Tadawul officially launches first derivatives market, clearing house.

Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange (Tadawul) has officially entered the derivatives marketplace, a move that is seen to boost the kingdom’s capital market.

The Saudi Stock Exchange announced on Sunday that it has launched its first Derivatives Market and a clearing house, the Securities Clearing Centre Company (Muqassa).

In a statement, the exchange also unveiled the first exchange-traded derivatives product, which is called the MT30 Index Futures. The new product is an index futures contract based on the MSCI Tadawul 30 Index (MT30).

The exchange also plans to roll out more derivatives products, including the Single Stock Futures, Single Stock Options and Index Options.

The launch of the derivatives market is considered to be a vital move that will provide investors more exposure to the Saudi capital market. It is part of the key initiatives under the Saudi Vision 2030.

“This is a significant step in introducing sophisticated market products and creating a trading environment that is attractive to local as well as international investors,” said Khalid Alhussan, Tadawul’s CEO.

“The launch of Derivatives Market will provide investors with hedging tools to more effectively manage risk and gives expanded opportunities to gain exposure to the Saudi capital market, the largest and most liquid market in the region,” Alhussan added.

Both the derivatives market and the clearing house are running on Nasdaq’s market technology, which currently powers more than 250 of the world’s market infrastructure organisations and market participants.

As of this year, the Saudi stock market is considered the largest largest stock markets among the 67 members of the World Federation of Exchanges.

source: zawya

There’s a type of warm marketing that is better than any other: referrals. We’ve all been on the receiving end of a referral.

We ask a friend or colleague to recommend someone for the service we need, and since they’re someone we trust, we go ahead and get in touch.

In fact, we sometimes trust who we received the referral from so much that we don’t even need to evaluate other choices. We make the hiring or purchasing decision. 

The research bears this out. Nielsen reported that people are four times more likely to hire someone that came recommended, and that includes social media referrals. 

(The exact statistic is that 43 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when they heard about it from their friends via social media.) Given that referrals weigh so heavily in the minds of prospects, here are some ways you can garner more of them so that you can continue to extend your network of clients outward. 

1. Prioritize customer service

Put very simply: Your customers and clients will refer you if you consistently do a stellar job. Your performance is what will keep you and your company top of mind when they are asked for recommendations.

As far as how to do this, you can put your own spin on what you offer to be over the top in your service, but having top-of-the-line customer service is always paramount and should never be compromised.

Shawn Henry, the founder and CEO of Efficient Home Services, scaled his business from$5,000 in initial cash to more than $63 million in six years, reflecting that providing the best possible customer service was critical for his acceleration in revenue and customers. 

“You need to operate with urgency every single day in your business and never stop striving to give your customers the very best experience possible,” Henry shares. “My entire business has been scaled through these referrals because of this urgency mindset.” Apply this urgency to your relationship with each of your clients and customers, and always aim to do more than is expected.

2. Create a referral program

Additionally, you can incentivize referrals from your current customer base so that they come in more quickly.

For example: Perhaps one of your clients would love to refer you to one of their friends or colleagues, but they just haven’t been asked for a recommendation for exactly what you offer.

A referral program encourages them to recommend your products and services on your behalf, and they can gain something in the process.

You can offer whatever incentive you prefer, such as a free month’s subscription to your service or a 15 percent off discount per person referred.

Make sure that you have a way to track these referrals so you can thank the client when they come in, and ensure that they get their incentive.

This can be done by simply asking a new customer or client how they heard about you and keeping a tracking spreadsheet of how many referrals came from whom.

People want to feel appreciated, so you can also go the extra mile by sending a handwritten thank-you note or even just a quick thank-you email every time one of these referrals comes through. 

3. Simply ask

If it doesn’t seem on brand to come up with a detailed referral program, consider just asking! When on the phone with a client or customer that you get along well with, say, “We are always looking for more clients, and your referrals would be very appreciated.”

Letting them know that it’s something you are open to and looking for will help you stay top of mind.

This ties in with stellar customer service (or just the service itself). If someone has truly enjoyed working with you, it’s human nature to want to help.

This tip can extend to your past client and other colleagues you have in the industry. Since you aren’t offering an incentive like a discount, anyone is fair game.

Simply ask if they know anyone looking for the services that you offer. They may even think of someone right on the spot. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive, and there are many ways to ask kindly and quickly to see if it’s a fit. 

Referrals are too valuable to leave up to chance.

