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Quest Means Business
Tennis Star Djokovic Set To Be Detained After Visa Canceled; Dow Down More Than 400 Points At Low; Dubai Building History; Potential False- Flag Operation In Ukraine; British P.M. Johnson Faces New Pandemic Parties Scandal; Sources: Netanyahu Discusses Plea Deal In Corruption Cases. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired January 14, 2022 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:17]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: It is a volatile end to a volatile week, an ignominious hanging out to the weekend, a long way of saying there
are losses on the Dow and the S&P. Oh, it's just grim. Look at that, down one percent, salami slicing away, we're under 36,000.
It's not a particularly pretty picture. Those are the markets, or at least, the Dow and the reasons why, at the moment.
The Dow is leading the way lower. Mixed bank earnings and disappointing U.S. retail sales and other things.
Novak Djokovic is headed back to a detention center in Australia. The world's number one men's tennis player will fight authorities in court
after his visa is canceled for a second time.
The JPMorgan Chief Executive puts his faith in the Fed. Jamie Dimon says it is up to the Central Bank to tackle inflation as disappointing outlook
sends bank shares tumbling.
And we meet the man who describes himself as "the others," the difficulties of Hussain Sajwani. He is a billionaire founder of DAMAC Properties, he
tells me the time for his city to grow up by staying small.
We are live in Dubai on Friday. It is January the 14th. I'm Richard Quest, and I mean business.
Good evening to you. We have a lot to bring you this evening from Expo 2020, our last day of being here on the set here at Expo.
Novak Djokovic's hopes of playing in the Australian Open are looking more remote as his legal team is fighting just to keep him in Australia.
The world's top ranked male tennis player is set to be questioned in the next hour by Australian authorities. He will then be placed in detention
while his case is considered at an emergency hearing, because, as you'll be aware, his visa was revoked by the Immigration Minister who has the power
to do this.
More now from CNN's Paula Hancocks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Friday morning, Novak Djokovic was back on the court training in Melbourne. By the
evening, Immigration Minister Alex Hawke had cancelled his visa, quote: " ... on health and good order grounds on the basis that it was in the public
interest to do so."
Three hours later, his lawyers were back in Court fighting for him to stay. Djokovic will be interviewed by immigration officials 8:00 AM local
Saturday morning. At that point, he will be detained and will be escorted by two Border Force officials to his lawyer's office.
The Federal Court of Australia where this case has been referred has an initial hearing 10:15 AM
MARIA O'SULLIVAN, MONASH UNIVERSITY: Because the judicial review application is by the plaintiff, in this case, Mr. Djokovic, the onus, if
you like is for him to show that there was a legal error. It's not a total rehearing of the matter. Judicial review is very narrow in Australia and it
only means we have to find a legal error.
HANCOCKS (voice over): One of Djokovic's lawyers told the Court the Minister's argument is Djokovic staying in the country would excite anti-
vax sentiment, calling it a radically new approach in the government's argument.
They also said at Friday's hearing, they are concerned about time. Djokovic is scheduled to play in the first round of the Australian Open on Monday, a
tennis tournament that has been completely overshadowed by this case.
ANDY MURRAY, BRITISH TENNIS STAR: Not great for the tennis, not great for the Australian Open, not great for Novak.
BEN ROTHENBERG, "RACQUET" MAGAZINE: Landing your number one player and a guy going for a record in an immigrant detention center again, to keep
repeating that that the number one player, Novak Djokovic, was detained and may be detained again in the future.
It's such a bizarre, surreal moment for the Australian Open which has prided itself on being the happy place, on being this place of sunshine,
and it's been anything but.
HANCOCKS (on camera): Prime Minister Scott Morrison through his support behind the decision to cancel the visa, saying that Australians expected
the results of the sacrifices that they have made during this pandemic to be protected.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Melbourne, Australia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Now, Djokovic is getting a high level of support from his home country of Serbia. In an Instagram video posted today, Serbia's President
vowed to -- in his word -- fight for the tennis star and said he was upset with Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison for supporting the decision
to revoke the visa.
He also accused -- Scott Morrison -- of mistreating Djokovic and suggested it was for political reasons.
[15:05:06]
And the Australian Open starts, as Paula was explaining on Monday. As things go as they are, it will be without Djokovic, its star attraction.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding his visa status, the nine-time Open winner was this week, named the tournament's number one seed and now, at
least, is scheduled to play.
