Economics & PolicyUAE's Best Places to Work

Employers par Excellence

by Thomas Schellen
written by Thomas Schellen

Everyone deserves a good job. Thus, a challenge is afoot in corporate Arabia and it mandates companies to improve from within: to become a great workplace. For the second time ever, ten companies in the United Arab Emirates are being recognized as the Top Companies to Work For in the UAE. 

The list of these exemplary workplaces has been researched and produced by the UAE arm of the global research and training firm the Great Place to Work Institute (GPTWI) in partnership with Executive.  The ten companies that emerged on top passed the scrutiny of a thorough employee satisfaction survey, called a Trust Index in GPTWI terminology, and a culture audit, or assessment of their corporate behavior. The trust index score, which is based on employee responses to a confidential survey, accounts for two thirds in the ranking of a company.   The 2012 list is led by big business names: FedEx Express followed by Microsoft Gulf, the hospitality group Marriott International in third.  Three homegrown companies also made the list, furniture retailer Total Home Experience (THE) One (5th), online employment market Bayt.com (8th), and the human resources firm Dulsco (9th).

As an annual benchmarking study, the GPTW list is only in its secondary function a ranking exercise and celebration of the best companies in achieving workplace excellence. The list’s primary function is to induce a process of continuous improvement in the value that workplaces provide to their employees and teams, to their owners and shareholders, and ultimately to their communities and societies on national and regional levels. 

“We want every company in the UAE and the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] to be a great place to work. Whether we will be able to achieve that in 20 years or 25 years or 100 years, I don’t know. But we are very aggressively going at it,” said Farrukh Kidwai, the chief executive officer of the GPTWI in the UAE. According to Kidwai, the institute has surveyed over 6000 companies and more than three million employees globally and lays claim to being “the world’s largest databank of information when it comes to great places to work.” 

This portfolio of information and insights was originally the work of an American journalist and has grown over the past 27 years to cover 45 countries today. The selection of companies for participation in the GPTWI survey and audit process is based on an approach akin to that of a ratings agency, whereby companies have to agree and actively register to be part of the process. This methodology may not necessarily be representative of the whole landscape of eligible employers, but the track record of the GPTW rankings in the US indicates that firms which enroll in the process early on after GPTWI’s entry into a market have a distinct edge in developing their workplace quality and enhancing their employee satisfaction, thus improving their human capital base with substantial benefits to profitability and bottom lines.  In the UAE the process is still in its infancy; the skew toward Dubai-based ventures suggests that awareness has yet to spread more toward Abu Dhabi and the other emirates. 

Besides recognizing the top 10 places to work in the UAE, the GPTWI published its first specialized list featuring three top companies to work for women and Emiratis just after Executive had completed interviews. The research into best companies for women and Emiratis is to be developed into full lists by GPTWI UAE. The organization is also working on geographic expansion of its presence and coverage to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other GCC countries. 

The top companies for women to work in the UAE are General Electric Middle East and North Africa, THE One, and Omnicom Media Group. GE and PepsiCo are the two companies highlighted for their appeal to Emiratis. 

Very notably in the 2012 results, employees have given their organizations substantially improved marks when compared with the average scores which the top ten companies reached in the trust index surveys a year earlier.

Congratulations are in order.

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Economics & PolicyUAE's Best Places to Work

EMC Corporation – Best workplace in the Cloud

by Thomas Schellen
written by Thomas Schellen

Being cryptic and brief was quite common when naming startup companies in the United States 30 or 40 years ago. When two American engineers created a venture for production of computer memory boards in 1979, they combined their initials and a third letter into EMC Corporation, garnished it with a visual reference to Einstein’s relativity formula and grew it into a specialist information technology (IT) company under a cloak of mild obscurity, known best among true nerds and corporate IT managers.   

Today, the company boasts $20 billion in consolidated revenue with double-digit growth in 2011 driven by demand for its data storage, information management and security and cloud computing products. It has 48,500 employees worldwide and spent 11 percent of last year’s consolidated revenue on research and development, according to results announced last month.    

In 1999, EMC set up its first office in the Middle East in the United Arab Emirates with a tiny team and has grown to about 550 employees in 17 offices around the region, plus 250 to 300 engineers based in Cairo, says Wael el-Nadi, the EMC technology solutions director for Turkey, Emerging Africa and the Middle East. 

Aspects that impressed the Great Place to Work Institute in the EMC culture audit were the company’s initiatives and readiness to exceed legal requirements in developing a caring culture, granting time off for paternity and marriage as well as compassionate leave and extended holiday leaves. 

As Nadi describes it to Executive, the spirit motivating EMC’s care of its employees is one of mutuality. The firm is responsive to people’s requests for time off whenever that is needed and goes beyond the mandates of the UAE labor law in providing extra vacation during the Eid periods and in special situations, because “on the other side of the coin we expect our employees to work harder than the standard.”

