United Arab Emirates shows stellar growth in RMB adoption

Special edition of SWIFT’s RMB Tracker for Sibos 2016 shows new frontiers for RMB internationalisation in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)

Sibos - Geneva, 27 September 2016 – Data from SWIFT’s latest RMB Tracker shows exceptional growth in RMB adoption in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) witnessing a 210.8% growth in payments value of the currency since August 2014, albeit from a low base. More than 80% of the direct payments made between the UAE and China/Hong Kong in August 2016 were in CNY, representing one of the highest increases worldwide.

With Sibos taking place in Geneva this year, the special edition of the RMB Tracker takes the opportunity to look beyond long-established markets such as London to offer a snapshot of four other markets in EMEA, France, Germany, Switzerland and the UAE

Data within the report shows that the EMEA region is ranked as number two in RMB adoption after Asia-Pacific. Other key RMB highlights include:

• The RMB has retained its position as the number five world payments currency, representing 1.86% of global payments by value.
• France leads Eurozone countries in RMB payments by value, despite flat growth over the past three years. Close to 50% of France’s direct payments with China/Hong Kong were denominated in CNY in August 2016.
• The RMB is ranked number three in Switzerland for direct payments with China/Hong Kong after HKD and CHF. There has been 43.5% growth in RMB payments by value compared to November 2015, when the clearing centre was established.
• The euro continues to dominate the corridor for payments between Germany and China/Hong Kong with a share of 80.1%.

Alain Raes, Chief Executive, Asia Pacific & EMEA at SWIFT says: “RMB adoption in France, Switzerland and Germany is progressing slowly, while the UAE continues to show significant growth – we have seen impressive 44.6% increase in payments value since August 2015.”

“We expect this growth to continue in the UAE following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2015 for the set-up of an additional clearing centre in the Middle East. This will enable even more corporates operating in the region to access RMB products, open RMB accounts and use the currency to make payments to both onshore and offshore counterparts,” he added.

The UK remains the dominant offshore RMB clearing centre after Hong Kong, totalling 67.3% of all RMB direct payments made between Europe and China/Hong Kong in August 2016.

On 21 September 2016, the People’s Bank of China appointed Bank of China as the first yuan clearing bank in the United States. SWIFT’s August 2016 data shows that only 2.8% of all payments by value between US and China/Hong Kong are done in RMB while Europe, for example, reached 30.6%. The appointment of this new clearing centre will most probably strengthen its position on the RMB.

More than 200 delegates and exhibitors from the Arab region are taking part in Sibos this year to engage in discussions about the future of the banking and finance industry with global and regional experts and peers.

On a regional level, SWIFT is also organising this year the Business Forum UAE on 7 December 2016 under the theme: “Building for the future: regulation, innovation and the transformation of banking”. The event is an opportunity for the SWIFT community to come together to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing the UAE today. Keynote speeches and panel discussions will focus on recent developments in financial crime compliance, the impact of global regulations on the UAE, corporate banking and FinTech innovation.  

الإمارات العربية المتحدة تسجّل نموا ممتازا في تبني عملة "آر إم بي" الصينية

النسخة الجديدة من أداة تتبع "آر إم بي" التي طورتها "سويفت" والخاصة بمؤتمر "سايبوس" Sibos 2016 تظهر آفاقاً جديدة لتدويل عُملة "آر إم بي" في أوروبا والشرق الأوسط وإفريقيا

The Sustainable City in Dubai Awarded ‘Best Residential Development’ & ‘Best Residential Property’ at the Arabian Property Awards 2016

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 27th Sep 2016: The Sustainable City - the region’s first fully integrated sustainable community in Dubai – has won the ‘Best Residential Development’ and ‘Best Residential Property’ awards at the Arabian Property Awards 2016.

Diamond Developers representatives Faris Saeed, CEO, and Wassim Adlouni, Executive Director, received the accolades on behalf of the company at an awards ceremony and gala dinner held on Thursday Sep 22nd at the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel in Dubai.

Commenting on the occasion, Faris Saeed stated: “This recognition by the Arabian Property Awards for the implementation of The Sustainable City is a testament to the pioneering nature of our project, and our success in achieving a truly effective and holistic sustainable community is indicated by this award. We are delighted that through this development our team is working towards achieving key aims of Dubai government initiatives, such as the Dubai Sustainability Council and the Dubai Plan 2021.”

During the Gala Dinner the Arabian Property Awards also announced the nominations from the region chosen to compete in the ‘International Property Awards 2016’, and The Sustainable City is proud to represent the region in the competitive international competition held in the UK this December 2016.  

