Daugiau jaunų specialistų ir pradedančiųjų renkasi Dubajų savo namais – tarp pagrindinių vairuotojų taikant naujai sušvelnintas vizų taisykles ir greito skiepijimo programą.

Nacionalinis Kalbėkitės su Vokietijos buitinės technikos prekės ženklo įkūrėju, Didžiosios Britanijos programinės įrangos kompanija ir Lietuvos kelionių agentūra, kartu su kitais skaitmeninius nuotolinius darbuotojus, kurie žengė šį žingsnį.

Daugelis jų apsilankė per žiemos uždarymo įkarštį Europoje ir dabar nusprendė grįžti.

„Buvo daug žmonių, kurie čia atvyko praėjusį rudenį ir keletą mėnesių išbuvo dėl apribojimų savo šalyse“, – sakė Fredas Roederis, Londone įsikūrusio „Consumer Choice Center“ direktorius.

“Šiuo metu Dubajuje vyksta kardinalios pertvarkos, nes vis daugiau aukštos kvalifikacijos specialistų pradeda tai vadinti savo namais” Fredas Roederis, Vartotojų pasirinkimo centras.

– Nebuvo jokios kitos vietos, kur galėčiau eiti, kuri Covido laikais siūlė tas pačias laisves.

Daugelis šių lankytojų dabar visam laikui žengia šį žingsnį.

„Šiuo metu Dubajuje vyksta drastiški pokyčiai, nes vis daugiau aukštos kvalifikacijos specialistų pradeda tai vadinti savo namais“, – sakė jis.

Gerbiamas sveikatos ekonomistas Roederis reguliariai skelbia pasaulinį atsparumo reitingą, kuris parodo, kaip šalys sėkmingai susidorojo su pandemija, kuri praėjusią savaitę JAE užėmė antrąją vietą pasaulyje. 

Ji taip pat gyrė JAE už geresnį vakcinavimo kampanijos rezultatą, palyginti su Europos Sąjungos šalimis.

Kampanija, kurioje vienu metu siūlomi kadrai visų amžiaus grupių žmonėms, reiškia, kad atvykėliai gali gauti kadrus, kai tik bus paruošti jų gyvenamosios vietos dokumentai, o tai paprastai trunka tris ar keturias savaites.

„Nors laisvė yra labai didelė, vis tiek matai žmones, besilaikančius taisyklių, nematai, kad daugybė kitų šalių žmonių laikytų kaukes“, – sakė dabar Dubajuje gyvenantis vokietis ponas Roederis.

Vyriausybės sprendimas suteikti gyvenamosios vietos vizas nuotoliniam darbui daro ją labiau pageidaujamą vietą, ypač jauniems žmonėms.

Naujausi turimi duomenys iš Dubajaus turizmo kovo pabaigoje rodo, kad 1700 žmonių kreipėsi dėl nuotolinio darbo vizos. Programos nuoroda čia – Su priimtiniausiu. Pirmą kartą žmonėms leidžiama gyventi JAE ir dirbti užsienyje esančioje įmonėje, kuri čia neturi bazės.

Be to, 16 000 užsienio keliautojų nusprendė pasinaudoti nemokamu miesto vizų galiojimo pratęsimu sausio mėnesį, CNN Travel sakė Dubajaus turizmo vadovas Issamas Kazimas. Tradiciniai vizų metodai, kurie tinka vietos verslui, laisvai samdomiems darbuotojams ir pradedantiesiems, yra vis dar populiarūs.

Originally published here.

More young professionals and start-ups are choosing Dubai as their home – with newly relaxed visa rules and a fast vaccine programme among the key drivers.

The National spoke to the founder of a German homeware brand, a British software company, and a Lithuanian travel agency, along with other digital remote workers who made the move.

Several visited during the height of Europe’s winter lockdowns and have now decided to return.

“There were a lot of people who came here last autumn and stayed for several months because of the restrictions in their own countries,” said Fred Roeder, managing director of London-based Consumer Choice Centre.

“There was nowhere else to go that offered the same freedoms in Covid times.”

Now many of those visitors are making the move permanent.

“Dubai is experiencing a tectonic shift at the minute, with more and more highly skilled professionals starting to call it home,” he said.

Mr Roeder, a respected health economist, produces a regular global resilience ranking of how well countries fared in the pandemic, which last week ranked the UAE second in the world. 

