Sheikh Zayed Book Award signs off shortlists for its 12th edition

The Scientific Committee of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award has approved the shortlists for its 12th edition following meetings from 21-23 February.

The meetings were headed by Dr Ali Bin Tamim, Secretary General of the award, joined by committee members Dr Khalil Al Shaikh from Jordan; Dr Mohammed Bennis from Morocco, Dr Kadhim Jihad from France/Iraq; Dr Ali Al Kaabi from the UAE; Dr Dheya’ Al Kaabi from Bahrain; Samer Abu Hawwash from Palestine/Lebanon; Juergen Boos, President of the Frankfurt Book Fair from Germany, in addition to Dr Mohammed Badran from Egypt.

The committee’s meeting agenda included the assessment of the detailed reports of the judging panels for all long listed works across the award’s various categories, namely Best Contribution to the Development of Nations; Children’s Literature, including adolescents’ books; Young Author; Translation; Literature; Literary and Art Criticism, Arabic Culture in Other Languages; Publishing and Cultural Technologies and Cultural Personality of the Year. The Committee also agreed on the cultural programme details planned during the upcoming Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, and listed recommendations to ensure transparency and neutrality ahead of the edition’s final stages.

Dr Ali Bin Tamim said: “The judging panels have done a remarkable job to evaluate a total of 1,191 nominations across all categories and to submit their reports against stringent and unbiased criteria to ensure a decision that is truly objective and transparent. This has been followed by meetings of the Scientific Committee during which we comprehensively reviewed the judging panels’ recommendations towards finalising the short lists which will be announced throughout the coming weeks in preparation of the winners’ announcement in March ahead of the award’s presentation ceremony parallel to the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.”

Speaking of the nominations in the session, Dr Al Bin Tamim added: “We have witnessed a unique collection of literary and scientific works nominated this session, with a geographic variety from across the Arab countries as well as the rest of the world. Such momentum has been due to the positive drive the award has on the cultural communities of writers, publishers and scholars, and underlines the intellectual value the award promotes on a regional and a global level towards fuelling creativity in the works of culture, literature and humanities.”

According to the award’s general regulations, the Scientific Committee assumes the responsibilities of assigning the judging panels and determining the judging process and criteria against which nominations will be evaluated. The committee is also responsible for putting forward its recommendations to the Board of Trustees on works not meeting the criteria and any award to be withheld, as well as recommending the list of winners. The committee also presents suggestions and recommendations on the award’s categories and process as deemed fit, besides providing advice on any other matter of urgency to the Board of Trustees.

Sheikh Zayed Book Award winners to be translated

Source: Sheikh Zayed Book Award.
2018 reading panel.

The Sheikh Zayed Book Award has launched a translation initiative in cooperation with the Frankfurt Book Fair NY branch, aiming to support publishing houses in translating the award’s winning titles into English, French and German.

HE Saif Saeed Ghobash, Director General of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said the initiative is part of activities to celebrate the Year of Zayed. “This year is witnessing the 12th edition of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, marking more than a decade of the hard work and effort that has laid the foundation for a cultural and literary landmark that seeks to celebrate creative literary scholars and intellectuals. The award has always been characterised by its openness to international cultures and encouraging remarkable cultural activity at both Arab and international levels," he said.

“This partnership is aimed at encouraging translations from Arabic into other languages and spreading Arab culture in the West, thus strengthening the position of the Sheikh Zayed Book Award among international awards as an incubator of Arab culture and promoter of dialogue among civilisations.”

HE Dr Ali Bin Tamim, Secretary General of the award, said: “The partnership of Sheikh Zayed Book Award with the Frankfurt Book Fair stems from our overarching vision to consistently support the constructive cultural communication between Arabic and other languages, as well as to continue bolstering the developing translation activities within the Arab world. Representing the cherished values of the award’s mission during the nation’s celebration of the Year of Zayed, this collaboration signifies the endeavours towards enriching cultures and arts, combining tradition and modernity, encouraging cultural openness, diversity, and acceptance of the other. From there springs our deep belief in the role of translation in promoting dialogue among civilisations and building the spirit of convergence among nations, reflecting what we strive for in this strategic partnership, which will be pivotal to realising the vision and objectives of the award.”

Juergen Boos, President of the Frankfurt Book Fair said: “Looking at the previous editions of the award and their winners’ records, and given my position as president of the Frankfurt Book Fair, member of the award’s Scientific Committee and follower of its journey since its inception, I can verily say that the award has undoubtedly become an international cultural platform, operating at the same level as other major literary awards. In that light, the award’s objectives combined with our endeavors have led to the crystallisation of this strategic partnership, which aims to facilitate the translation of the winning titles into German, English and French.