The reason why EMC’s Dubai-based organization participated in the 2012 GPTW list process was a sense of obligation to staff.  “We believe we owe this to the employees, because we are a great place to work and we believe it is good to share the success,” Nadi explains. 

Success is perhaps the biggest driver in making the UAE and regional teams proud of what they do and binding them to the company — according to Nadi, the operation is the highest-growth EMC office in percentage terms worldwide. “This by itself makes the office attractive because people join a successful team.”

He cites EMC’s very low employee turnover as indicative of pride and loyalty: “It is part of the ego of a normal individual to be proud of it if you work for a good company.” In corporation-wide internal employee feedback, the regional organization usually gets strong marks on vision and leadership, he adds. “Management is accessible and easy to approach and one can raise any concern and so on; thus we score very high when it comes to leadership and vision. When it comes to rewards, here in this region we know that we are not the highest but also not the lowest.”

In pursuit of its human capital growth plans, EMC has recently set up an undergraduate curriculum with universities in the UAE which the company expects will unleash much potential for local recruitment. This program ties in with an “associate program” that grooms graduates with degrees in disciplines such as computer engineering and business administration for management roles. Leadership training for high-potential employees in a joint program with EMC’s European division is another part of the formula. 

EMC engages in a variety of corporate citizenship activities and has implemented corporate social responsibility programs in Pakistan, Egypt, and the UAE. 

Nadi tells Executive of strong territorial expansion that has been managed from the regional office in Dubai and he is highly confident that the organization based here will increasingly contribute to global results. At present, the regional organization keeps some 4,000 people, including employees and their dependents, in bread and roses. He says, “We consider this our big family and this is a big responsibility. That is why we always say that we have to maintain our success.”

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Economics & PolicyUAE's Best Places to Work

Dulsco – It started on the docks

by Thomas Schellen
written by Thomas Schellen

Dulsco, the Dubai-based provider of human resources and waste management services, is the largest and oldest local company in the Top Companies to Work for in the United Arab Emirates, and it has succeeded not only to make the Great Places To Work (GPTW) list for the second year running but also improved its standing in the list from 2011. 

Acting behind the scenes as a quasi-invisible human resources back office to a wide range of enterprises, the company provides manpower support to industries that are essential for the UAE’s economic performance, such as transport and logistics and also in sectors that are core to the international attractiveness of the Emirates, such as event organizers and hospitality operators. Its staff profiles range from drivers and machinery operators to clerical workers and recruitment consultants. In the area of waste management, the company provides general and specialized cleaning, collection and related services as well as low-tech and high-tech equipment. 

As a privately held company, it does not publish results and the primary testimonies to its business acumen are its record of 77 years of continuous operations and its staff size of more than 5,300, approximately two thirds of which are part of the Human Resources division. The company has a joint-venture operation for manpower and waste management services in Qatar and dispatches roving staff to safety-tested locations and sites on specific projects and vessels beyond the borders of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Homegrown and without the human capital development processes and resources that a multinational firm or foreign corporate parents can deliver to their UAE units, Dulsco invested itself in the GPTW process from its internal resources.

At the core of any business is the human being. Due to the nature of the company’s activity with many physically demanding work roles and occupations, caring for its employees means for Dulsco to care for the safety and wellbeing of a mainly expatriate, male workforce.  

Incentive to care

“If you don’t invest in your employee, the employee will not care about his work. When, however, you plan a career for him and take care of safety and provide him with help and all that comes with it, you are transparent to him. When everything is clear in this way, he will be motivated to work for such a company,” Dulsco Chairman Abdul Aziz Mohammad Khan Abdulla tells Executive. 

As he conveys the Dulsco story, it becomes evident that the tradition of caring goes back to the company’s formation with stevedoring services. It was years before port facilities were created, and so ships would load and unload at an anchorage. It was also a long time until insurance companies would start offering their services. From those early days on, the company made it a policy that a worker who was injured or unable to work will get paid until he is healthy and able to work again.  

“So when the ports were built and insurance was introduced, we were way ahead of the other companies in providing safety and benefits as part of the corporate work policies,” Abdul Aziz says. 

People before profits

The practice was applied throughout the company’s growth. During the war in Iraq, there were inquiries to send crews to work at an oil loading terminal outside of the war zone with the promise of substantial premiums added to the normal wages, but Dulsco insisted firstly on the security of its employees and did not outsource the workforce. According to Abdul Aziz, “It is not just about money. It is safety first; this is what we believe in and we value human life more than money.” 

In its appraisal, the GPTWI 2012 Culture Audit commends Dulsco for its commitment to communications and active listening to employees. The report highlights the company’s facilities for two-way and down-up communication between employees and management, which include an open-door and ‘open office’ model, plus suggestion boxes in every location and department. 

Other Dulsco assets in being a great place to work for its employees include quality housing, sports facilities and a clinic as well as soft assets like celebratory and entertainment events that are tailored to the hearts of the employee base. “Don’t forget that these people are deprived of being with their families for two years and so you need to create the ‘home-style’ atmosphere, have functions and entertainment,” Abdul Aziz explains and sums the Dulsco culture up in saying, “We run this business as a family business.”