It also recognised the Emirates for performing significantly better with its vaccination campaign than European Union countries.

The campaign, which delivers doses to people of all ages at the same time, means new arrivals can get the shots as soon as their visa residency documents are ready, which typically takes three or four weeks.

“Even though there is a lot of freedom you still see people sticking to the rules, you don’t see as many people in other countries keeping their masks on,” said Mr Roeder, a German who now too is based in Dubai.

The government’s decision to grant resident visas for working remotely make it an even more desirable location, especially for younger people.

The most recent figures available, from Dubai Tourism in late March, show 1,700 people had applied for its remote working visa – the application link is here – with most accepted. For the first time, it allows people to live in the Emirates and work for a company abroad that has no base here.

In addition, 16,000 foreign travellers opted to take advantage of the city’s free visa extension in January, Dubai Tourism’s chief executive Issam Kazim told CNN Travel. Traditional visa routes working for domestic companies, self-employment and founding a start-up business are still popular.

Originally published here.

As the UAE’s coronavirus cases continue to decline, and the nation is named as one of the most covid-resilient in the world, Arabian Business is urging a rethink on the emirates’ Red List status.

Dear Mr Shapps,

It is perhaps fitting that I write to you as the Arabian Travel Market takes place in Dubai, a safe live event of global significance that I know many tourism representatives from the UK wanted to attend, but cannot.

You are of course aware of this because your Green List of safe travel destinations came into effect this week, a list that not only omits the UAE but keeps the country on your Red List.

While you will keep your counsel on this matter, the safety of the UK being your prime concern, I would urge you to reconsider this decision at the earliest opportunity (you were to review this every three weeks), and I ask this based on the following:

As the Arabian Travel Market took place in Dubai with attendees from 90 countries, on May 17 the number of new cases of coronavirus in the country fell to just 1,229, while the number of vaccine doses administered rose to 11,489,475, with a rate of 116.17 doses per 100 people.

The UAE has been consistently one of the world’s leading vaccinators and yet travel between it and the UK has been prohibited, which is to the detriment of the travel and hospitality sectors in both nations.

However, this isn’t the only reason I urge you to rethink.

On Friday, May 14, Arabian Business reported how a new report suggested the UAE is the second-most pandemic resilient country in the world. The Pandemic Resilience Index ranked 40 countries on factors including vaccination approval dates, vaccination drives, critical care bed capacity and mass testing.

The study – conducted by advocacy group Consumer Choice Centre (CCC) – aimed to provide an overview of global health system preparedness for the Covid crisis.

Israel topped the list, followed by the UAE, the US, UK and Bahrain respectively. Ukraine was last on the list of those countries, at number 41.

It is worth noting that Ukraine on May 17 had 2,136 new daily cases, nearly double the cases of the UAE, and its death toll stands at 48,184 compared to the UAE’s 1,633 (nearly 30 times fewer).

I only highlight its figures to point out that it is on the UK’s Amber List, as indeed is the USA.

Statistically, I would urge that numbers alone justify a rethink on the Red List status of the UAE.

Indeed, Fred Roeder managing director, of CCC, who led the Pandemic Resilience Index, said: “The UAE is a country that managed to quickly kick off its vaccination campaign, vaccinated over 50 percent of its population [by March 31] and has carried out extensive testing – which is why it performed so well in the index.”

Roeder continued to describe how the UAE stands out on testing and is markedly ahead of countries such as Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Lithuania and Italy.

The UAE is a country whose residents and businesses have a strong sense of respect for the coronavirus precautions put in place by the government. Our initial lock-down in 2020 was comprehensive and rigorous, with curfews in place, and permissions to be sought for leaving the home, even for grocery shopping. The UAE was among the first countries in the world to close schools, in early March of 2020.

Our vaccination take-up has been world-leading, and quite simply we do, in large part, follow the rules. There is no argument over mask wearing, here that is respected, and there are fines and measures large enough to deter non-compliance. Almost 90 percent of people surveyed saw Dubai as the safest place in the world after it re-opened, according to independent research conducted by GRS Explori, a world-leading research company for exhibitions, visitor attractions and large events and research partners of UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry.

Likewise our hospitality industry has responded in an almost heroic fashion, here hotels and restaurants are run with a world-class degree of professionalism, with operators committed to keeping customers and staff safe. They have learned lessons at every juncture of this pandemic.