CNN's World Sports, Alex Thomas is with me now on this.
I'm guessing that neither you nor me are particularly experts in the Australian legal system of judicial review of an Immigration Minister's
decision. However, from what I've read, it doesn't look good because it is pretty much up to the Minister's discretion.
ALEX THOMAS, CNN WORLD SPORTS: And I think maybe at this stage Djokovic is seen the best they're hoping for, is to have a stay of execution for want
of a better phrase, just permission for Djokovic to stay in the country, go ahead and start the Australian Open while the legal proceedings play out.
Of course, it would seem in everyone's best interest to have the matter settled one way or the other before Monday comes along.
If the tennis was to proceed with this circus, as it has been described by other players, still going on, it will continue to distract from the sport
itself. This is the opening, one of four annual major tournaments these players play for, it's the least prestigious of the three Grand Slam events
that are held every year, and it is certainly doing its reputation no good at all.
QUEST: If he doesn't play, what happens?
THOMAS: Well, then we just go ahead with a tournament that doesn't have Roger Federer, doesn't have Serena Williams, doesn't have the top ranked
men's player in the world. Someone like Rafael Nadal, probably would be the biggest attraction, and I think the desperation on behalf of all the Open
organizers to have Djokovic compete here is part of the reason why they've got in such a mess.
More than 97 percent of all professional male tennis players on the ATP tour have been vaccinated, and they've tried to make an exception for
someone who has been very vocal and publicly opposed all sorts of medical interventions, including vaccinations, and that is why everyone has gotten
themselves in such a twist over at.
QUEST: Alex, you've got a busy weekend ahead as you wait for the results from the various proceedings that will take place. Alex Thomas, who is in
London tonight. Thank you, sir.
Wall Street is selling off a finish of the week. It's been like this -- the week has been horrible. The Dow is down more than 400 points at the low,
retail sales and consumer sentiment numbers both came in lower than expected and we have, of course, U.S. inflation hitting seven percent.
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's CEO said in an earnings call this morning, the Fed saved the U.S. economy from the pandemic. Morgan itself is down more than
five percent after a miss on revenues. It has also lowered guidance and warnings of headwinds from higher expenses.
Wells Fargo, interestingly, not a bank that we often describe as a winner, but it had a huge beat on earnings per share and revenue before the bell
today. The stock is up roughly, as you can see, 3.4 percent. Citigroup was also reporting and it also missed earnings.
Matt Egan is with us. So, what's going on with the banks? Why are they having difficulties with the earnings at this particular juncture in
whatever recovery there may be?
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Richard, you have to remember that, you know, big banks were, with maybe with the exception of Wells Fargo, they
have been big winners during COVID. But they're getting knocked down a bit, and the story from JPMorgan and Citi in particular, is that one, their
revenue is not really growing all that much. Trading revenue was actually down in the latest quarter, and expenses are rising.
They are warning of higher expenses. JPMorgan's expenses went up by about $2 billion year-over-year, and they expect that to continue and that is
partially because of inflation driven compensation issues. So, they have to pay their workers more -- Richard.
QUEST: So Matt, talk me through this. It seems to me that we are now -- the big difference this week versus say two weeks ago is we have visibility
on a process. And that is what is now driving financial markets. And that visibility, I mean, is we know rates are going up. We know accommodation is
being removed. We know this, that, and the other with omicron probably will taper off as well.
So, we're now in this new environment that we're facing.
EGAN: That's right, Richard. I would have argue that a few weeks ago we knew rate hikes were coming and what has changed is, I think there is more
confidence that they are coming. They're coming sooner, they are coming faster, and they're probably going to be more aggressive.
[15:10:10]
You know, this is just a reminder a few weeks ago, you and I talked about this, and you asked, well, how many times is the Fed going to raise rates
this year? And I said, you know, three times, maybe four, I thought I was being aggressive with four.
Well, Jamie Dimon today, he told analysts that he thinks there is a pretty good chance it'll be more than four. He said maybe six or seven times. He
said that, you know, this notion that it's just going to be, you know, sweet and gentle and no one is going to be surprised, he thinks is a
mistake.
And, you know, I asked Jamie Dimon during the press call today, you know, when he thinks inflation is going to cool off and what Washington should do
about it, and you know, he acknowledged they don't really know for sure. He said, maybe inflation is going to come down during the course of this year.
