Pictures of expats being flown out of Egypt have contributed to the cloud that seems to have been cast over the Middle East – an image not helped by the turmoil in Tunisia in January, despite being in North Africa, as markets tend to paint with a broad brush.
However, this can only be a temporary situation and I am confident that once the current unrest has calmed, a depth of reality will be brought to the matter.
As anyone who has worked in Middle East countries will know, each nation is very distinct in character from the other and the countries with which we at Guardian Wealth Management are most familiar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar and Bahrain, are certainly stable, highly prosperous and rapidly developing nations.
While investors and professional workers may now be wary of establishing themselves in some Middle East domiciles, I can see them having no such qualms about these countries. Which is why, I believe, these leading nations provide a wealth of opportunities for international financial advisers.
Qatar
Let’s take Qatar as an example. Qatar is an oil and gas rich nation – it has the world’s second largest GDP per capita and third largest gas reserves – with considerable plans for development. With a population of 1.7 million this means bringing in expat workers and professionals. It was for this reason that Guardian Wealth Management established the first of our Middle East offices in the country.
This already strong business opportunity has been expanded significantly by Qatar’s successful bid to stage the 2022 World Cup.
In the next eleven years Qatar will need to make a massive investment in its infrastructure as well as public and commercial facilities. Alongside the construction of nine state-of-the-art football stadiums and the refurbishment of three others and a fully air-conditioned rapid mass transportation system to counter summer temperatures of 40C plus, there is the need for a 40-kilometre Qatar to Bahrain causeway, a new airport, and a deep water seaport.
Qatar has both the will and the resources to make the tournament very successful but to achieve the required level of development a substantial foreign workforce will be essential – possibly doubling the country’s total population in the next two years.
In international financial planning terms, we estimate this will bring into the country around 100,000 expatriates who will require on-the-ground financial planning such as is regularly delivered by qualified financial advisers in the UK. Certainly we are looking to expand our operation with this quality of adviser.
Similar arguments can be made for UAE and Bahrain, as well as other countries in the region.
Growing interest
I believe the interest among expat professionals to work and live in the Middle East will grow as these incredible countries are placed more and more in the spotlight for all the right reasons – as an aside you may have read in the pages of International Adviser, Dubai is to be the setting for the film of Carte Blanche the next James Bond novel.
The Middle East countries present an exciting opportunity for the right calibre of financial adviser looking to build a career in the international financial services arena. But believe me, knowledge and experience of serving the expatriate communities and an on-the-ground regulated presence, such as we have at Guardian Wealth Management, will be essential.