المدينة المستدامة في دبي "أفضل مشروع سكني" و "أفضل وحدة سكنية"
تكريم "دايموند ديفلوبرز" القائمة على تطوير المشروع خلال حفل توزيع جوائز العقارات العربية ٢٠١٦

[دبي - الإمارات العربية المتحدة، 27 سبتمبر 2016] - أعلنت "دايموند ديفلوبرز" الشركة المطورة لمشروع "المدينة المستدامة"، أول مجمع مستدام متكامل بمستويات عالمية في دبي، عن فوز هذا المشروع بجائزتين خلال حفل توزيع جوائز العقارات العربية 2016، عن فئتي "أفضل مشروع سكني" و "أفضل وحدة سكنية" في دبي.

وأقيم حفل توزيع جوائز العقارات العربية 2016 مساء الخميس الموافق للثاني والعشرين من سبتمبر الجاري في دبي، بحضور لورد ليفربول، وعدد من ممثلي مجلس أمناء الجائزة. وحضر الحفل ممثلاً عن "دايموند ديفلوبرز"، كل من المهندس فارس سعيد، الرئيس التنفيذي للشركة والمهندس وسيم عدلوني، مديرها التنفيذي، حيث تسلما الجائزة في هذا الحدث الكبير بالنيابة عن الشركة.

وتعقيبًا على هذا التكريم، قال فارس سعيد: "يأتي فوزنا بهاتين الجائزتين تتويجاً لجهودنا الهادفة إلى توظيف أحدث التقنيات المتقدمة وأرقى معايير ومواصفات المباني الخضراء، للتاكيد على ريادة المدينة المستدامة لقطاع المباني الخضراء في المنطقة. إن هذا التقدير الرفيع من جوائز العقارات العربية يعني حافزًا لنا على مواصلة الاستثمار في البحث والتطوير لنقدم نموذجًا معماريًا فريدًا يعكس التقدم المذهل الذي تحققه دبي والإمارات، ومدى حرصنا على دعم محاور خطة دبي 2021 لتبقى سباقة في مختلف الميادين".

كما تم خلال الحفل الإعلان عن المشاريع المؤهلة التي وقع الاختيار عليها للمشاركة في الدورة المقبلة من جوائز العقارات الدولية التي ستقام في المملكة المتحدة في ديسمبر 2016، وتفخر المدينة المستدامة بدخولها قائمة المرشحين للجوائز.

Annual Health Awards’ seal of excellence and a Great Initiative to transform the healthcare ecosystem, says Ahsan Khan

In a bid to promote best practices in the multi-billion-dollar health care industry of the UAE, the Health Magazine is coming up with an initiative to host a comprehensive Annual Health Awards for the first time on January 16, 2017 supported by Department of Economic Development (DED) – Dubai.

Pakistani model turned TV actor Ahsan Khan on Saturday evening, 24th September 2016 extended his support to the Annual Health Awards 2017. Describing the Health Awards as a ‘seal of excellence’, Ahsan Khan said that such a recognition helps to closely scrutinise how healthcare professionals can further develop their services regularly and consistently to meet the ever-growing needs of the wider patient community.

“I am sure winning this award will strongly boost the confidence of healthcare providers and professionals that they are moving towards achieving their ambition to make quality healthcare available in UAE .I wish all of you to join #heathawards, and sign up for this great cause and make it a multi-fold success,” Khan added.

The initiative, which has received participation from major healthcare groups and appreciation from Bollywood, Pakistani actors, has opened for nominations with a deadline of October 31, 2016 for all registrations. The awards will publicize and promote significant achievements from professionals across the region, to inspire the young readers to dream big and to embark upon great endeavors. It will honor many more deserving achievers in the years to come, gradually evolving as an industry benchmark of professional excellence.

For further details on this award and nominations, please visit the website: http://www.healthmagazine.ae/awards/index.php or send an email to: info@healthmagazine.ae 

HEALTH Magazine

HEALTH magazine is a bimonthly, bilingual (English, Arabic) BPA-audited publication. As one of the leading health and lifestyle magazines in the region, HEALTH covers a variety of topics such as health, lifestyle, wellness, fitness, beauty, family, parenting, diet, nutrition, luxury and fashion.

Launched in 1999, HEALTH now boasts of a circulation of 20,000 copies in print, with a readership of close to 80,000. Its distribution and coverage area is spread across the UAE in leading retail outlets, major airports, leading medical institutions and upscale clinics, pharma companies, boutiques, gyms, coffee shops, spas and resorts, bookshops, hotels and malls.

HEALTH Magazine has a significant online and social media presence. Its dynamic website receives around 20,000 hits per month, and its Facebook page is followed by close to 17,000 readers. HEALTH Magazine’s mobile app is available on the android app store, and has already been downloaded by a number of users. HEALTH Magazine inspires health and lifestyle and also organizes regular events.

Cyber Criminals are out there. What are you doing about it?

