UAE to offer long-term visa for rich, educated foreigners

Agencies
November 25, 2018

Dubai, Nov 25: The United Arab Emirates will offer long-term visas to rich property investors, senior scientists and entrepreneurs in an effort to support its economy and real estate market, which have been hurt by low oil prices.

Until now, visas for foreigners to live in the Arab world's second biggest economy have generally been valid for only a few years, and have depended on the main visa holder in each family remaining employed. The government said in May it planned to ease that policy.

Detailed rules approved by the cabinet on Saturday offer five-year residency to owners of UAE real estate worth at least 5 million dirhams ($1.4 million), as long as ownership is not based on loans, state news agency WAM reported.

Renewable 10-year visas will be provided to foreigners with investments in the UAE of at least 10 million dirhams, if non-real estate assets account for at least 60 percent of the total. Investors can bring spouses and children into the country.

Other rules offer five-year visas to entrepreneurs and 10-year visas for scientists and researchers with top qualifications. Outstanding students can stay for five years.

The UAE is currently locked in a diplomatic dispute with Britain after a UK academic was jailed for life on spying charges.

Share prices of UAE property firms, beaten down by slumping real estate prices, moved little on Sunday in response to the new visa rules. Analysts said they were probably not enough on their own to change investment or employment trends.

Some parts of the economy that rely on white-collar professionals - a class of people who might buy homes in the UAE - are seeing stagnant or even falling employment.

Jean-Paul Pigat, head of research at Lighthouse Research in Dubai, said the new visas were a step in the right direction but: "In order to have a large impact on domestic demand and sectors such as real estate, the policies might need to be broadened so that larger numbers of residents can qualify."

Also, the visas do not provide a path to UAE citizenship, which would be a sensitive political issue in a country where well over two-thirds of the roughly 9.4 million residents are believed to be foreign.

Nishit Lakhotia, head of research at financial company SICO in Bahrain, said the new visa system was positive but unlikely to have any immediate material impact.

"There are much less stringent investment requirements in some of Eastern European countries or even Turkey to get citizenship, not just residency permits," he said.

In another step to aid the real estate market, the UAE government approved in September a law allowing expatriates to stay in the country after retirement if they own a property valued at about $545,000.

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Agencies
April 27,2020

Riyadh, Apr 27: A Saudi Arabia-led coalition said on Monday that all parties need to return to the status that existed before the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen declared an emergency in Aden, according to a statement published by Spa.

The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, stresses the need to restore conditions to their previous state following the announcement of a state of emergency by the Southern Transitional Council and the consequential development of affairs in the interim capital (Aden) and some Southern governorates in the Republic of Yemen.

The Coalition urges for an immediate end to any steps contrary to the Riyadh Agreement, and work rapidly toward its implementation, citing the wide support for the agreement by the international community and the United Nations.

The Coalition has and will continue to undertake practical and systematic steps to implement the Riyadh Agreement between the parties to unite Yemeni ranks, restore state institutions and combat the scourge of terrorism. The responsibility rests with the signatories to the Agreement to undertake national steps toward implementing its provisions, which were signed and agreed upon with a time matrix for implementation. The Coalition demands an end to any escalation and calls for return to the Agreement by the participating parties, stressing the immediate need for implementation without delay, and the need to prioritise the Yemeni peoples' interests above all else, as well as working to achieve the stated goals of restoring the state, ending the coup and combatting terrorist organizations.

The Coalition reaffirms its ongoing support to the legitimate Yemeni government, and its support for implementing the Riyadh Agreement, which entails forming a competent government that operate from the interim capital Aden to tackle economic and developmental challenges, in light of natural disasters such as floods, fears of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic outbreak, and work to provide services to the brotherly people of Yemen.

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News Network
April 11,2020

Dubai, Apr 11: The UAE has conducted over 49,000 Covid-19 tests among UAE citizens and residents, it was revealed on Friday, using state-of-the-art technology in line with the 's plans to intensify virus screening in order to bring the disease under control.

The accelerated investigative measures helped detect 370 new coronavirus cases among various nationalities, all of whom are in a stable condition and receiving the necessary care.

This took the total number of infections in the country to 3,360, according to a MoHaP statement.

The Ministry also revealed the death of two patients suffering from Covid-19. Both of the deceased were Asian nationals and had pre-existing chronic illnesses. The total number of deaths has now reached 16.

The Ministry expressed its sincere condolences to the families of the deceased and wished a speedy recovery to all patients, calling on the public to cooperate with health authorities and comply with all precautionary measures, particularly social distancing protocols, to ensure the safety and protection of the public.

The Ministry also announced the full recovery of 150 new cases after receiving the necessary treatment, taking to 418 the total of those now recovered from the virus in the UAE.

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Stockholm, Jan 4: “I’m not the kind of person who celebrates birthdays,” Greta Thunberg said as she turned 17 on Friday, marking the occasion in inimitable style - with a seven-hour hour protest outside the Swedish parliament.

The climate activist braved winter conditions in her native Stockholm to continue the weekly Friday School Strike for the Climate campaign that helped catapult her to international fame.

“I stand here striking from 8am until 3pm as usual ... then I’ll go home,” Thunberg, Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019, told Reuters.

“I won’t have a birthday cake but we’ll have a dinner.”

It’s been a busy 12 months for Thunberg, who crisscrossed the globe by car, train and boat - but not plane - to demand action on climate change.

“It has been a strange and busy year, but also a great one because I have found something I want to do with my life and what I am doing is having an impact,” she said.

When she was 15, Thunberg began skipping school on Fridays to demonstrate outside the Swedish parliament to push her government to curb carbon emissions. Her campaign gave rise to a grassroots movement that has gone global, inspiring millions of people to take action.

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