The best in the business get noticed and recommended because they’re the best and because they're not afraid to spread the word.

source: entrepreneur

The GCC cities dominated the global Financial Attractiveness Index list with Bahrain’s capital Manama being named the world's most financially attractive city in AIRINC’s latest Global 150 Cities index. Riyadh is in 4th place, Kuwait City in 6th, Abu Dhabi in 7th, and Dubai in 12th on the list. 

The index https://www.air-inc.com/global-150/ ranks 150 of the top global locations according to financial attractiveness and lifestyle attractiveness. It combines local salary levels, tax rates, living costs, and living conditions to assess how appealing each location is to live in.

Every single GCC member was represented in the top 20 most financially attractive cities in the world, according to AIRINC’s latest Global 150 Cities Index. 

The data is collected by AIRINC’s own in-house survey team, who continuously research the costs and living conditions of many cities around the world to evaluate international mobility.

GCC economies have invested considerable sums in making themselves more attractive to international businesses in line with ambitious region-wide economic diversification efforts, it stated. 

As the first GCC member to begin diversification, Bahrain offers one of the easiest and most cost-effective environments to set up and operate a business in the world. 

Businesses operating in the Kingdom enjoy 0% tax and 100% foreign ownership allowed.

Thanks to its comprehensive programme of reforms, increasingly digital Bahrain was recently named the fourth most improved economy in the world by the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business report. 

As well as ranking first in the world for financial attractiveness in the AIRINC index, Manama also jumped 15 places for overall attractiveness, to 48th.

source: tradearabia

VP stresses nation must continue developing transportation systems to preserve excellence

The UAE's logistics system is the strongest and most efficient in the region and the private sector is the engine for the future economy, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said on Saturday.

He said the UAE must continue developing its transportation systems to preserve excellence in this regard.

"We want to achieve another qualitative leap in infrastructure, energy and transportation, and this leap must be under one comprehensive and integrated plan," Sheikh Mohammed said during a meeting with a team from the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs; Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs; and Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, attended the meeting.

"Today, the UAE is the region's biggest hub for business and innovation, and energy and infrastructure projects are key to sustain this distinction," Sheikh Mohammed said.

He asserted that the private sector is the engine for future economy and the UAE will continue developing partnership with the private sector in the fields of infrastructure, energy, transportation and housing projects.

Al Mazrouei presented to Sheikh Mohammed and his accompanying delegation the ministry's 10-year plan, aimed at integrating the energy, infrastructure, housing and transportation sectors into one comprehensive asset management system to enhance the services and ensure sustainability.

He also briefed the Prime Minister about the country's pioneering rankings in the energy, infrastructure and housing sectors as the UAE has maintained its first global ranking for the third consecutive year with scores of 100 per cent in all 'Getting Electricity' indicators in the World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report.

The UAE was also ranked first regionally and 12th globally in terms of the quality of infrastructure, and was ranked first regionally and seventh globally in terms of the availability and quality of road and transport infrastructure.

"The new comprehensive asset management system would reduce maintenance costs by 20 per cent," Al Mazrouei said.

He also reviewed the strategy and initiatives for electricity and future energy for the next 50 years.

In a related context, the minister spoke about the objectives of the Federal Centre for Road Network Operations Management, which the ministry is nearing completion.

Al Mazrouei also shed light on the achievements of the citizens' housing sector, its development initiatives, a mechanism for sustainability and meeting future needs, preserving the national gains in that area and the mechanism that works accordingly.

source: zawya

Hikma Venture, the venture arm of Jordan-based Hikma Pharmaceuticals, has participated in Canada-based Seamless MD’s $4 million Series A investment round, led by MEDTEQ. Other investors participating in this round include Anges Québec, AIoT Health, and health IT entrepreneur Sanjay Malaviya.

Founded in 2012, SeamlessMD is a cloud-based digital patient engagement platform that connects patients with care providers to deliver better patient care in an efficient and timely manner. The platform provides patients with digital care plans, while enabling care providers to receive alerts and monitor them remotely.

“We have been incredibly impressed by SeamlessMD’s vision, category-leading clinical evidence, and best-in-class technology platform, and are excited to add them to the diverse portfolio of companies we have invested in that are utilising digital health technology to improve outcomes for patients,” said Hamzeh Abdul-Hadi, principal at Hikma Ventures.

“SeamlessMD has developed a proven model for health systems to improve patient outcomes at scale, and we are thrilled to support SeamlessMD in advancing their mission and expanding into new markets where Hikma operates to improve the quality of care.”