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Economics & PolicyUAE's Best Places to Work

Bayt.com – From the website to the workplace

by Thomas Schellen
written by Thomas Schellen

Rooted with one leg in technology and with one leg in services, Bayt.com stands with a well-established reputation as a leading authority in the region on all questions related to jobs. The company’s core activity is the provision of an internet-based marketplace connecting global job seekers and Middle East-based employers. The company has also leveraged its wealth in interaction with job seekers into an auxiliary career services business and into research activities.

Revenue generation at Bayt.com is based on fees that employers pay for posting job offers. But as the company does not collect fees for employment agreements emanating from usage of their site, Bayt.com cannot provide information on the number of contracts reached on the marketplace each year. However, the number of registered users is reported to be above 7 million and growing and the number of organizations that post employment offers is cited as 40,000.

There is money in the employment marketplace for Bayt.com and the firm has reached profitability within a relatively short time from its creation in 1998, according to chief executive Rabea Ataya. Yet it nurtures an approach to profits that differs from most companies. 

Every year Bayt.com sets a profitability target which is kept at a ‘low-level’; any profit exceeding the targeted margin will be reinvested into the team, Ataya tells Executive. “The company is willing to trade off profitability to achieve gains in how recognized, respected, and admired it is. We are far more focused on touching people’s lives than we are on profitability,” he says.

The organization’s employee-centric culture is cited by the Great Place to Work Institute (GPTWI) as an outstanding feature in the culture audit evaluation for the 2012 Best Companies to work for in the UAE list. As an example, GPTWI mentions daily training sessions prepared by team members and shared across the company’s locations. 

Based on the trust-index survey responses of Bayt.com employees and GPTWI’s culture audit, Bayt.com retained the same position in the 2012 and 2011 best companies lists. For Ataya, the repeated success in the GPTW process is “one of those feathers in our cap that we value with the greatest amount of pride,” he beams. 

Every person joining the Bayt.com team is tuned in to the company’s vision, which Ataya says is “about trying to build a Middle Eastern institution that is globally recognized and respected; and the way we hope to build that is by empowering people to lead better lives.”

The participation in the first GPTW process helped the company in understanding areas in which Bayt.com could further develop its strengths in 2011 and remedy weaknesses that it was not previously aware of. 

Gaps between responses by managers and junior employees to some trust index questions showed that while managers were well aware of the organization’s values and focus on maximizing Bayt.com’s role in improving people’s lives while maintaining profitability, employees were not made equally aware of these values and approaches. As one of the results of the GPTW participation, Bayt.com management increased efforts to enhance internal communications and explain these approaches more deeply.  

In other aspects of its employee focus, Bayt.com supports wellness-orientated lifestyles among its team members through initiatives such as providing baskets of fresh fruit in all pantries. Other sponsored activities throughout the year include team sports and lunch sessions in which the company invites speakers to address “topics that relate to improving people’s general lifestyle and quality of living,” Ataya says.

Ataya considers very steep hierarchical structures to be a hinderance to forming creative environments. Based on the realization of how important his sense of freedom while at work is for his own wellbeing, he made it a priority to give people in the organization the chance to replicate the same experience in their own working lives, saying: “The single most important thing that I can impart on the organization is letting people have that freedom.”

Alignment with the culture is a high priority in selecting employees and Ataya is confident that most Bayt.com workers are “seeking to live toward realizing our values. In all relationships with clients and employees and job seekers, we try to leave a positive impact on their lives.”

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Inching toward equality

by Nadya Khalife
written by Nadya Khalife

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, made an important move in November for the rights of women in the region. He proposed changing the law that long discriminated against Emirati women married to foreigners by denying them the right to pass on their citizenship to their children. “Children of female citizens married to foreigners should be treated as citizens,” he said.

The president’s proposal signals an important policy shift in a region that has long discriminated blatantly against women. The policy in many countries in the region — Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — flows from fears over race, ethnicity and demographics. Children of Emirati women married to foreign or stateless men remain noncitizens — even if they are born in the UAE and never leave. As in most Arab countries, the UAE’s citizenship laws specify that it is the father’s nationality that determines the child’s, not the mother’s or both parents’. 

The proposed reform in the UAE would make the children concerned eligible for citizenship only when they reach the age of 18. But they would be able to get the better education and health care benefits available for Emirati children earlier. And when they are older and granted citizenship they would be able to enroll in a university and apply for government posts, options now denied to them.

One key issue would be whether the children of Emirati women married to Bidun — the estimated 20,000 to 100,000 people considered stateless who have been historically neglected in the UAE — would qualify. Media reports have said that this measure will probably include their children but the government’s position is not yet clear. On December 14, the UAE set up a committee to compile a list of eligible children who would benefit from this new measure. 