And regular inspections by the authorities ensure that rules are followed at all venues, it’s that simple.

These same world-class precautions are clearly visible at our airports, with contactless check-in among the many safety features, and on board our flights, with every passenger arriving requiring a negative PCR test. Each visitor is also required to download a highly successful track and trace app.

The UAE is welcoming and deserves your attention again.

On June 7, on behalf of Arabian Business at the very least (and anyone else who chooses to add their voice to this letter) I ask you to think again and remove the UAE from the UK’s Red List.

Originally published here.

The report evaluates 40 countries in terms of approval of vaccines, distribution, number of intensive care beds, and number of tests.

The UAE ranked first in the Arab world and second globally on the list of the most resilient countries in handling and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the 2021 report of the Resilience Index for dealing with epidemics issued by the Consumer Choice Centre.

The report, which relies on available government data, aims at providing an overview of the global health system’s preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic.

It mentioned the UAE in particular, indicating that its performance was much better than all EU countries, with regard to the national vaccination programme.

“The UAE has rapidly launched the vaccination programme and vaccinated more than 50% of the population,” said Fred Roeder, General Manager of Consumer Choice Centre.

The report pointed out that the average of COVID-19 tests in the UAE ranked third after Cyprus and Luxembourg, and ahead of Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France and Italy.

The report added: “The pandemic put health systems around the world to an emergency test, and revealed their strengths and weaknesses, especially with regard to hospital capacity, planning capabilities, and the provision of a regulatory mechanism capable of responding quickly and efficiently upon tests and vaccination.”

The report evaluates 40 countries in terms of approval of vaccines, distribution, number of intensive care beds, and number of tests.

According to the report, the UAE achieved the highest ranking, regarding these criteria, ahead of the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. It added that countries which started tests and vaccination as soon as possible, and provided a sufficient number of intensive care beds, have contained the Corona virus better than others.

Originally published here.

Los países que comenzaron a realizar pruebas y luego vacunaron lo antes posible contuvieron mejor el virus

Emiratos Árabes Unidos fue nombrado como el segundo país más resistente del mundo por su respuesta a la pandemia de Covid-19. Solo Israel ocupó un lugar más alto en el Índice de resiliencia pandémica 2021, que fue compilado por el Consumer Choice Center (CCC), una organización sin fines de lucro que representa los derechos de los consumidores en más de 100 países.

El informe de CCC, utilizando datos disponibles al 31 de marzo, tenía como objetivo proporcionar una descripción general de la preparación del sistema de salud mundial para la crisis de Covid-19. Y destacó a EAU por un desempeño significativamente mejor que los países de la Unión Europea con su lanzamiento de vacunación, a pesar de comenzar solo diez días antes.

“Emiratos es un país que logró poner en marcha rápidamente su programa de vacunación, en el que se vacunó a más del 50 por ciento de su población. Por la cantidad de pruebas realizadas también encabezan la clasificación”, señalaron los autores del informe.

El promedio de pruebas Covid-19 en Emiratos es de 8,29 por cada 1,000 personas cada día fue tercero después de Chipre y Luxemburgo, y muy por delante de países como Alemania, República Checa, Hungría, Francia e Italia.

“La pandemia ha puesto a los sistemas de salud de todo el mundo a prueba de emergencia y ha dejado al descubierto sus lados fuertes y débiles”, explicó el informe.

“En particular, eso se refiere a la capacidad hospitalaria, la capacidad de planificación y la existencia de un sistema regulatorio que sea capaz de actuar de manera rápida y eficiente cuando se trata de pruebas y vacunación”.

El informe midió a 40 países sobre “la aprobación de la vacunación, su impulso y los retrasos que la han frenado, la capacidad de las camas de cuidados intensivos y las pruebas masivas”.

Israel y Emiratos Árabes Unidos fueron los únicos dos países que recibieron la calificación más alta, por delante de Estados Unidos, el Reino Unido y Alemania, que estuvieron “por encima del promedio”.

El país con la puntuación más baja fue Ucrania, y Nueva Zelanda que también ocupó un puesto inferior.

“Los países que comenzaron a realizar pruebas y luego vacunaron lo antes posible, y que tenían una capacidad de camas de cuidados intensivos suficiente, o casi suficiente, lograron contener mejor el coronavirus”, concluyó el estudio. 

Originally published here.