The startup will use the funds to fuel its geographical expansion and develop its digital services.

“Covid19 has accelerated the need for health systems to deliver digital care at scale. Since the pandemic started, we have been rapidly assisting health systems to adapt to the pandemic, including new solutions for COVID-19 digital screening, patient education, and digital pre-surgery monitoring to safely resume surgery,” said Joshua Liu, MD, co-founder and CEO of SeamlessMD. 

“This investment from Hikma Ventures will be critical in enabling us to meet growing customer demand, expand our library of digital care plans and further develop our machine learning platform for risk prediction and optimising patient outcomes. We are ecstatic to be supported by forward thinking, strategic healthcare investors such as Hikma Ventures who share our belief that the future of healthcare is digital,” Liu added.

source: wamda

While the science was front-and-center in Elon Musk’s  presentation about Neuralink, his human brain computer inference company, the surgical robot the company debuted made a splash of its own.

The rounded polycarbonate sci-fi design of the brain surgeon bot looks like something out of the Portal franchise, but it’s actually the creation of Vancouver-based industrial design firm Woke Studio.

To be clear, Musk’s engineers and scientists have created the underlying technology, but Woke built the robot’s look and user experience, as well as the behind-the-ear communication end piece that Neuralink has shown in prior presentations.

Neuralink’s  bot features clean white (required for ensuring sterility, per Woke), arcing lines and smooth surfaces for a look that at once flags its advanced technical capabilities, but also contains some soothing and more approachable elements, which is wise, considering what the machine is intended to do.

“While the patient may not be awake to see the machine in action, it was still important to design a non-intimidating robot that can aesthetically live alongside the iconic machines in Musk’s portfolio,” the company explains in a press release.

“It also needed to meet a long list of medical requirements in terms of sterility and maintenance, and provide safe and seamless utilization for its operators.”

Woke says the Neuralink surgical robot can be separated into three main parts: The head, the body and base. The head of the robot is that helmet-like piece, which actually holds the head of the patient.

It also includes a guide for the surgical needle, as well as embedded cameras and sensors to map the patent’s brain.

The intent of the design of this piece, which includes a mint-colored interior, is to give the robot “an anthroprmorphic characteristic” that helps distract from the invasive nature of the procedure. There are also single-use disposable bags that line the interior of the helmet for sterile operation.

The Neuralink robot also has a “body,” that humped rear assembly, which includes all the parts responsible for the motion of the robot as it sets up from the procedure.

The third element is the base, which basically keeps the whole thing from tipping over, and apparently also contains the computing brains of the brain-bot itself.

Neuralink is an Elon Musk-founded company that’s seeking to mitigate what Musk sees as a potential existential threat to human life: The ascendancy of general artificial intelligence.

While its near-term goals are aimed at helping address medical conditions incurred by damage to brain tissue, Musk ultimately hopes that Neuralink will be able to help humans keep up with advanced AI by providing them with a latency-free, direct high-bandwidth connection to their computers — using direct thought input.

source: techcrunch

Digital connectivity in the time of COVID-19 is no longer about traditional communication and the search for information; it has become a lifeline for using data, consuming content and engaging in digital applications by individuals, governments and businesses to ensure continuity of economic and social activities in light of social distancing and the complete lockdown in most countries of the world.

In the MENA region, the demand for broadband services and data has increased significantly during the pandemic. 

 Countries that are not ready for the surge of demand have seen network congestion, decline in average Internet speed and deterioration of service quality even in relatively mature markets.

Unequal access to quality broadband connectivity may jeopardize stability and increase social inequality between those who can use digital connectivity to secure business continuity and observe social distancing and those disadvantaged groups, including the refugees, without adequate access to the Internet to hook up to the new normal.

Network congestion during COVID-19 was a serious concern for many countries.

There are five main reasons why networks were not able to cope with the pent-up demand:

1. Intensive use of the network during daytime in residential areas (networks were not designed for peak-time service). This led to congestion of "last mile" networks that provide access to the user
2. Increasing demand for video and other high-bandwidth entertainment services
3. Increasing demand for videoconferencing and cloud services
4. Distance learning by students of all ages
5. Lack of sufficient capacity for consumers through international gateways (i.e., access points where Internet enters the country).

Actions taken by MENA Governments to improve broadband network and services

Governments in the MENA region have been fast to act to respond to the need for improved broadband networks and enhanced internet services.