And he said, you know, I'm reading the exact quote. He said, "At this point, it's up to the Fed to thread the needle. Slow down the growth of
inflation without stopping the economic growth."
And so Richard, that I think is the anxiety in the market, is can the Fed pull this off? Can they knock down inflation without prematurely ending the
recovery or ending the bull market or both?
QUEST: Matt Egan, have a good weekend. There will be much more for us to talk about next week as we parse the various wording.
And we are finishing our week in Dubai here at Expo 2020, and taking the views one last time.
It's a remarkable skyline. Nobody could ever take that away from Dubai. And we're going to talk to Hussain Sajwani, who is the founder of DAMAC
Properties, how it was built, and what comes next?
We met him at his beautiful home on The Palm, and we look at what's being built in the virtual world, too. The CEO of Jordanian game publisher,
Tamatem joins us next. It has raised $11 million in series B funding.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: The beauty of the UAE pavilion, which I am going to see next week absolutely going to see next week, Dubai, they are very kindly sort of said
come and see it and I'm going to.
[15:15:10]
Dubai itself is a city of three and a half million people. It is an extraordinary place when you see it in person. But just remember one thing,
it wasn't always this way, all right.
In 1975, there were about 183,000 residents of Dubai. You can see the pictures there and the original buildings and the Jumeirah. Now, that
decade, the Emirate embarked on infrastructure projects because of oil revenue.
The Carnegie Endowment now calls Dubai a post-oil stage. Let's remember, the oil is not in Dubai. The oil peaked here in 1991, and then fell off
sharply. It's Abu Dhabi that has the oil, so instead, it has turned to investment in construction and real estate.
By 2010, the population was almost two million, and you have the Burj Khalifa that was completed that year. There it is in the middle, tallest
building in the world. It towers some 830 meters.
Some critics have called Dubai's sky high buildings overly ambitious. DAMAC Properties has been responsible for much of the change in the skyline. It
has been building luxury, residential, commercial, and leisure properties since 2002.
Hussain Sajwani is the founder of DAMAC. It has made him number nine on the Middle East "Forbes" Rich List. I met him at his beautiful villa on The
Palm. And I asked him about criticism that Dubai over built, and what happens next?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUSSAIN SAJWANI, CEO AND FOUNDER, DAMAC PROPERTIES: I think Dubai after COVID has become truly a global city where it is attracting people, a lot
of wealthy people stretching from China, to Moscow, to U.K., to Africa, and all over the world.
Dubai now need to focus more on, I would say, less density because all those wealthy people want less density. I mean, they're doing a fantastic
job by offering golden visas and passports, changing the laws, more friendly labor laws and more, you know, friendly regulations.
But I think on the density in my view, even though I built probably the biggest number of towers in Dubai, I think we need to go too low rise now.
QUEST: So would you accept that you are or you were part of the problem that got us to this stage? And if you do accept that, will you be a leader
to the solution in the future?
SAJWANI: I don't think I was part of the problem. I don't think the size is the problem. The city was very small, it needed to grow. It needed to
scale. It needed to -- just like you were five years old, you need to eat to become 18 years old and six feet tall. There is nothing wrong with it.
But now you're 22 years old, and you're grown up, you don't need to overeat to put more weight, you know. Now you need to be careful about your food.
That's my example.
So we did well. Now, I am very much talking to the authority, let's do more low rises, more luxury.
QUEST: I'm wondering, is anybody listening to you? Is anybody agreeing with you? That actually, he has a point? Less is more?
SAJWANI: Yes, I mean, look at The Palm. We are here, my house in The Palm. Palm has only one tower. Okay, now two towers, Atlantis, and the one in the
middle.
So most of it is houses and six to seven-storey buildings. So, you can say Dubai is all, you know, high rises.
QUEST: When you look at the skyline, do you think, oh, I can put a tower over there or we can put something else over there. I can get something up
there.
SAJWANI: I'm a developer. What do you expect? Of course, I look where to put a building. It doesn't have to be a tower. It could be a five-storey,
it could be six-storey. It could be six-storey.
QUEST: You really do? You're always looking? Look at this, I think it's very impressive. It really is.
SAJWANI: We have two of those.
QUEST: You have two of them?