The issue of the Bidun children is critical because only about 12 percent of UAE residents are Emirati nationals, with foreign residents and stateless Bidun making up the rest. The number of Emirati women marrying foreigners also rose 15 percent from 2009 to 2010, from 643 to 737, according to the UAE’s National Bureau of Statistics. 

The lack of citizenship has had a direct impact on children of Emirati women because under the current law, these children do not get the generous state benefits available to citizens under 18, and they often have access only to second-rate education and health care. The UAE offers free primary education to Emirati children. In some emirates, non-citizen children can enroll in public schools at no cost only if they score 90 percent on their entrance exams. Those with resources can attend private schools, but many children of Emirati women, particularly those married to Bidun men, cannot afford the tuition. The net result is that there are children of Emirati women who simply do not attend school. 

Families whose children are not citizens also must pay for routine health care for their children, even basic care such as immunizations, while health care is free for Emirati children with citizenship. Bidun children, because of their stateless status, cannot travel outside the country, which further limits their families’ options.

While the number of children who will benefit from the UAE’s change remains to be seen, Sheikh Nahyan’s pronouncement was a step in the right direction, and he has painted an optimistic picture for Emirati women married to foreign husbands and their children. The hope now is that other Arab countries that discriminate against women and their children this way will follow his lead.  

Every day in our region, women pay the price for discriminatory laws, but the UAE has made the moral choice, and in the long run the UAE will benefit because its children will be healthier and better educated. The progressive leadership it is showing in the region for the rights of women and children will also be recognized around the world. If the UAE, a country deeply worried about its demographics, can make this decision, it is high time that other Arab states follow suit.

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The tipping point

by Jihad Yazigi
written by Jihad Yazigi

After months resisting the pressure, the Syrian pound dived in January against the United States dollar and other international currencies, forcing the central bank to announce that it would begin a managed float of its currency in a dramatic departure from a five-decade-old policy of strictly regulating foreign exchange transactions. 

While the American dollar traded at around 60 pounds in black market dealings at the end of December, it quickly rose to 63 pounds in the first days of the year before crossing the 70 pound mark by mid-January. Since the beginning of the popular uprising in March 2011, Syrian analysts have been predicting the collapse of the national currency. However, contrary to the most pessimistic projections, the pound managed to stand its ground for months, falling to only 51 pounds per dollar in August, five months after the beginning of the protests — a decline of roughly 8 percent relative to its pre-crisis level of 47 pounds.

The relative strength of the currency for this extended period of time was a consequence of a number of factors including an aggressive strategy by the central bank, which by August had reportedly spent some $2 billion, or 10 percent of its foreign reserves, to defend its currency. Other factors were sensible policy choices by the bank, including a rise in interest rates and restrictions on the sale of foreign exchange by money traders, as well as a decline in imports resulting from a strong contraction in investment and spending, which partly helped offset the decline in export earnings. Still, the last weeks of 2011 saw a rapid increase in the rate of decline. The combined impact of the general downturn in business, poor economic policy and international sanctions had taken its toll on the currency. Another key factor was likely the beginning of the application of the European Union embargo on oil exports in November. Indeed, oil revenues made up in 2010 some 20 percent of Syria’s total foreign currency earnings and a much larger share of the government’s export revenues. 

One other factor, however, also explains the rapid deterioration witnessed at the beginning of this year. In an interview on Syrian TV early January, Minister of Economy Nidal al-Shaar said that the government’s priority was to “preserve the country’s foreign reserves and not to defend the currency.” These few words alone may have triggered the rush to the greenback.

By declining to go too far in the defense of the currency, Shaar was echoing the advice of many economic analysts: if the international value of the pound must be defended, it must not be done at any cost — i.e. at the expense of the foreign currency assets.

Indeed, Syria’s foreign reserves, painfully accumulated during the country’s short oil boom of the 1990s, will be almost impossible to recover once they are spent, given that Syrian oil fields have been largely depleted, while by selling its foreign assets now the government would be mortgaging the country’s future.

Also, in spite of the serious consequences it will have on the purchasing power of the population, already largely dented by decades of poor growth, the devaluation of the pound can provide new opportunities for Syrian exporters and make local manufacturers better able to compete with imports. Finally, the fall in the value of the currency is a natural consequence of the political stalemate and of the economic crisis faced by the country, and in a certain sense more accurately reflects the real status of the economy.

By deciding to partially float the currency, the central bank may ease the supply of foreign currencies in the market and help reduce pressure on the pound. However, there is little doubt the fall in the value of their currency will have a serious psychological impact on Syrians. Indeed, the majority of them still remember the dark days of the 1980s when a serious economic and foreign currency crisis led, in less than two years, to a precipitous decline in the value of the pound from 3 pounds to 50 pounds per dollar.

The period marked the beginning of the end for Syria’s middle class. Twenty-five years later, the Syrian population is helplessly taking a second hit and wondering how difficult the years ahead will be.

