health in Sharjah, a healthcare platform for women, that provides personalised care using machine learning. They will discuss the future of healthcare, the way Covid-19 has given telemedicine a new lease of life and how AI can personalise healthcare as well as streamline costs.

In this epsiode:
Mubadala's Omar Fikree on telemedicine services (1m 01s)
Sophie Smith on investment trends and health tech(2m 56s)
The learning curve (5m 05s)
Women's Healthcare and patient triage (9m 30s)
Headlines (18m 36s)

Read more on our website:
• Coronavirus: hundreds of Covid-19 patients in Abu Dhabi receive home care as part of online scheme

• Mubadala looks to boost investment in medical technology and life sciences

• Robots reduce risk for Rwandan medical workers

• WHO fears 'silent' virus epidemic unless Africa prioritises testing