Several examples actions include flexibility of payment to prepaid users allowing them to pay after consumption (Egypt, Tunisia and Palestine).

Some countries increased the bandwidth of Internet packages and speeds for users without additional cost (Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain), others covered the additional cost of upgrading monthly packages for subscribers (Egypt). Moreover, some countries have unblocked Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications (UAE and Oman), others provided more spectrum to telecom companies (Jordan and Saudi Arabia), and secured free cloud applications for companies (Vodafone in Egypt).

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the government has managed to secure continued access to various e-government services thanks to its continuous investment in modern digital infrastructure and digital government platforms over the past two decades.

Improving e-learning platforms and online education: E-learning platforms have been developed in many countries of the region, like in KSA, where the national education portal "Ain" has become the main channel of education for more than 6 million users.

This digital education platform has provided 30,000 devices for students in need, in addition to providing more than 100,000 interactive digital learning hours for undergraduate students. The Egyptian, Saudi and Palestinian governments have also provided free Internet services to university professors and free SIM cards for students to access learning platforms through their devices. In Tunisia, Morocco and Bahrain, operators have provided free access to online education platforms. In Jordan, new platforms have been developed in the wake of the pandemic to host teaching materials such as "Darsak," "Idrak," "Jo Academy" and "Abwab".

In countries where network conditions were not able to handle the surge of e-learning applications, governments have used Television to broadcast lessons to students to ensure that the kids' education is not impacted.

Main digital connectivity challenges faced by the region

Despite these government solutions and initiatives, there are several bottlenecks that the sector witnessed during the pandemic and several risks that need to be addressed. These include

• Inability of several telecom operators to continue their business for operations, requiring physical presence of their employees at work sites as they needed to respond to lock down requirements.
• Disruption of global trade, especially with countries exporting telecom equipment, affecting the availability of devices and equipment for broadband networks and services,
• Increasing incidents of theft and vandalism of communications equipment
• Increasing cyberattacks, fake news and incidents of digital fraud that exploit the public panic and uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19.
• Privacy and personal data protection concerns for the use of CDR and mobility data for contact tracing and tracking to flatten the curve and prevent the spread of the virus.

Priorities for MENA to leverage digital solutions for recovery

With the transition to recovery and countries re-opening slowly and cautiously, and as economic activity picks up again, MENA countries should work to increase the capacity of broadband connections, manage network congestion, ensure continuity of vital public services and enhance digital financial technologies.  This is important as demand for electronic services such as health care and mobile payment systems, food delivery services and e-commerce are likely to rise significantly.

This is why the World Bank continues to emphasize the importance of digital inclusion both in terms of universal access to affordable high-quality broadband internet, and in terms of financial inclusion as part of the Marrakech commitments ahead of 2021.

Governments of MENA countries should reinforce their efforts to achieve the following objectives based on the COVID-19 early lessons:

• Objective 1: Increasing capacities and reducing network congestion to prevent disconnection and ensure sustainability
• Objective 2: Ensuring continuity of public services to enable citizens to make use of digital technology to complete their transactions
• Objective 3: Developing electronic financial services such as digital payments and cash transfers from governments to individuals to support companies and the poorest and most vulnerable groups, while emphasizing the importance of providing beneficiaries with proof of identity (IDs) to ensure their access to services
• Objective 4: Promoting e-learning initiatives to ensure education continuity.

As the Governments continue to work on creating an enabling environment to increase network capacity, improve service quality, and develop innovative services following global best practices, a number of priority actions in the short, medium and longer terms are important to emphasize. These include:

• Eliminating obstacles to private sector investment and facilitating entry of new operators into the telecommunications market by encouraging competition, reducing licensing fees and sharing revenue
• Regulating corporate tariffs
• Promoting regional cooperation to establish new submarine cable systems
• Facilitating access to basic infrastructure
• Adopting open-access policies to connect all operators to communication infrastructure on a non-discriminatory basis
• Sharing infrastructure by operators, including in the transport, energy and telecommunications sectors
• Allowing use of globally common services such as VoIP

In conclusion, it is important that governments look at digital development more broadly than the ICT sector. 

Digital technologies bring about fundamental transformations in our economies and countries and affect all sectors of the economy such as agriculture, education, health, government and financial services. 

 Reaping the benefits of digital transformation requires an ecosystem approach focusing on digital infrastructure, digital platforms, digital skills, and applications in vital use cases across the economy, while ensuring protection of personal data and aiming for a truly inclusive digital economy for all.

source: worldbank