Gulfood

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the ongoing Gulfood exhibition at the Trade centre halls. It was a first for me, and no doubt for many others visiting. The trade show had participants in almost all the stages of the fast food/restaurant supply chain. They ranged from basic food, fast food machinery, complete kitchen equipment to packaged food and menu design templetes.

What stuck me most interesting was the number of decision factors involved in setting up a restaurant or a fast food centre. I will try to list all the stages involved. Please comment if i missed some intermediate step.

1. Chef: The most important decision in setting up a restaurant is the chef. Restaurants make or break due to this. With chef, the decision on type of food that will be served is also decided. (Based on the chef's speciality)

2. Location: This goes hand in hand with step number one. Location is important because location determines most often the demand and supply of everything including customers and ingredent availablity. Location also determines to some extent the final price to be charged, since fixed costs are determined at this level.

3. Kitchen Equipment: Basic utilities for cooking and any other specialised equipment.

4. Interior decoration/furniture/crokery: This ranges from Basic tables and chairs to utilimate customization of interior experience.

5. Staffing: You need to staff both your kitchen as well as your restaurant.

6. Suppliers: Food suppliers.

7. Other stuff: Menus, Point of Sale Machines, etc

In addition to preparing food, a large section of the trade show was dedicated to the packaged food, both fozen and ready to eat. The trade show was divided into various geographical locations, that is, various countries and each section showcased their own food and other specialized equipment.

VAT instead of duty!

As covered in today's gulf news, VAT will be 5% and applicable to all goods and services sold in UAE. The revenues collected will be a replacement for the duty collected now on goods and services imported. Most of the countries exporting to UAE will have a free trade agreement with UAE by the end of this year.

This is good news for the financial system of UAE. And, unlike what most people who are against the VAT think, the VAT system will be a replacement for the duty system(which charges 5% right now), and should not raise the prices beyond the current inflation levels. However, considering that the present inflation is towards the high levels, most of the blame will go towards any new taxation system introducted.

One should keep in mind that VAT is not an income tax, and Salary will continue to be tax-free, unlike rest of the world.

VAT!! NOT!!

According to the newspapers, UAE is considering implementing a VAT based direct taxation system in United Arab Emirates and rest of the GCC countries. Implementations of direct tax have been in the rumors time and again for the last decade. No direct taxes have been implemented ever in dubai/UAE in their history.

So, should they go ahead now? IMF wants it. GCC as a whole should be under somekind of taxation should they go ahead with the plan to unify the economices and have a common currency (Also in the news nowadays). I am not sure if taxation should be the first common link in economies of GCC countries, but some kind of regulatory authority over all the countries financial systems would be a good starting point. Taxing some percentage without any central authority to regulate and manage it would be futile.

Individual countries of the EU have all the institutions in place for decades, they know the freedoms and responsiblities. Still EU economy is a mess, with all regulatory rules broken time and again. Example is germany's budget deficit. Without Individual countries of the GCC implementing their own instituational history and having their own populations follow it, there is little or no point on implementing any cross-border mass regulatory bodies such as taxation board.

I would support some kind (or any kind ) of regulation which has control over financial sector of all the businesses in united arab emirates. (Not single institutions like DIFC or free zones) This country has some of the lowest Returns of Cost of Ownership and Return on Capital. As somebody commented on their blog, dubai is building sand castles. Building is easier than maintaining it. Without good financial control and regulatory command, you will never know how well your country and your firm is doing.

Lastly, there is no point in doing something, just because your neighbor did it.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Boom town

This is the Dubai sandwich: at the bottom, cheap and exploited Asian labour; in the middle, white northern professional services, plus tourist hunger for glamour in the sun and, increasingly, a de-monopolised western market system; at the top, enormous quantities of invested oil money, combined with fearsome social and political control and a drive to establish another model of what modern Arabia might mean in the post-9/11 world. That is the intriguing question: can Dubai do what Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, or almost anywhere else in the Arab world you might like to mention, have failed to do? Is Dubai, in fact, the fulcrum of the future global trading and financial system? Is it, in embryo, what London was to the 19th century and Manhattan to the 20th? Not the modern centre of the Arab world but, more than that, the Arab centre of the modern world.

Few have spelt out the truth better.

Read more at www.guardian.co.uk/g2/s...

Any Great companies in UAE?

Build to Last and Good To Great. Two books that declare it that lasting organizations have a distinct culture that defines it. Very few companies in middle-east seem to have any amibition to be good, least of all great.

Most of the management comes from forign nations, whose main objectives, according to the owners themselves, is to increase profits and market share. Dubai is a society of salesmen and consumers. Any activity not related to the above, is not encouraged, nor of any concern to the owners. There is little or no accountancy practices and stuff that exists is mainly adhoc, dependent only on which country the accountant comes from. (Audited balance sheets are very recent trend). R&D is limited to oil and gas industry, or maybe some few companies spread out.

The biggest drawback in UAE's economy is the time-limitedness of its employees. With no prospect of settling down for most of the population, it is mainly a city to work and earn. Not to re-invest. Visions, other than in locals, is limited to 3 years max. Increase your earning power as much as you can, and move. Within industries, the demand for trained individuals locally is high mainly due to high costs of training. No owner wants to train prefect employees, least somebody offers them higher wages. And finally, there is always a threat that business rights in dubai is very grey in color. Even after all the "free-zones" of the world. All said, none of the other countries in the region even provide this level of comfort. So you are left with no choice.

Borders in Dubai!!

YES, as noticied in gulf news paper(Business section) as well as press release from Borders.

For those who don't know, Borders (along with B&N) is supersize bookstore chain based in united states. I used to live next to one, and spent many an enjoyable weekends (infact most of them) browsing books and drinking coffee at their cafe. It is probably one of the most important lifestyle adjustments i had to make, while deciding to move to dubai. I really hope the shopping experience is same as in united states, since the idea of buying a book without reading the first few pages is deadful. 99% of the books cant be judged by their cover. Unforunately, except virgin megastore in MoE, all bookstores srinkrap their books. As if knowlegde inside the books will escape if somebody start to browse through it.

With major websites like Amazon and Google Print letting you browse and search through dozens of books at once, the idea of srinkraping is laughable. And i am talking of legitimate methods only. Audio books are rapent in peer sharing websites and ideal for dubai like environment where being stuck in traffic seems to be the most favorite passtime for everybody. I am presently listening to ""Lord of the rings" books; having completed the whole harry potter series.

Cartoon Politics

Who would have imagined that a cartoon can do so much damage? With embassy fires, volient clashes and even deaths reported, one has to wonder what is the world coming to when a simple drawing can have such unimaginable consquences.

I agree with most of the islamic world that the cartoons were of bad taste. And probably, placing a lawsuit against the company would be a good justification against it. However, the cartoon become a classic case of tipping point, where the full effect has come to realization after almost six months and a few reprints. I will not be suprised if a world war breaks out due to this (It is important to note that wars have broken for lesser reasons!!).

Still jokes aside, the only benefiters of this campaine against danish dairy food industry (boycotting of products) are the fundamentalists as well as saudi dairy industry which is welcoming all the extra business revenue generated. (Denmark and finish companies traditionally have market shares of nearly 50%, if not more!!) Not that they would be infavor of any protests, atleast officially. I am not sure but i believe saudi royal family has some stake in the dairy industry.