“This helps raise awareness internationally regarding the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, in addition to promoting the award’s work and winners at the cultural and literary international events, such as the Frankfurt Book Fair.”

The agreement also includes promoting the award’s winning titles among international publishing houses, with a special focus on the Literature and Children’s Literature categories. 

Low-paid employees in Pakistan may be eligible to go for Hajj 2018

The Pakistani government has invited corporate sector entities and public organisations to provide lists of low-paid employees who may be eligible to attend Hajj 2018 as part of the government's corporate social responsibility initiatives.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs & Interfaith Harmony will shortlist applicants on a case by case basis.

Details:

Nominations must be made on forms available online and submitted by 30 March 2018.

UAE organises Hajj workshop

The UAE General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments (Awqaf) has organised a workshop for accredited Hajj and umrah contractors during which it discussed last year’s Hajj season and then addressed the procedures planned for the 2018 season. 

Topics discussed included the mechanism of merging Hajj campaigns, the quota set for each operator, campaign activities, and registration logistics. HE Dr Mohammed Matar al Kaabi, Awqaf’s Chairman, discussed Hajj packages for this year’s season, as well as the services and the support by the UAE leadership. Dr al Kaabi further underlined the need for the operators to ensure excellence in service delivery.

Staff concerned with the Hajj affairs at Awqaf and heads of the Hajj campaigns attended the event. 

Abu Dhabi's Mother of the Nation Festival returns this March

The Mother of the Nation Festival, regarded as one of the UAE’s largest cultural events of its kind, is to return to the capital this year 22– 31 March.

The third edition of the festival, organised by the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi, is to be held on Abu Dhabi Corniche and will be open daily from 4pm until midnight. Last year’s edition of the festival attracted more than 197,000 visitors over 10 days.

The Mother of the Nation Festival is dedicated to HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union, and Chairwoman of the Supreme Council of Motherhood and Childhood; and is a tribute to her far-reaching inspirational values while celebrating her progressive vision and continual contributions to society. A series of displays, activities and performances throughout the festival will promote the importance of family coherence, with a special focus on mothers’ roles in promoting family cohesion and maintaining social values and traditions.

Source: Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi website. An aerial view of the Mother of the Nation Festival 2017.

The festival will also utilise Miral Asset Management’s new 600m beachfront leisure development A’l Bahar, which will be opened to the public for the first time for Mother of The Nation Festival.
HE Saif Saeed Ghobash, Director General, Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said: “The festival not only honours Her Highness’s vision, care and values that she has instilled into our society, but will also celebrate all mothers here in the UAE and their fortitude, resilience and aspirations in raising our future generations.

Explore:

Watch the video introducing the Mother of the Nation Festival

Hashtag: #MOTNFestival

Green investment myths debunked: WCMS 2018

Source: SC. Panel on SRI at WCMS 2018.

Sustainable and responsible investments (SRI) equal better value and returns for companies and investors, according to experts in a panel at the World Capital Markets Symposium 2018 (WCMS 2018) in Kuala Lumpur. The idea that SRI would equal to lower value and returns is now proven to be a myth, said panellists who cited experience and studies at the symposium organised by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) together with Capital Markets Malaysia.

“I don’t want to convince my competitors of this, but our experience has been that integrating ESG helps improve financials… it does pay. It is consistent; the vast majority of the research that has looked at this question has found that there’s lower volatility,” said Steve Waygood, Chief Responsible Investment Officer, AVIVA, who is responsible for integrating environmental social and corporate governance (ESG) issues across all asset classes and regions of £320 billion of assets under management (AUM).

Praising the progress made by Malaysia and other proponents of the sustainability agenda, he said that a lot of progress has been made locally and internationally in terms of green bonds and other SRI-related investments. “The good news is Malaysia has been a leader, and is close to top in the emerging markets, ahead of Toronto, Nasdaq and other stock exchanges. You are leading the pack,” he said, citing a study ranking the world exchanges on the extent to which the world’s publicly traded companies are disclosing its sustainability indicators.

George Kell, Chairman, Arabesque and Founder, UN Global Compact said that ESG integration is a global trend and has been happening longer in corporates, driven by factors such as changing technology, rise of transparency, governance changes and values of younger investors and that the case of returns being lower with SRI has been debunked as myth.