SAJWANI: Yes. See that little shorter tower, it is as wide as a helicopter pad.
QUEST: Yes.
SAJWANI: Next to it, the little twist one is ours.
QUEST: If we look back to the financial crisis of 2008, 2009, and 2010, you moved very fast to protect your company, and I'm guessing you learned
lots of lessons. From that time, what guidance, suggestions, or advice would you give to anybody in the post-pandemic world?
SAJWANI: I tell you what saved me in '09. There were a dozen reasons, but the most important reason was admitting that I am in a mess. Very few
people admit that they are in a problem. As a matter of fact, a lot of my competitor at that time, they thought it is a summer cloud.
[15:20:10]
And they said in the press -- I admitted, this is a crisis. And I have to move fast. So admit there is a crisis, and take quick decisions, and be
brave enough to make a surgery. My father told me, if your cancer is going to your left hand, don't let it go to your heart. Cut your left hand. It is
difficult, but cut it.
Thank God in 2020, as a company, we don't have a crisis because we learned from '09, we're sitting on a good amount of cash and business is all about
cash. You have cash, you survive crisis. You don't have cash, you don't survive crisis. Period.
Our leverage was low and our cash on the books were good.
QUEST: That's David Copperfield, isn't it? The whole thing about income and expenditure. Cash is king.
SAJWANI: You don't have to give all the cash -- investor cash -- but if you have enough buffer, you're ready for a crisis, and I think the Internet
age, we're going to see more cyclical and more crisis.
QUEST: The former President, Donald Trump -- you're smiling. You know him well, obviously, you have done business with him.
SAJWANI: Yes.
QUEST: The prospect of him becoming President again, what do you think? Do you think he will? Do you think he'll run?
SAJWANI: He is trying.
QUEST: Do you think he'll run? From your knowledge of him, will he run?
SAJWANI: He will run. Yes, he will run. He will run. Would he want to run, the American election polls will say.
QUEST: What did you learn from him doing business with him? Good or bad.
SAJWANI: I find him professional. He knows his job very well. Goes to the detail.
What I've learned also from him during his presidency, when I had interaction with him few times, lunch or dinner, and I was amazed running
literally the world. U.S. President runs the world, how relaxed he was in those lunches and dinners, or when he plays golf, and it's not like you're
running the most complicated institution or seat in the world.
QUEST: When you are developing a tower. How important is it for you that it be architecturally symbolic, even if that costs a bit more to make
something that is really beautiful, versus just square footage?
SAJWANI: I tell you, one of the key success for DAMAC in the early days, our unique towers, because our competitors, they were doing a lot of normal
towers, without a lot of, you know, excitement elements in them, and I insisted from day one that my towers will be different and spend a little
bit more money on them, and that positioned DAMAC as a luxury provider.
QUEST: Do you still do that?
SAJWANI: Yes.
QUEST: Do you still take that position?
SAJWANI: Yes. Yes. I mean, the tower we have done in London is beautiful. Interior Design by Versace and outside, I think, is an amazing tower.
We just launched our tower there, it is called Cavalli Tower. Each apartment has its own pool, you know, with 2,000 square feet of terraces.
This is one of my best towers I've launched in 20 years.
QUEST: How do you think you are viewed? How do people look at you, do you think?
SAJWANI: I think people look at me as a successful person. Of course, as a life, some people are happy. And they tell me, well done; and some people
normally are a little bit jealous, and they throw some stones on you. But that's life, you know, and you have to get used to it.
When you're successful, you will get both ends.
QUEST: Are you a mischief maker? Do people regard you as a troublemaker? Sajwani, oh, here he goes again.
SAJWANI: No, I don't think so. I think, if there is anything people talk about me, they'll say he's a difficult man. Now, why am I difficult man?
Because I do have to perform.
So, I have to perform. I have to drive my employees and my contractors and my -- you know, different stakeholders to get the result done. You know,
construction business is the most difficult. I have managed and run insurance companies, catering companies, manufacturing companies, but
really investments, construction is the most difficult thing to build and especially to build in this massive --
You know, last year we delivered more than six and a half thousand units. It is no joke. You know, that takes a lot of ability to really drive people
morning and evening.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Sajwani talking to me in his beautiful villa on The Palm, fascinating.
Now, from building in the real world to building in the virtual world. The Jordanian mobile game publisher, Tamatem announced it has raised $11
million in funding from a South Korean game developer, Krafton.