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Society

Lebanon Adrift – A book by Samir Khalaf

by Ellen Hardy
written by Ellen Hardy

Something strange often happens to first year medical students, confronted by textbooks listing reams of sinister symptoms: they all come down with galloping hypochondria, seeing brain tumors in every headache and consumption in every cough. Something similar might happen to a Beiruti reading “Lebanon Adrift” — though instead of physical ailments, readers will look up from the pages and see, in every poster, traffic jam or flutter of false eyelashes, a society in torment. “Lebanon Adrift” is a wide-ranging diagnosis of Lebanon’s contemporary pathology as a culture of unrestrained excess, narcissism and escapism, indicative of political, moral and social alienation.

Author Samir Khalaf is a distinguished sociologist and professor at the American University of Beirut. “Lebanon Adrift” is a book full of “personal indignation and outrage” — the sum of a lifetime of observation of a land he loves, in which he attempts to theorize those grating features of Lebanon’s social landscape that will be familiar to anyone with more than a passing acquaintance with the country, from pervasive littering and smoking to the gaudy wedding season with its antisocial firework displays. Via a whistle-stop tour of Lebanese history and politics, peppered with social thought from the Frankfurt School to Zygmunt Bauman, Khalaf explores theories of modern consumerism turned to mindless commodification of kitsch and prestige items in the pursuit of social status.

Lebanon’s post-war society, Khalaf suggests, rejects the usual trappings of restraint and sobriety typical for countries recovering from long periods of civil conflict. Rather, the Lebanese, with their history of mercantilism and aptitude for playfulness, have responded to political inaction, social and geographical stratification, unresolved tensions and an uncertain future by unreservedly embracing the numbing attractions of conspicuous consumption. With everything from ‘super nightclubs’ to the latest Porsches, they are replacing creative industry and functional social cohesion with a Durkheimian “social state in which society’s norms can no longer impose effective control over people’s impulses,” resulting in a damaged landscape of environmental degradation, corruption and incivility.

By designating a range of social features as part of Lebanon’s movement from a battleground to a “playground”, where the dark sides of the nation’s Janus-faced liberty, playfulness, enterprise and conviviality are taking over, Khalaf is offering a constructive way of thinking about social malaise. Through consumption, he suggests man gained freedom, “but not the positive sense [of] freedom to mobilize this liberation in creative and purposive forms of participation in the public sphere.”

But like those medical students, the temptation to see everything around one as the manifestation of an illness can obscure other realities. Khalaf proposes the use of “ideal types” to pin down “essential elements” of a social reality as a constructive “tool for analysis”. Yet in his scattergun and often rambling tour of the tribulations of contemporary Lebanon, his “average Lebanese” is invariably hugely wealthy, indolent, monstrously superficial and male. That such people exist is indisputable, but to give them the status of standard-bearer for the modern Lebanese identity is dangerous. There is little attempt to differentiate his central analysis by class, age, gender, religion or geography, and at times his personal outrage reaches the point of parody, decrying Lebanon’s “houses of ill-repute, casinos, gambling parlors, nightclubs, discos, bars, escort bureaus and other abodes of wickedness… Such aberrant features blemish the country’s national character.” Further, by identifying a general and unattractive tendency of the Lebanese for excessiveness and locating so many evils within it, Khalaf neglects a rigorous taking to task of the politicians and lawmakers who are allowing so many damaging transgressions free rein. 

There is much to admire in “Lebanon Adrift”, which also sees possibilities for redemption, making an assessment of non-governmental organizations, architects and political movements that give hope for an active and engaged civil society. Khalaf sees within consumerism possibilities of creativity and resistance. With luck, the debate over Lebanon as a “playground” will act as a spur to action and an encouragement to the “avant-garde and counter-culture” who are sidelined by Khalaf’s “average Lebanese”.

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The ugly side of man

by Sami Halabi
written by Sami Halabi

Misogyny is the vulgar indulgence of ignorant men, and it is a shame upon this nation that the men who head our government so openly display this flaccid form of intellect. They began to give it expression early in their term, by forming a cabinet devoid of women, and continued through their denial of nationality rights to the children of Lebanese women and their spouses, then ignored a parliamentary initiative to enact laws targeting men who beat their wives and, more recently, a refusal to criminalize marital rape — these are just some of the more obvious affronts. 

With such exemplary leaders, it is no wonder why the slighting of women is so pervasive in our society, reaching even inside their bodies to reproductive choices. 

Even though abortion is widely available in Lebanon, it remains technically illegal and therefore unregulated and often unsafe. While forms of emergency contraception, in particular what is commonly known as the ‘morning after pill’, are not officially barred, pharmacies across the country were not stocking it on their shelves through December and January.  

Emergency contraception in the form of a pill does not induce an abortion; it is a preventative measure that releases hormones to prevent fertilization during the time it takes sperm to reach the egg, usually between 24 and 72 hours after intercourse. Only one brand of emergency contraception, called Norlevo, has legal access to the Lebanese market, but for reasons unbeknownst supplies of the drug were “cut off” according to the more than 20 pharmacies that were contacted last month. 

