The first anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar has not just focussed attention on the dire state of the country and its suffering under the regime's crackdowns. It has also exposed fissures in Asean, the nearly 700 million-strong Association of South-East Asian Nations to which Myanmar belongs.
Arguably the most successful regional grouping in the world – none of the 10 members would dream of trying to leave, as the UK did the EU – Asean makes much of its centrality to the Asia-Pacific’s economic, political and security architecture. And the World Economic Forum recently stated that as a whole, the association was on track to be the globe’s fourth-largest economy by 2030.
Letting Myanmar join the group in 1997 was controversial, however, as it was virtually a pariah state and had been a military dictatorship since 1962. The path towards democracy that the country took from 2010 onwards was often cited as a post-hoc justification for its admission. So the reversal of that process after the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown by the military, headed by Min Aung Hlaing, last February, has left Asean looking impotent when it comes to one of its members taking actions that almost the whole world has condemned.
Last year, when Brunei held the rotating chair, Asean did take what was for the concord-driven group pretty strong action. In April, it agreed a “Five-Point Consensus” that called for constructive dialogue and an immediate cessation of violence. After it became obvious that no progress had been made at all, Min Aung Hlaing was excluded from a leaders’ summit in October and also from a China-Asean summit the following month.
This year started with Asean’s new chair, Cambodia, appearing to take the opposite approach and a far more emollient line. Prime Minister Hun Sen visited Myanmar in January and held talks with Min Aung Hlaing, whose foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin was then invited to an Asean foreign ministers’ meeting to be held in the middle of the month. The gathering was rescheduled after various participants pled Omicron-related excuses for why they couldn’t attend, but the real reason was opposition to a representative of the junta being there at all. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore were known to be vehement on this point.
Until recently, it looked as though the impasse was going to be repeated when the ministerial gathering finally convenes on February 16 and 17, as the invitation to Wunna Maung Lwin had not been rescinded. A repeat of 2012 – when Cambodia was last Asean’s chair and for the first time in its then 45-year history a foreign ministers’ meeting concluded without a joint communique being issued – was the “nightmare haunting” his country’s chairmanship, said Pou Sothirak, a former minister and ambassador, in a webinar hosted by The Diplomat magazine.
“Asean’s credibility and unity are at stake,” warned Mr Sothirak, who has been executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Co-operation and Peace since 2013. After the atrocities committed under the junta, it seemed hard to see why any process of reconciliation should begin with Asean making the military the lead interlocutor. Was the association going to be irredeemably split by the issue of Myanmar during Cambodia’s chairmanship? Did Hun Sen, whose iron grip on power has rarely wavered since he first became his country’s prime minister in 1985, have an affinity for autocrats?
It may, however, be much more complicated than that. Aaron Connelly, who leads research on South-East Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore, pointed out that Hun Sen had played a very active role in Asean’s meeting on Myanmar last April, and was said to have been highly critical of Min Aung Hlaing. Hun Sen “didn’t appear to be on a good footing” with the junta, Mr Connelly said. Many have, instead, raised the Cambodian leader’s image of himself as a peacemaker, drawing on his experiences helping to bring an end to the country’s decades-long civil war in the 1990s.
Mr Connelly also suggested that the invitation to Myanmar’s foreign minister may have been a misstep or misunderstanding, since it had not been explicitly spelt out that excluding the junta leader last year meant that no regime ministers should ever attend Asean gatherings.
In any event, Cambodia has said that a non-political representative from Myanmar has been invited to the mid-February meeting, not the military-appointed foreign minister. A disaster for Asean – and it cannot be overstated just how significant the non-issue of a joint communique was in 2012 – seems to have been averted.
But that does not mean Hun Sen’s conviction that he is in a unique position to bring all sides together in Myanmar has disappeared. After all, Mr Sothirak said, last year’s Five-Point Consensus had “no roadmap, no timeframe”. Perhaps there could be something to Hun Sen’s approach, which he characterised as “no conditions, we just want to talk to you”.
“If he doesn’t break the ice, what’s next?” asked Mr Sothirak. “Maybe we should give Hun Sen the benefit of the doubt.”