Tamatem changes games, specifically for the Arab world. It doesn't just translate the text, it changes content as well if you will, to make it
appropriate culturally so, as well as philosophically.
[15:25:01]
In the game "Hollywood Story" for instance, locations like New York and Los Angeles are changed for Dubai, Beirut, and Cairo, and the popular "Clash of
Empire" game, Western figures like Richard, the Lionheart have been replaced by legendary Muslim leaders.
Hussam Hammo is the CEO of Tamatem and he joins me now.
This is fascinating. When we first talked about this, and you told me how you do it, let me just ask you. I mean, is it -- how detailed in terms of
cultural differences do you have to get when you translate a Western game for the Middle East?
HUSSAM HAMMO, CEO, TAMATEM: Thank you so much, Richard, for the amazing opportunity.
Culturalization is an important aspects of launching a game successfully in the Arabic market. Most of the people when we tell them that we are doing
culturally relevant games they think that we are just translating games from English to Arabic, and most of the people also don't understand that
we are like a huge, like the Arab market is a huge market.
And at the same time, although we all speak Arabic, but there are a lot of cultural differences between all of these countries.
QUEST: Right.
HAMMO: So you will need to cater for all of these at the same time, but respect the small differences between them.
QUEST: So for instance, because you do -- you're somewhat agnostic in the sense of you, you make for all major manufacturers or major producers of
games, what's the most difficult thing to translate?
Is it for example, sexual or diversity? Is it the role of women in a game? How would -- what for you is the single hardest thing to do?
HAMMO: I don't think that there is a specific thing that is hard to do. We translate things, like we localize things that we thought at the beginning
when we saw them that they will be disastrous if we launched them in Arabic as is.
And to our surprise, in so many different cases, like we -- we did not get like negative feedback about things that we thought are very negative in
our initial perspective. That's because like, gaming is a very -- it's very dependent on data analytics and data science that you will need to test
everything in the game before launching the game with a huge number of players and users, just to see what triggers them and what clicks and what
doesn't.
And at the same time, there was -- I cannot recall a specific thing, but we made like alcohol wine to become grape juice. We made pigs to become sheep.
We made harvesting wheat to make beer to make breads, but at the same time that did not make the big differences in these games.
I would say that community management and like speaking to the user is more important than that.
QUEST: So finally, I mean, isn't there a problem with your -- it's very specific what you're doing. You're very successful, and you've raised a
good dose of money. But isn't there always the risk that the big game makers will do it themselves? They'll just simply say, oh, why are we
paying this guy and his company, we can do this ourselves?
HAMMO: Absolutely. And a lot of companies actually tried to do that themselves and eventually come back to talk to us, because they will need
to spend a huge amount of money to learn, and instead of them spending all of that and going through all of these failures, they will come to people
who have tried a hundred different games in the past.
We tried, like literally every single genre and we launched games that are casual games that are targeted towards females or games that are for the
hardcore gamers and we failed so many different times, and succeeded at some other few times.
So like we've seen it with a couple of developers who decided to work with us after launching these games alone, and we made them so much more money
than they would have made on their own.
QUEST: You've just summed that up. You've just summed it up in that last sentence. We made them so much more money after they came back to us.
Good to see you, sir. I wish you well. We will -- we need to get you into our shows -- how we can -- what you can do to QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for the
region.
HAMMO: For sure.
QUEST: Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.
HAMMO: I look forward to seeing you again. Thank you. Thank you.
QUEST: Thank you, sir.
Still ahead, a potential false flag operation. The U.S. accuses Russia of fabricating reasons to attack Ukraine, the allegations and the Kremlin's
response after the news headlines in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:30:05]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's a lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS as this Friday. I'll speak to the CEO of Etisalat. One of the biggest telecom
companies in the world on this program. And our four-day work week might sound like a dream for some of us here in Dubai. That has become the
reality as of last year. You're going to hear from a local CEO about how they made the transition.
We'll get to it all here at Expo. But only after I've given you the news headlines because this is CNN and on this network the news always comes
first.
Downing Street has apologized to Buckingham Palace following a report that the Prime Minister's staff hosted two parties on the eve of Prince Philip's
funeral. The next day, the Queen sat alone with the funeral abiding by COVID restrictions, which limited indoor gatherings as part of the growing
scandal involving the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and COVID rule breaking parties.