The CyberXchange Conference 2016 which will hold at the Landmark Event Centre, Lekki Peninsula, Lagos on the 2nd and 3rd November seeks to identify the key trends and technologies in Cyber Security

LAGOS, Nigeria, September 26, 2016/ -- Every 5 seconds there is a case of cyber crime, and this poses a threat to individuals and most especially organizations. Let’s build immunity, join the biggest holistic cyber security event in West Africa. The CyberXchange Conference 2016 (www.CyberXchange.com) which will hold at the Landmark Event Centre, Lekki Peninsula, Lagos on the 2nd and 3rd November seeks to identify the key trends and technologies in Cyber Security; emerging from diverse industries such as Finance, Payments, ecommerce, Banking, Telecommunications, Law enforcements, Oil and Gas, Insurance, Digital Media, Energy, and emerging start-up companies. So, are you an Academia, Professional, Researcher, IT guru, Developers of cyber security in the private and public sector? then you do not want to miss this conference that has a carefully selected agenda of interactives, B2B matchmaking, Hackathon, Workshops, Demos, Exhibition Live Hack and other fun filled activities that will avail you the opportunity to; Engage in discussion topics that will help you learn new innovations and skills Explore highly relevant sessions, led by some of the industry’s top experts. Meet prospective business partners from the sea of professional in attendance Earn CPE credit that will give you a good standing in your organization Be inspired by presentations from thought leaders representing a wide range of disciplines within and outside the info security industry. Network productively with representatives from several companies, including sponsors such as Facebook, Interswitch, Co-Creation Hub IBM and more.   Organizations which will be represented at the CyberXchange Conference 2016 includes; IBM, Interswitch, Ernst & Young, UBER, Belverdere, PAGA, Digital Encode, Central Bank of Nigeria, Liberia Telecommunications Authority, Facebook, Co-Creation Hub, DeltaGRiC Consulting, ERPScan, Vmware, ImpervaIncapsula, Rack Centre Limited and Union Bank. Intending participants should visit www.CyberXchange.com In cyber security the more systems we secure the more secure we all are and our goal is simple; Security and Safety!

Pyramid Analytics unlocks new analytics opportunities for SAP customers

New BI Office functionality enables organizations with SAP to unleash powerful insights and deliver business results

Dubai, UAE- September 27, 2016: Pyramid Analytics, the next-generation business analytics platform for the enterprise, today announced new functionality in BI Office that delivers streamlined and governed access to all data sources in the SAP system, including SAP HANA and SAP BW. Using an SAP®-certified connector, customers can unify their SAP data with other critical enterprise data sources within BI Office, empowering both executives and business users to make more informed, data-driven decisions.  

“Thousands of the world’s largest enterprises rely on SAP data to run their business. These data sources represent everything from HR records, CRM system data, and inventory management, which, when combined with other data sources, tell a powerful story that informs a better decision process,” said Omri Kohl, Pyramid Analytics co-founder and CEO. “Because Pyramid Analytics is using a certified connector to SAP, our enterprise customers will be able to easily and confidently integrate their SAP data with our best-in-class enterprise business analytics platform. And they can do so in a secure, governed environment while giving their end users the ability to be innovative with SAP data in a self-service analytics environment.”

BI Office enables businesses to:

• Curate data models in a governed and secured framework: The robust role-based security framework in BI Office enables IT to make sanctioned SAP data available to the business users in a managed and secured way. This creates an integrated end-to-end analytics workflow that ensures everyone is working from the most current information, without sacrificing IT governance or administrative control.
• Allow users to connect to all SAP data sources in a self-service environment: With the intuitive interface of BI Office, coupled with the integration of the connector, users can make their own data models to merge SAP data with non-SAP data, create their own dashboards and reports, and even control when the data refreshes— without relying on IT assistance.
• Access unified analytics dashboards: BI Office serves as a centralized analytics hub where users can easily consolidate and analyze content from SAP and other disparate sources, apply universal interactions, and change context on the fly.
• Share content and context from SAP data sources: BI Office provides a platform for users to share and re-use content and business logic, as well as offer content recommendations and threaded conversations that expose important insights, relationships, and interactions.

“BI Office has provided us with incredible insights combined with measurable cost and time savings, making it easy to access relevant and timely data,” said Jo McGurk, BI Manager at Voith FRS. “We are pleased BI Office is certified to integrate with SAP. As our user base expands, this addition to the BI Office platform will allow us to offer an alternative approach to access our core ERP data, helping us gain exceptional insight and understanding across our business.”

“We have seen great success driving value for our customers and prospects with Pyramid Analytics’ technology,” said Hermann Hebben, Founder and Managing Director for QUNIS. “BI Office not only increases the availability and value of business analytics for the individual user, but also for the organization as a whole. Decisions are made faster and with less risk. And now with this SAP-certified connector, organizations will be able to extend the reach and impact of their analytics by pulling critical data from their SAP platform into the decision-making process in a way that is secure and incredibly easy. We look forward to implementing it with our customers as they push forward on their analytics journey.”

To learn more about this new BI Office functionality, visit:

http://pages.pyramidanalytics.com/sap-connector.html