The third speaker at the webinar, Elina Noor, director of political-security affairs at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Washington, appeared to concur, with reservations. Given the humanitarian catastrophe in Myanmar, she said, “there needs to be a timeframe to assess if this approach is working".
No one could disagree. The world has looked on with horror as civilians have been massacred and villages have been burned to the ground. But Myanmar’s military has a long history of ignoring the repugnance of the international community and surviving whatever sanctions it is placed under. Perhaps Hun Sen, who is rarely given credit for anything apart from his ability to remain in office, can succeed where no one else has so far. Asean, and the people of Myanmar, must fervently hope that his belief in his peace-making faculties translates into real progress on the Five-Point Consensus. An easing of the country’s misery cannot come soon enough.
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At a glance
- 20,000 new jobs for Emiratis over three years
- Dh300 million set aside to train 18,000 jobseekers in new skills
- Managerial jobs in government restricted to Emiratis
- Emiratis to get priority for 160 types of job in private sector
- Portion of VAT revenues will fund more graduate programmes
- 8,000 Emirati graduates to do 6-12 month replacements in public or private sector on a Dh10,000 monthly wage - 40 per cent of which will be paid by government
Tributes from the UAE's personal finance community
• Sebastien Aguilar, who heads SimplyFI.org, a non-profit community where people learn to invest Bogleheads’ style
“It is thanks to Jack Bogle’s work that this community exists and thanks to his work that many investors now get the full benefits of long term, buy and hold stock market investing.
Compared to the industry, investing using the common sense approach of a Boglehead saves a lot in costs and guarantees higher returns than the average actively managed fund over the long term.
From a personal perspective, learning how to invest using Bogle’s approach was a turning point in my life. I quickly realised there was no point chasing returns and paying expensive advisers or platforms. Once money is taken care off, you can work on what truly matters, such as family, relationships or other projects. I owe Jack Bogle for that.”
• Sam Instone, director of financial advisory firm AES International
"Thought to have saved investors over a trillion dollars, Jack Bogle’s ideas truly changed the way the world invests. Shaped by his own personal experiences, his philosophy and basic rules for investors challenged the status quo of a self-interested global industry and eventually prevailed. Loathed by many big companies and commission-driven salespeople, he has transformed the way well-informed investors and professional advisers make decisions."
• Demos Kyprianou, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"Jack Bogle for me was a rebel, a revolutionary who changed the industry and gave the little guy like me, a chance. He was also a mentor who inspired me to take the leap and take control of my own finances."
• Steve Cronin, founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com
"Obsessed with reducing fees, Jack Bogle structured Vanguard to be owned by its clients – that way the priority would be fee minimisation for clients rather than profit maximisation for the company.
His real gift to us has been the ability to invest in the stock market (buy and hold for the long term) rather than be forced to speculate (try to make profits in the shorter term) or even worse have others speculate on our behalf.
Bogle has given countless investors the ability to get on with their life while growing their wealth in the background as fast as possible. The Financial Independence movement would barely exist without this."
• Zach Holz, who blogs about financial independence at The Happiest Teacher
"Jack Bogle was one of the greatest forces for wealth democratisation the world has ever seen. He allowed people a way to be free from the parasitical "financial advisers" whose only real concern are the fat fees they get from selling you over-complicated "products" that have caused millions of people all around the world real harm.”
• Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"In an industry that’s synonymous with greed, Jack Bogle was a lone wolf, swimming against the tide. When others were incentivised to enrich themselves, he stood by the ‘fiduciary’ standard – something that is badly needed in the financial industry of the UAE."
Brief scoreline:
Crystal Palace 2
Milivojevic 76' (pen), Van Aanholt 88'
Huddersfield Town 0
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Company%C2%A0profile
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Match info
Manchester United 1 (Van de Beek 80') Crystal Palace 3 (Townsend 7', Zaha pen 74' & 85')
Man of the match Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)
The%20specs
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FIXTURES
Saturday
5.30pm: Shabab Al Ahli v Al Wahda
5.30pm: Khorfakkan v Baniyas
8.15pm: Hatta v Ajman
8.15pm: Sharjah v Al Ain
Sunday
5.30pm: Kalba v Al Jazira
5.30pm: Fujairah v Al Dhafra
8.15pm: Al Nasr v Al Wasl
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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