The former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly discussing a plea deal in his corruption cases. Sources are telling CNN the
agreement could see one of the three cases against him shelled and the most serious charge of bribery being dropped. That's apparently disagreement
over the sentence he would face. Hackers brought down dozens of government websites in Ukraine on Friday.
Some were targeted with a threatening text, saying be afraid and wait for the worst. Ukraine state security services. There are signs hacker groups
associated with Russia's intelligence service were involved.
[15:35:08]
The U.S. is warning that Russia could be preparing a false flag operation in Ukraine to fabricate a pretext for invasion. The U.S. officials says
there's evidence Moscow has already sent operatives to the eastern part of the country. And they've been trained to sabotage Russia's own proxy forces
in an effort to frame Ukraine. The Kremlin is dismissing the allegations as unfounded.
The U.S. is standing by its intelligence. CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins us now from Washington. I guess this is -- this is not just espionage, but
this is skullduggery at the highest order sort of thing we've seen in history in the past.
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: And something the U.S. has been saying is the M.O. for Russia. Something that they have seen as far back as
2014, of course, when the U.S. or when Russia invaded Crimea and eastern Ukraine, propping up proxy forces there. So, what they're warning now is
that any invasion by Russia is likely going to be previewed, prefaced by this kind of false flag operation in Eastern Ukraine.
They say that Russia has already prepositioned forces there, prepositioned operatives that are trained in urban warfare and explosives, and that they
may carry out attacks against Russian forces to frame Ukraine essentially, to create a pretext and say that they need to go in and defend themselves.
And that this is, you know, Ukrainian provocation, which is something that they have been warning of the Russians have in recent weeks and kind of
priming the domestic Russian audience for in recent months.
So, this is the U.S. trying to get out ahead of any potential provocation by the Russians trying to convey to the international community that they
have intelligence that suggests that it is not going to be Ukraine, in fact, that attacks the Russians first and provokes them, but that Russia is
already making plans to create the pretext for that invasion. They want to get out ahead of this in a way that they did not in 2014 with the
annexation of Crimea and in 2008 with the invasion of Georgia.
They are now trying to be more on top of this and try to deter Russia from making any moves that that could lead to war.
QUEST: Natasha at the White House. Thank you. As you and I continue tonight. The chief executive of Etisalat, the telecoms group, the giant
group tells me why his company is in flux and looking to take a big step forward.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:40:16]
QUEST: Back now. We are live at Expo 2020 in Dubai. And one of the UAE exhibitors here is a company called Etisalat. It's a telecoms giant you may
not have heard of it. But in the region, it's a giant. With more than 155 million subscribers across 16 countries on two continents. And it has been
in business for 45 years. The chief executive told me that company like much of the UAE is thinking much bigger.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HATEM DOWIDAR, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ETISALAT GROUP: We are now in a major point of flux from being a telco into being a techo. And I think
we're not the only big company that is looking at it, we are moving at really into a time where we're looking into consumer digital products,
enterprise digital products, and really looking at providing solutions, not just providing connectivity.
QUEST: On the question of size, do you have the necessary size to compete with the Verizons, the AT&Ts, the Vodafones, the Deutsche Telekoms that who
have all -- who are so huge that they dominate the global market.
DOWIDAR: The -- where we really try to differentiate ourselves is the customer experience, we really invest in that whether from a technical side
into our networks to have state of the art networks. And I give you an example, in the UAE for a second year in a row we're the fastest mobile
network in the world. We also from a fiber optic standpoint, infrastructure, we also have the highest fiber penetration in the world.
So, we're explaining here's some of the things that we've done in the export, whether it's IoT and cloud, telecommunications, infrastructure,
international participants, and also the visitor experience. And you can go from one area to the other. If you come here, we're showing how many
cameras around, they are all connected by 5G. They manage -- they help manage the traffic, manage the tickets, manage the experience to make sure
that people have a great experience in this expo.
QUEST: It's very clever this, this works better than my phone.
DOWIDAR: It's quite seamless. And, you know, this whole thing, the dial is well.
QUEST: I can ask this question just by simply saying the WhatsApp issue. The fact is that in this country, WhatsApp telephone calls cannot be made.
