Oxford Business Group will release The Market : Abu Dhabi

Oxford Business Group will release the first detailed research publication to exclusively address the real estate sector in the Emirate at Cityscape Abu Dhabi. To be released in June 2008, The Market: Abu Dhabi is foreshadowed by a limited release of a chapter on the current state of the market, which includes OBG's residential, commercial, retail and hospitality forecasts.

With more than 100 pages of detailed market information, the report includes a full profile of each property sector, detailed models of supply and demand, assessments of the residential, office, retail, hospitality and industrial sectors, as well as information on infrastructure development and urban planning.

Written exclusively by consultants from OBG Consulting's Real Estate Division, topics include luxury residential development and the need for affordable housing, green buildings, the new urban framework plan, transport planning, delays, construction costs, institutional investment and the levels of foreign ownership in developments across the capital.

Amongst other facts uncovered by The Market: Abu Dhabi, OBG establishes precisely how residential and commercial rentals continue to climb, that construction costs have risen dramatically since the beginning of 2008 and details the forecast changes in market supply and demand over the next five years.

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Law to sets up Abu Dhabi statistics centre

President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has issued, in his capacity as Ruler of Abu Dhabi, law no. 7 for 2008, setting up the Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi as an autonomous body which enjoys financial and administrative independence and legal competence as the sole agency for official statistics in the emirate.

The centre shall be based in Abu Dhabi and may open branches or affiliate offices across the emirate.

According to the law, the centre aims at developing and organising statistical work in the emirate and providing accurate and reliable information on the social, economic and environmental state to the decision and policy makers, as well as to the public, media, businesses, research centres and the international community, without prejudice to the non-disclosure policy of the centre's board of directors.

The centre shall develop statistical plans and programmes to serve economic, social and environmental development programmes. It shall also conduct emirate-wide statistical surveys which will not contradict with the country's interests in collecting, indexing, filing, analyzing and publishing official statistics, including those related to population and social, demographic, economic, environmental and cultural areas.

The centre shall be run by a board of directors headed by the Chairman of Planning & Economy Department with members whose number shall range between 4 and 8. The board members shall be appointed through a resolution by HH the Chairman of the Executive Council. The resolution shall also stipulate members' remunerations. The board's term shall be for three renewable years.

The law sets out the board's duties in drawing up the centre's policy, endorsing its plans, setting priorities for statistical work, participating in strategic planning for statistics in the emirate, endorsing the centre's annual budget, approving the annual report and developing the organisation structure.

The centre shall have a director general who will be appointed by means of a resolution issued by the Chairman of executive Council.

The law shall repeal Amiri decree no. 13 for 1975 on statistical non-disclosure and any other relevant provisions. WAM

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Consumer Protection directorate settles 1500 complaints

The total number of complaints received by the consumer protection directorate of the Ministry of Economy since March 2007 stood at 1500, all of which were settled in legal methods. It was in March last year the by-law for the consumer protection was released in the country.

Statistical figures released by MoE showed that over 20pc of these complaints were related to vehicles and18pc to electronics. Over 50 pc of the complaints were pertaining to price increase of various consumer goods, showed the statistical report.

Over 1400 complaints were settled amicably by the directorate, while 30 complaints were referred to the concerned tribunal and three complaints were referred to courts of law for litigation. The remaining complaints were referred to MoE's branch offices in the other emirates.
UAE's Federal Law No.24 for the Year 2006 lays down specific regulations for settling the complaints from consumers. (WAM)

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The number of expatriate workers in UAE reached 3.1million in 2007

Humaid bin Deemas, the executive director of Labour Affairs at the Ministry of Labour (MoL), has said that the ministry had cancelled visas of some 425,000 workers in 2007, as against cancelling 376,000 visas in the year 2006.

Bin Deemas said the number of absconding reports filed at the MoL had decreased in 2007 compared with the previous years, which was a proof that the labour market in the UAE is stable.

He, however, didn’t disclose the exact figures of absconding reports.

The MoL official said that as per the Ministry’s statistics, the total number of expatriate workers in the country reached 3.1million in the year 2007, as against 2.6million in 2006.

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