Arab youth choose UAE as where they would like to live and set up a business

• UAE ahead of US and Germany
• Safety, security and economic opportunity cited as main reasons
• UAE also seen as best place in which to start a business

For the fifth consecutive year, the UAE has been named as the country in which most Arab youth would like to live and the country they would most like their own nation to emulate, according to the findings of the 8th Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey*.

The UAE is also viewed as a model country that is economically secure and is the most favoured nation to set up a business in the Arab world.

When asked to think about the country they would most like to live in, nearly one in four (22 per cent) of young Arabs cite the UAE, ahead of the United States (15 per cent), Germany (11 per cent), Saudi Arabia (11 per cent) and Canada (10 per cent). Likewise, when asked to think about the country they would most like their own to emulate, 23 per cent cite the UAE, ahead of the US (19 per cent), Germany (12%), France (10%) and the UK (10%).

Sunil John, CEO of ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller, said: “The UAE’s popularity among youth is likely a reflection of its status as a model country and regional political and economic safe haven. The nation has developed a global reputation for its robust and diversified economy, which encourages a 'can do' attitude among its residents and is respectful of religious and cultural diversity.”

To help better understand why the UAE consistently polls highest, the survey provided respondents a series of positive and negative phrases and asked them to choose the ones they associate with the UAE most. The top associations with the UAE revolve around safety, security and economic opportunities, with Safe and Secure cited as the number one reason by 36% of youth, followed by Has a Growing Economy, Wide Range of Work Opportunities and Generous Salary Packages, which were each cited by 29% of respondents.

This year, for the first time, the survey asked potential entrepreneurs – young Arabs who said they intend to start a business in the next five years – in which Arab country they would like to set up their business. The UAE ranked as the most preferred country with one in four (24%) citing it as the top business destination in the Arab world, followed by Saudi Arabia (18%) and Qatar (13%).

Interested?

Explore in-depth results from the 8th Annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey, including survey highlights and a white paper in Arabic and English

Read the Suroor Asia blog post about entrepreneurship aspirations among Arab youth

*For this year’s survey, international polling firm Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) conducted 3,500 face-to-face interviews with exclusively Arab national men and women aged 18 to 24 in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain; Iraq, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Yemen. The interviews were conducted from January 11 to February 22, 2016.

Bangladesh gets IDB office

The People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group have signed a Host Country Agreement (HCA) for the launch of the IDB Group’s Country Gateway Office (CGO) in the capital city of Dhaka. CGOs have also been recently established in Turkey and Indonesia.

IDB Group President Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali praised 41 years of solid relations between IDB Group and Bangladesh as a founding and supportive member of the Bank. “Currently, the volume of approved IDB Group financings with Bangladesh stands at US$18.6 billion, the highest amount of financing ever approved by the 56 IDB member countries,” stated Dr Ahmad.

So far the approvals include major funding covering power, agriculture, irrigation, water supply, mining, roads, education and rural development as well as foreign trade operations aimed at enhancing intra-trade amongst member countries.

The IDB Group President further underlined that the decision to launch a CGO in Bangladesh is the culmination of several factors including the country’s outstanding and solid cooperation with the IDB Group, the high economic growth rate in recent years as well as the recent World Bank’s ranking of Bangladesh as a medium income country.

He further expressed hope that the CGO will increase the continued cooperation between Bangladesh and the IDB Group.

posted from Bloggeroid

About 10% of the world's flags carry Islamic symbols

Source: Pew Research website.

A third of the world’s 196 countries have national flags with religious symbols on them, according to a new Pew Research analysis. According to Pew Research, there are 64 countries in this category, with about half including Christian symbols (48%) and about a third including Islamic religious symbols (33%).

Islamic symbols are found on the flags of 21 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East and North Africa, the thinktank said. The national flag of Bahrain features five white triangles, symbolising the Five Pillars of Islam, Pew noted. Turkey, Brunei and Uzbekistan are some of the other countries that include an Islamic star and crescent on their national flag.

Although Singapore has a crescent and stars on its flag, they do not have religious significance, Pew added. The crescent moon “represents a young nation on the ascendant, and the five stars depict Singapore’s ideals of democracy, peace, progress, justice and equality,” according to the Singapore government.

Six countries house more than half of the Muslims around the world

Source: Pew Research website.

Muslims are concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, where six-in-ten (62%) of all Muslims reside, says 2012 figures from Pew Research. Against the total population by region, about one-in-four people (24%) are Muslims. The Middle East-North Africa region is almost wholly Muslim (93%), but represent only about 20% of the world’s Muslims.

The largest share of Muslims live in Indonesia (13%), followed by India (11%), Pakistan (11%), Bangladesh (8%), Nigeria (5%), Egypt (5%), Iran (5%), Turkey (5%), Algeria (2%) and Morocco (2%)*.

In August 2014, Pew Research updated its figures in a 'Fact Tank' about where people from different religions are clustered around the world. The top six nations where Muslims live together account for 53% of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, the consultancy said, accounting for 30% of the world’s population.

Pew Research also created an infographic in 2013 about the world's Muslims which can be viewed here.

*The difference between the rankings in this report, which states that India comes before Pakistan, and previous reports, where Pakistan was ranked larger than India, is primarily due to a downward revision by the United Nations Population Division of its estimate of the size of Pakistan’s total population and an upward revision of the UN estimate of India’s total population.

Crescentrating names top 10 halal friendly holiday destinations for 2014

For 2014, Malaysia, UAE and Turkey are the top three most halal friendly destinations which are Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members, while Singapore, South Africa and Thailand lead for the non-OIC category, says Crescentrating, a Singapore-based company that comments on halal travel. Both Malaysia and Singapore also topped the list the year before.

Crescentrating's fourth Ranking of Halal Friendly Holiday Destinations covers 60 destinations, against 50 the year before. The ranking is based on suitability as a family holiday destination, the level of services and facilities it provides for Muslim travellers and the marketing initiatives of the destination targeting this segment as the main criteria.
   
The company notes that the Muslim travel market was estimated to be worth US$140 billion in 2013, representing almost 13% of global travel expenditure, and commented that Indonesia has moved up to 4th position as a result of initiatives launched in the past 12 months to focus on the Muslim travel segment. 

"Japan has made the most improvement among the 60 destinations tracked. Japan released a travel guide for Muslim travellers last year. Recently some of the airports in Japan have also taken steps to improve their services by offering halal food and prayer rooms," said the company in a statement. 

	Top 10 Halal Friendly Destinations 2014 (OIC Destinations)	Top 10 Halal Friendly Destinations 2014 (non-OIC Destinations)
1	Malaysia	Singapore
2	United Arab Emirates	South Africa
3	Turkey	Thailand
4	Indonesia	United Kingdom
5	Saudi Arabia	Bosnia & Herzegovina
6	Morocco	India
7	Jordan	Hong Kong
8	Qatar	Germany
9	Tunisia	Australia
10	Egypt	Tanzania

An in-depth look at the rankings of all 60 destinations is available here.

Japan's Yokohama's tourism initatives targeted at Muslims are blogged here.