Calls to the local distributor, Union Pharmaceutique d’Orient, enquiring as to why, were met with denials that there was even a shortage and officials for the company refused to comment further. The manufacturer in France, HRA Pharma, also declined to comment. The head of the Syndicate of Pharmacists in Lebanon said he was unaware of the issue when asked, but promised to follow up on the matter — all further calls to his phone were left unreturned.

The underlying issue here is that there are no consequences for private companies who take away a woman’s right to choose and even put their lives at risk. The worst thing that usually happens with the morning after pill is a horrible mood swing, but little or no pain. But the alternative to proper emergency contraception for, say a 16-year-old girl who has been raped, is resorting to drugs such as Misoprostol, intended for use in the prevention of ulcers, but also having the ‘side effect’ of technically inducing miscarriage.

So instead of a relatively painless hormonal procedure to prevent pregnancy, women are forced to endure an excruciating process whereby eggs are expelled after contractions in a pool of blood and then, “you just pray,” according to one pharmacist, that fertilization has not taken place. There is no guarantee with Misoprostol that an embryo is expelled, as it is possible that a life threatening ectopic pregnancy might occur, where the embryo implants outside the uterus. Other complications of Misoprostol can include potentially fatal toxic shock syndrome. 

This shortage of Norlevo on the market is directly related to Lebanon’s economic aberration of exclusive agents, which disallows any other company from importing the same brand of medicine. So, in the interests of companies’ product monopolies that keep retail prices high, and the structure of our economy dependent on a few rich and powerful men, women are suffering.

Reproductive rights, and the recognition that women are entitled to the same opportunities and protections as men in a society, are not trivial policy matters — they are issues of human rights that leaders with any claim to morality need to address. 

Misogyny in Lebanon is as societal as it is systemic, rooted in a lack of education with regards to the issues and perpetuated by regressive laws and lawmakers. For the sake of treating half the population — including our sisters, wives, mothers and daughters — with a minimum of respect, we cannot allow our leaders to sit so comfortably with their inhumanity.

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Finance

MENA stock tips

by Maya Sioufi
written by Maya Sioufi

Envisioning the start of 2012, investors across the Middle East probably could not have conceived of a more nightmarish scenario if they tried. The European debt crisis, Arab revolutions and election year posturing in the United States are just some of the many monsters ready to jump from the closet and under the bed as they lay awake at night. For advice on how to keep your cash safe from these creatures of havoc, Executive spoke with Tareck Farah, chief executive of MENA Invest, and Amin el-Kholy, head of asset management at Arqaam Capital.

 
Tareck Farah 
 
Bullish or bearish? “Cash is king,” says Farah as he explains his bearish stance towards the financial markets. He prefers to hold cash, especially in the first six months of 2012. Within developed markets, he prefers to be exposed to the United States where there is at least some confirmation of growth relative to Europe, which faces a “deleveraging process that might take longer than we imagine.” He believes that investor confidence could still go lower as the European crisis deepens. In emerging markets, Farah believes there will be a squeeze in liquidity in the first half of the year but expects this to ease towards the end of the second quarter, and would start picking stocks in these markets then.
 
Favorite asset classes? While Farah stresses that he would keep a high level of cash in these uncertain times, he likes the corporate credit of solid US and European companies and would stay away from sovereigns and financials. On the equity side, he recommends the US healthcare sector for its defensiveness and likes Medtronic, United Health Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Élan Corporation and Boeing in the heavy industry sector. He also recommends the US telecommunications sector on the back of the social network boom this year, with major initial public offerings expected, such as the much-hyped Facebook offering. In this space, he highlights Constant Contact, a provider of social media tools.
 
Thoughts on the MENA region? Farah is not particularly hot on any MENA market, with the only one he would consider investing in – if it falls to lower levels – being Saudi Arabia for its solid growth potential, high global oil prices, significant government spending in 2012 and population growth. His favorite sectors are cement and petrochemical.
 
Thoughts on Lebanon? Farah would not invest in Lebanon’s financial markets. He is concerned about the exposure of the Lebanese banking sector to Arab countries facing turmoil. On Solidere, he believes it is not expensive at $14 and if it falls further, it becomes a no brainer. As for Lebanon’s debt, he finds it expensive relative to global market conditions and it does not reflect the Lebanese reality. Farah believes rates should be higher given that Lebanon is “not a producing country, has a single B credit rating and 100 percent of its [territorial] frontiers have issues.”
 
Top pick globally? He stresses on cash as he says, “The intelligent investor would be the one who can better manage his cash.” 
 
 
Amin el-Kholy
 
Bullish or bearish? Kholy is neither overly bullish nor bearish. He is selective in these uncertain markets, as he believes that we are now facing a binary scenario. He stresses that in these markets it is essential to be selective and able to react quickly as we get more clarity on the possible scenarios. Kholy is not too concerned about the Arab political situation as “the risk is already out there.” He is more worried about what the new normal will look like once the European debt crisis and the global uncertainties are resolved, and how it will impact the commodity space, emerging markets and the MENA region. He also highlights the geopolitical risk in Iran as a key issue to be resolved before he can be more bullish on the MENA markets. 
 