“There is indeed a strong correlation of ESG at the corporate level. There’s now empirical evidence over many years, that good sustainable performance is positively correlated with financial performance,

“I salute the Securities Commission Malaysia for 25 years of really good stewardship, on latest guidance for sustainable investing. You are really putting the country on a good course towards the future. Malaysia is on the leading edge on this front,” said Kell.

He added that Malaysia’s leadership in Islamic finance helps it push the SRI agenda given the identical values shared between both segments. With Islamic funds being recognised as part of the SRI universe, Malaysia is currently the largest SRI funds market in Asia (excluding Japan). It has 30% share of the region’s US$52 billion fund assets. In December 2017, SC introduced the SRI Funds Guidelines and the SRI Sukuk framework was introduced in 2014. The world’s first green sukuk was issued in Malaysia.

Datuk Dr Mohd Daud Bakar, Founder and Executive Chairman, Amanie Group, said that the mindset about sustainability should extend beyond the environment to humanity as well. “Sustainability has no religion, have no race, no home address. It belongs to all of us. As much as we talk about sustainability of the environment, green mountains, blue ocean, we can’t forget about humans,” he said, citing issues of migration and globalisation and the need to put in place the right financial infrastructure.

A Deutsche Bank study, Sustainable investing: Establishing Long-Term Value and Performance, found that companies identified as having high corporate social responsibility (CSR) or environmental, social and governance (ESG) rankings historically have had strong correlations with superior risk-adjusted securities returns. The study reviewed 100 academic studies, essentially analysing 56 research papers, 2 literature reviews and 4 meta-studies.

Barclays Research found that a positive ESG tilt resulted in a small but steady performance advantage when investigating the link between ESG and corporate bond performance. ESG attributes did not significantly affect the price of corporate bonds. When applying separate tilts to E, S and G scores, the positive effect was strongest for a positive tilt towards the governance factor, and weakest for social scores. Issuers with high governance scores experienced lower incidence of downgrades by credit rating agencies.

Meanwhile, an analysis of findings based on the Thomson Reuters ESG dataset concludes that ESG may be too costly to ignore. Reviews of companies with ESG scores that declared bankruptcy suggests that an investor who only held stocks with above-average ranks on both environmental and social scores would have avoided 15 of the 17 bankruptcies seen since 2008. ESG also signalled future volatility and stock price declines.

The SC’s World Capital Markets Symposium has attracted thought leaders and Nobel laureates since 2009. These luminaries have shaped discussions on issues such as risks, socioeconomic development and digital innovation.

Muis appoints travel agents for Hajj 2018

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) has appointed five individual travel agents and seven lead consortium travel agents as general sales agents (GSAs) to offer Hajj packages for 2018 (1439). Muis is in the process of notifying pilgrims whose registration numbers fall within the official quota (800) to choose their preferred Hajj package.

Prospective Singaporean pilgrims may choose from a total of 30 Hajj packages. Ten of these are short packages with the duration of stay ranging from 13 to 22 days. Eighteen of these are intermediate-trip packages with the duration of stay between 24 to 31 days. The remaining two packages offer stays ranging from 32 to 35 days.

The average Hajj package costs around S$11,500 (double occupancy). The lowest package price is S$6,995 (quad occupancy). All package prices quoted include emergency medical assistance (EMA) but exclude airfare and prevailing taxes. KSA has also imposed a 5% value added tax (VAT) on all goods and services in the country from 1 January 2018. This tax has been included in the Hajj packages for 2018. Despite the tax, all prices remain stable and competitive, Muis
said.

Muis advises prospective pilgrims to evaluate Hajj packages carefully based on individual needs and affordability. Prospective pilgrims are strongly advised not to make any payments to the approved GSAs until they receive the Haj Package Selection Letter from Muis. Pilgrims are also advised to read and understand the contents of the Haj Package Purchase Contract. GSAs have been requested to explain in full details to prospective pilgrims before confirming and signing each contract.

Details:

Get the list of authorised travel agents and approved Hajj packages for 2018

Explore:

Read the Suroor Asia blog posts about VAT in KSA and Hajj statistics in 2017

Hajj statistics for 2017

More than 2.3 million pilgrims went for the Hajj in 2017 (1438), reports the KSA General Authority for Statistics. This compares with 2.4 million pilgrims for the Hijra year 1429, and a peak of 3.1 million pilgrims for the year 1433. Nearly 1.9 million pilgrims went for the Hajj in 1437.

Domestic pilgrims have hovered between 500,000 and 700,000 since 1434, against over a million foreign pilgrims per year. Of the numbers for 1438, 209,415 were Saudis from KSA, and 390, 693 were Saudi residents from other nationalities. Nearly 14% of the non-Saudi domestic pilgrims came from Pakistan, the largest contingent after Egypt, followed by 10.7% of the cohort from India and then 9% from Yemen.