People here if you ask them, they say it's to protect the domestic supplier. Which is you? To protect you. Would you be in favor of a change
in rules that allowed WhatsApp calling?
DOWIDAR: Well, let me first start internet calling is available. Security and the regulator have specific whitelist and blacklist of applications
that can work. And that's for reasons that they can, you know, better elaborate on. But today, and I give you big examples of other applications.
Zoom, for example, is working across our network, both the fixed and the mobile. Microsoft Teams, both the enterprise version as well as the
individual version are working.
So is -- the question is, is voice over I.P. or internet calling available? Absolutely available. Are all the applications available? Not all of them.
QUEST: So I'll rephrase it. Would you be in favor of the regulator changing the rules to allow things like WhatsApp availability?
DOWIDAR: Actually, there is something called internet calling plan where customers who want any of the other applications pay a small fee in order
to use them. So that's protection enough. So if WhatsApp becomes available as part of this, and the regulator and the other entity see that it works
to be on the whitelist from a telco point of view, from my point of view, as long as the customers are paying for it within their data bundle, or
within the internet calling plan. I'm happy with it.
QUEST: If we look at the future, where would you position at Etisalat? Because the number of areas where you are both a provider and a competitor
is growing. Is that a difficult balance? It's actually we got used to it because there are many areas now where you have some entity as your partner
in a project as your customer and another project and you're their customer in the third project.
So, I think you can give a good example. AT&T indirectly on CNN, but you're here today doing an interview with a -- well, we're not a competitor with
them, actually. We cooperate with them and some things but maybe we compete in others.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[15:45:03]
QUEST: It did my job for me to say AT&T parent company of this network. One point on the WhatsApp which I think blows a hole in the argument here about
security the use of WhatsApp and encryption. WhatsApp may not be available in the UAE. But it is available. They've made it available for people to
use here at Expo. I'll go figure out the logic of that.
In 2018, U.K. tourism Portugal was worth the record to $600 million. Today the industry is in real jeopardy. Of course, COVID-19 is largely to blame
and there could be more trouble ahead. The world -- the WTTC says Portugal lost about 85,000 jobs in 2020 on over the last two or three years. And the
situation is forecast to get worse this year. Joining me now to discuss this is Luis Araujo who's the CEO of Visit Portugal. Good to see you, sir.
LUIS ARAUJO, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, VISIT PORTUGAL: Hello, Richard.
QUEST: You're here to obviously say Portugal is open for business. But what is it you now need from your government, from E.U. leadership to keep the
markets open in 2022?
ARAUJO: Well, yes, we're open for business like any other country in the world. I think, not only open for business but prepared for business
because we understand that there are needs, different needs from the consumers like safety especially in health. We've been training 160,000
people in Portugal, 23,000 establishments are ready to welcome with safety measures.
QUEST: So what's the problem?
ARAUJO: The problem now I think it's -- we have to stop thinking about countries and colored countries and start thinking of how to protect our
citizens and our tourists from contamination. And we've always said that now it's the time to control people and not countries. So it's --
QUEST: It's such an easy thing to say, though. But you're not the prime minister of a country that's -- I mean, let's take for example when Omicron
first came along, and you're worried about an influx of it suddenly coming from another part of the world.
ARAUJO: I think it's not a matter of being Prime Minister or health authority, because we have to see that health authorities in any country
have a lot of huge importance right now. It's a matter of what we say is getting data. Now that the vaccinations are rolling out in Portugal, almost
90 percent of the population is vaccinated. It's so easy to do tests right now. People comply with the rules.
So it's time to get the data that we have right now. And understand what's happening. Where do you get contaminated and protect those and open the
country to other countries.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: But do you hope -- 2020 was a disaster, obviously, to just arrived. 2021 wasn't much better in term we -- in terms of coordination, you still
had countries opening and closing and borders and all. Do you hope that the E.U. does a better job of, of at least getting a coordinated travel policy
across the member countries?
ARAUJO: We need two things. We need first clear coordination and very clear communication, because we're dealing with people and we need to reinstall
confidence on people to travel. That's the first thing. The second thing is we have to think that mobility is crucial for any economy. And now, once
again, that we have made such a huge evolution controlling this pandemic, the effects of being contaminated. Now it's time to balance mobility with
protecting our population and our tourists.
QUEST: It's good to see you, sir. I know we've lost you as a viewer, we've lost you as a viewer, which is for a good cause. Because he's now watching
our sister network CNN Portugal, which is doing very well.