Favorite asset class? Kholy believes that both fixed income and equities present attractive opportunities. He is particularly interested in solid names in the MENA region, which offer high dividend yields. He likes the Gulf Cooperation Council region, as it enjoys a favorable economic environment.
 
Thoughts on MENA markets? Kholy would be bullish but selective in trying to find interesting opportunities. The only factor that could impact his stance in the region is geopolitical risk stemming from the Iranian situation. His favorite countries to invest in would be Saudi Arabia and for a slightly contrarian pick, he would recommend the United Arab Emirates. In Saudi Arabia, he would invest in the retail and banking sectors. In the UAE, he would also look into investing in the banking sector.
 
Top global picks? Kholy likes gold or US dollars, but which depends on the scenario that pans out over the course of the year. In a more favorable scenario in which inflation picks up, he expects gold to be popular again. In a less favorable scenario, he would invest in the US dollar, especially via high-yielding GCC fixed income.
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Economics & Policy

A rush to power

by Joe Dyke
written by Joe Dyke

If the many announcements coming out of the energy ministry last month translate into reality then the country’s electricity sector is on the verge of major change. In a few short days the government announced the start date for the increasing of the country’s energy capacity, the winners of a number of crucial contracts and even plans to control the price of illegal generators.

But if anybody has learned to be wary of the difference between presentations and performance it is the Lebanese. There are significant obstacles in the path of Energy Minister Gebran Bassil, among them political infighting, lawsuits and even allegations of corruption looming over the ministry’s head. 

At present, Lebanon’s consumption of power far outstrips supply. Including generation and imports the country has around 1,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity available, but demand reaches as high as 2,500 MW at peak times, leading to blackouts of over 6 hours a day in some parts of the country.  Late last year the government came close to collapse over the $1.2 billion electricity plan, which aims to add 700MW to the country’s grid, with Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Michel Aoun threatening to pull his ministers from the cabinet if Bassil’s plan was not accepted. 

This cabinet collapse was averted and in January a government circular announced that the projects — including the redevelopment of Jiyye and Zouk power plants, a new gas pipeline and floating electricity-producing barges — are due to begin in March. Yet the infighting continues, with allegations that the finance ministry is preventing the transfer of the $1.2 billion. Cesar Abu Khalil, advisor to the Minister of Energy and Water, admitted that there have been “unnecessary” delays and confirmed that they are still waiting for the funding to be released.

“Technically no, I cannot confirm they [the funds] have been transferred but they have been allowed for by a law. It can be delayed but it cannot be stopped,” he said. “Sometimes it gets delayed in some administration but inevitably we will get our $1.2 billion.”

Unperturbed, the ministry plans to begin the tenders on the 700MW project in March and has begun announcing the winners of other contracts. One project that has been given the go-ahead despite a cacophony of criticism is the distribution service providers (DSPs). Under the scheme Lebanon is to be divided up into three sections, with one private consortium in each area allocated electricity distribution, maintenance and collection operations for a four-year period, with each contract worth more than $100 million. Last month the contracts were awarded, with Butec due to administer the north, Arabian Construction Company (ACC) dealing with Beirut and Debbas in the south.

Potential conflicts of interest are, however, apparent. Butec’s founder and majority stakeholder, Nizar Younes, ran for the Aoun/Franjieh alliance in the 2005 election in Batroun, alongside the energy minister. Meanwhile the ACC is run by the Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Mohammed al-Thani, whose country is known to have close relations with the FPM. Furthermore, while all of the companies are well respected, none have experience as energy distribution units in Lebanon.

One of the losing bidders in the north was E-Aley, a company that has been distributing energy in the country for more than 80 years. Following the decision to overlook them in favor of Butec, deputy general manager Albert Khoury confirmed that they have begun legal proceedings against the ruling. Khoury did not wish to discuss the bidding process for fear of jeopardizing the legal proceedings, but said: “electricity is more about politics in this country than about kilowatts and hertz; this is my conviction and this is how it is being played today.”

Mohammed Qabbani, head of parliament’s Public Works, Transport, Energy and Water Committee, says he believes the project is not permitted by Lebanese law, which grants powers exclusively to Électricité du Liban (EDL). “It is a completely illegal project. I will be asking the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister to stop [the minister] from continuing his illegal preparations for these service providers,” he said.

However Khalil denies all accusations of wrongdoing or political favoritism, welcoming legal challenges from those who believe there have been nefarious dealings. “There have been many allegations in the media and we don’t respond to these allegations. We waited for justice to issue its verdict and the verdict of justice is our response to all these allegations,” he said. Given the backlog of cases in Lebanon’s courts, justice may be a long time coming. 

Punishing success?

