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published on 15 September 2021 | reading time approx. 4 minutes
The following provides a brief overview about the latest business, economic and legal news from all around the United Arab Emirates and GCC region.
The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has updated several procedures for fully vaccinated visitors, residents, and citizens. Effective from Sunday 5 September any fully vaccinated passenger arriving in Abu Dhabi from abroad is no longer required to undergo quarantine in the Emirate. This has been announced by the Abu Dhabi Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Management Committee for the Covid-19 Pandemic on Thursday, 2 September 2021 and applies to all international passengers. The PCR testing requirement remains unchanged. Any passenger travelling to Abu Dhabi – irrespective of the fact of being vaccinated or not – will have to present a negative PCR test that has not been taken more than 48 hours prior to departure. Furthermore, arriving from a designated green list country requires vaccinated passengers to take a PCR test upon arrival and another one on day 6 – given they remain in the Emirate. For vaccinated passengers arriving from any country other than a green list country, a PCR test is required upon arrival, as well as on day 4 and day 8 – given they remain in the Emirate. Unvaccinated passengers arriving in Abu Dhabi from designated green list countries, are required to take a PCR test upon arrival, and a follow up test on day 6 and day 9 upon their stay in the Emirate. Unvaccinated passengers arriving from non-green list countries will still have to quarantine for ten days and take a PCR test upon arrival as well as a follow up PCR test on day 9. Day 1 is the day of arrival; quarantine is no longer required. This new amendment in quarantine regulations shows the UAE’s recognition of vaccinations that have been given internationally outside of the UAE.
Abu Dhabi – New directives regarding booster shots for vaccinated individuals have been announced in Abu Dhabi. In line with the new regulation in Abu Dhabi those individuals who had been vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine and whose second shot has been received more than six months ago must take a booster vaccine shot. This decision has been made to enhance the vaccinated individuals’ immunity and it does only refer to the Sinopharm vaccine as other vaccines do not require a booster dose. For those individuals that are required to take a booster dose a grace period until 20 September is given; after which date their ‘green status’ on AlHosn App expires and will not be renewed unless the booster is officially registered. Moreover, even with a green status due to a booster shot of the Sinopharm vaccine, those individuals will only remain their green status, given they take a PCR test (with a negative result) every 30 days. The green status is required in order to enter public places for all tourists and residents in Abu Dhabi since 20 August as approved by the Abu Dhabi Emergency, Crisis and Disasters Committee. Public places where access is granted only with a green status include restaurants, gyms, cafes, shopping centers, retail outlets, resorts, cultural centers and museums, universities, private and public schools as well as nurseries in Abu Dhabi.
As EXPO 2020 in Dubai is less than a month set to start, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai visited the ‘all-set’ EXPO site and said that the Emirates are ready to welcome the world to Dubai. Posting new and previously unreleased pictures Sheikh Mohammed tweeted that their “Teams are ready and pavilions are complete for the world’s largest event since the outset of the pandemic. We assure everyone that the experience that the world will witness at the Expo will be unprecedented. The six months of the event will go down in history for the ideas and inventions that will benefit humanity for years to come.”
Following the move of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, DFM also waived the minimum trading commission fees starting from 1 September. This change in regulations also followed the recent announcement that trading hours would be extended from 4-5 daily trading hours effective from 3 October. By introducing these changes, both markets aim at attracting retail investors in the market. The CEO of DFM, Mr Hassan Al Serkal said that “The new initiatives will further strengthen the leading position of the DFM as a main gateway for investments and attract wider and more diversified categories of investors, especially the international investors who are constantly showing great interest in our market.” Foreign investors make up 69 per cent of new investors on DFM and account for 48,2 per cent of its trading activities. The decision by the authorities to waive the minimum trading commission is one of the numerous initiatives that aims at promoting retail investor’s participation in the market by allowing them to benefit from the market’s lucrative investment opportunities including a diversified range of asset classes and financial products. As an immediate result the DFM trade count on the 1st day of the cancellation of the minimum trading commission (1 September) saw an increase of 161 per cent with the trade count totaling a number of 6739 transactions. Since the beginning of the year this is the highest daily trade count. As a comparison, on Tuesday (31 August), the last day before the implementation of the minimum trading commission cancellation the trading day counted only a total of 2579 transactions.
A further indicator of the success of this decision by the DFM to cancel the minimum trading commission, despite the immediate jump in trade count, is shown by the increase of the DFM General Index that gained 13,6 points during the first session after the cancellation. This in turn takes the 2021 gains to 17 per cent. This also is prove that this decision has been welcomed by investors, who recognize the significance in reducing transaction costs in order to maximize the potential returns.
Nicola Lohrey
Managing Partner
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