Other statistics included:

- Overseas pilgrims numbered 1.7 million. Just 1% of them arrived by sea, and another 5% overland; the rest arrived by air.

- GCC countries accounted for 35.3% of pilgrims, while 37.3% were from Asia excluding Arab countries.

- The majority of pilgrims arrived from the 19th of Dhul-Qa'adah, the month preceding Dhul-Hijjah when the Hajj is performed. Nearly 18% arrived from the 19th to 24th of Dhul-Qa'adah, with another 27% from 25-30 Dhul-Qa'adah. A quarter of the pilgrims arrived from 1-7 Dhul-Hijjah. The Hajj begins on the 8th of Dhul-Hijjah, ending on the 13th of the month.

- Almost 160,000 people were engaged in pilgrim services for 1438. This number excludes security forces. Some 86,987 people were managing welcome activities, supervision, energy, awareness-building and affairs for the two holy mosques - Al-Masjid al-Haram in Makkah and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Madinah. Nearly 31,000 people were involved in health services, and close to 36,000 in transportation. Telecommunications services accounted for 3,743 persons.

The Hajj statistics programme aims at providing comprehensive and accurate data on the number of pilgrims by means of transportation and date of arrival, for use in setting up plans and programs required for extending distinguished services to pilgrims, the number of pilgrims from Makkah is calculated based on a survey implemented by General Authority for Statistics.

Hajj statistics centres are located at all entrances to Makkah in KSA, as well as at other support centres in the cities of Jeddah, Taif, and Medina. The counting usually begins on the first day of Dhu al-Hijjah, and ends at 6pm of the 9th day of the same month. The counting process also covers the pilgrims from overseas who are counted by General Directorate of Passports at KSA's borders.

Explore:

View the 1438 report (PDF)

Haj Committee of India opens applications for Hajj trainers

The Haj Committee of India has invited applicants as trainers for Hajj pilgrims. The trainers will first be trained by the organisation, after which they will train Hajj pilgrims under the direct supervision of state or union territory (UT) Haj Committees.

One trainer to 250 pilgrims is planned, subject to adjustment to allow every district in a state to be represented. The quota will also be relaxed if the state quota has fewer than 250 pilgrims.

Details:

Applicants should apply online by 15 February and then submit a hard copy of the completed e-application  by 21 February to their state or UT Haj Committee.

Read the terms and conditions (PDF)

Meezan Bank moves two outlets

Islamic bank Meezan Bank has made two branch relocation announcements to date in 2018.

The bank's City Center Rahim Yar Khan branch will be relocated on 19 February to:

23-Model Town, Rahim Yar Khan

Call 068 5887 6 0708 in Pakistan with enquiries.

The bank's Khyber Bazar branch in Peshawar 0781 will move on 1 March to:

Property No. 417/D, Rehman Baba Colony
Mohallah Akara Mufti Abdul Latif Khan
Outside Bajori Gate, Khyber Bazar Peshawar

Call 091 2564 0 1920 with enquiries

Pakistan launches competitions for religious publications

Pakistan's Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has launched Seerat-un-Nabi Book, Maqalat and Na'at Book competitions for 2018. Na'at refers to poetry written in praise of the prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) while seerah-un-Nabi refers to the life of the prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). Maqalat refers to discussions.

Prizes for the Seerat book competition range from Rs35,000 for regional language book winners to Rs100,000 for the first prize for a book written in Urdu.

Top prize for the Na'at book competition is Rs50,000 for a na'at written in Urdu.

A book competition only for women scholars has prizes of Rs100,000, Rs75,000 and Rs50,000 respectively for books written in English or Urdu, on any general Islamic topic, seerat-un-Nabi, or na'at-e-rasul.

There are also competitions for journals and magazines with special issues on seerah or na'at, as well as a Maqalat-e-seerat competition.

Details:

View the terms and conditions (JPG). The deadline is 20 March, 2018.

Haj Committee of India sets mid-April deadline for NRI passport submission

The Haj Committee of India has announced that the last date of submission for original passports for non-resident Indian Hajj pilgrims is 15 April 2018, before the deadline for the input of pilgrim details into the KSA computer system which is estimated to fall on 15 May this year.

The committee said that it would extend the deadline if the Ministry of Haj & Umrah, KSA makes changes to its submission deadline. Such extensions are not applicable to co-pilgrims, or for payments by pilgrims.