E-Aley is not the first company to take the government to court over their plans. Last month the ministry won a case brought by Électricité de Zahle (EDZ) over plans to reduce concessions for independent providers of electricity. 

Under the current scheme EDZ, and other firms that have exclusive concession agreements, receives electricity cheaper than cost price. The ministry claims Zahle is provided electricity at LL50 per kilowatt (KW), with others mostly around LL75, while average prices are around LL127. A ruling from the council of ministers in January upheld the decision that the cheapest price going forward will be LL95 per KW, a price Zahle owner Assaad Nakad claims will squeeze him out of business.

“It will be impossible for us to continue our services, and this will lead to the total liquidation of EDZ,” he said. He added that EDZ had been providing a similar service to the distribution service providers for decades. “I really do not understand why they want to destroy such a successful example while they do not know yet the outcome of the DSP project.”

But Khalil points out that these concessions add to the deficit of EDL, which ranges anywhere from $1.2 billion to $2 billion a year depending on oil prices, and are therefore paid for by the Lebanese people. “These concessions are some kind of feudalism, out of the Middle Ages. They try to portray themselves as a success story for Zahle and others,” he said. “If you got a kindergarten kid and put him in these conditions — where he has a fixed cost and a fixed selling price and exclusivity on people with 150 percent in profit — he will be a success story.”

Generating a regulator or regulating generators?

While announcing sweeping changes in almost every part of the industry, the government has remained tight-lipped about one issue; the creation of an independent regulator. Lebanon has been due a financially and politically independent body to organize and control the development of the sector since it was promised as part of Law 462 in 2002. 

Roudi Baroudi, Lebanon secretary at the World Energy Council, believes a regulator is the most important step toward increasing confidence in the energy sector. “The regulatory authority would make the market very transparent and honest; it would create competitiveness and a modern platform for private investors to have more of a stake in the industry,” he said. “And finally somebody would be liable for failures; the consumer will be able to pursue companies for mistakes.”

Yet successive energy ministers have proved unwilling to relinquish absolute power in their fiefdoms and the current one appears little different. Khalil claims the minister is open to the idea of a regulator but is waiting on the outcome of an amendment to Law 462, something a cabinet committee formed during the electricity crisis last September promised to create within three months — yet it has still not come to fruition.

“Whenever there will be a need for this body we will work on creating it,” said Khalil, though many in the private sector would claim the need has been clear for more than a decade. 

Perhaps the most bizarre of the ministry’s many announcements in January was the ‘directive’ on the price of private generators. Under Lebanese law only EDL is allowed to distribute electricity, but the power cuts that plague the country have led many to rely on illegal private companies, or ‘neighbourhood generators’ as they are more commonly known, to provide them with energy when the lights go out. 

The government has long turned a blind eye to such practices but has become concerned by the growth in companies exploiting their monopolies and overcharging customers. So a recent circular announced that the minister was introducing a ‘maximum price’ that generators are allowed to charge at LL400 ($0.26) per hour per five amperes, seemingly ignoring the fact that the industry is outside the law.

Khalil explains that whilst the whole issue is outside the rule of the law they do have tools at their disposal to make the generator owners comply. “Last week two generator companies were shut down by the municipalities; for those who will not abide by this tariff the municipalities, along with EDL, can ask them to remove their cables from EDL installations.” 

What Khalil is admitting, in effect, is that the government has begun to regulate an illegal industry. Whilst it may be commendable to face up to the elephant in the room there are serious concerns that without a regulator to ensure best practices, this process is open to abuse. The relationships shared between local officials have the potential to become more important than the service they provide.

“He [Bassil] is indirectly legalizing generators in the villages and streets. Why do it this way?” asked Qabbani. “Create a regulatory body and this body would have the right to give licenses for the production and generation of electricity. What can you deduce when somebody wants to monopolize illegal authority? What could it mean except corruption?”

The bottom line

When all this squabbling is over and done with, the average Lebanese customer cares about two things: whether they have electricity and how much it costs. The minister’s plan of 2010 aims to “gradually increase the (EDL) tariff” as the additional 700MW is introduced onto the grid over the coming years, thus reducing consumers’ reliance on expensive illegal generators. Yet the government has admitted that demand continues to grow by between 100 to 200 MW year-on-year. Therefore the 700MW, spread over three or four years, could only match the increase in consumption, meaning any increase in price will burden the Lebanese consumer without offering a tangible return.

Qabbani questions whether the plans will be able to counteract the growing gap between supply and demand. “They might be able to stabilize the inclination downward but I don’t think they can have any appreciable increase.”

The flurry of announcements suggests that at least something is happening. After years of deadlock, with electricity reform constantly overlooked, any news may be good news. Yet Riad Chedid, professor of electrical engineering at the American University of Beirut, believes for all its announcements the government is facing an uphill battle. “One should not underestimate the difficulties of trying to fix the electricity sector. It is multi-character: technical, political, human resources, financial. This is what the ministry has been doing so far, but you are dealing with 40 or 50 years of neglect.”

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