ARAUJO: It's doing perfectly and I think once again, communication is crucial right now. And we need to base our decisions in facts.
QUEST: Exactly.
ARAUJO: And I'm happy to see that we have more facts in the news, but it's important that health authorities those, who do risk assessment like ECDC,
World Health Organization, take based on those facts to take decisions.
QUEST: Good to see you, sir. Thank you.
ARAUJO: Thank you so much.
QUEST: How'd you like a long weekend? Well, a longer weekend or a shorter workweek. It's the same thing. The UAE's new schedule of payoff with
happier workers and a more competitive economy. After the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:52:17]
QUEST: When is a weekend, not a weekend when it's in the UAE? While on weekends changed its definition, a sweeping change that affected almost
everyone in some way or another. The public sector the government and the like shifted from Saturdays -- Fridays and Saturdays, which is quite common
because of Friday prayers in the Muslim world. It's now Saturday and Sunday like the rest of the world.
So to be exact, though, because Friday prayers still exists and is considered crucial the weekend starts at noon on Fridays, allowing for the
prayers to take place in the afternoon. And leading to a 4-1/2-day work week. The official say that will make our country more competitive. Eleni
Giokos is with me. So, it went from a Friday, Saturday and everybody works on Sunday, even though the rest of the world isn't to a Saturday, Sunday in
line.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a complete mind shift when I moved here. And we said when is a weekend? Writes on Sunday, everyone would be
sending you e-mails, so you'd be plugged in. On a Friday, the rest of the world would be sending you e-mails, you'd be plugged in as well. So most
expats which make up 90 percent of the population here were only having really Saturday's a day off especially because a lot of multinational
companies.
Now for locals, that's a mind shift as well. And as you say Friday prayers are so absolutely important. We know the private sector has always been
very malleable in terms of when they view Saturday, Sunday or whatever the weekend might be and even banking holidays. I want you to take a listen to
what one CEO said it's really significant. And it's big, and it's going to be a game changer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAIN BEJJANI CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MAJID AL FUTTAIM: We're finally connect -- I mean, we are very connected to the world. Dubai is a global
hub. And finally, we have a week, the working week that actually is connected to the rest of the world. It is very important for business
because it's going to give us a longer weekend, it's going to have a big impact on retail on leisure entertainment, on tourism. And all of these
things make a lot of sense.
GIOKOS: So Saudi Arabia has also been very vocal about the fact that they want multinationals to be headquartered in Riyadh. At the same time, we
also heard you know, Dubai was kind of going well, you know, we're going to change the work week, because that's going to make us more competitive. And
it seems as the sort of silent competition that is happening between the GCC countries, who do you think is going to come out tops here?
BEJJANI: If I look at Dubai, Dubai has been always and continues to be up and coming very forward thinking, very bold in the moves that it's doing.
Saudi Arabia is really reforming, want to open up its economy and naturally wants to attract multinational and conglomerates to be in Saudi Arabia.
In this part of the world will not use to competition so whenever there is competition, there is a bit of friction, but we believe that competition is
good and we believe that actually everyone is going to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: OK. So it puts the UAE in tune with the rest of the world.
[15:55:04]
It's sort of appeases religious conservatives who can still go to Friday prayers and it gives them something and in competition with Saudi Arabia,
GIOKOS: It does. And listen to the timing, right? So you've got Saudi Arabia saying, we want lots of multinationals be headquartered in Riyadh.
And then you have Dubai coming out with a really progressive -- because this is progressive, Richard, you must underestimate that messing with sort
of what Friday means for the region, and saying we want to be plugged in to a different region is fascinating.
And I think we have to look at the coincidence of this all. I think there's some kind of competition brewing here.
QUEST: And maybe competition. What's your weekend?
GIOKOS: I work all the time. What time is it on a Friday? This is 1:00 a.m. local by time.
QUEST: I was about to say, weekend?
GIOKOS; What weekend?
QUEST: We -- it's a word that we don't know here.
GIOKOS: I know. And as -- yes.
QUEST: They have adapted.
GIOKOS: They've adapted. And honestly, it is -- I think don't underestimate the mind shift. And I think that -- I think Dubai is sending message to the
world, they want to be plugged in. They want to -- they want to be more competitive globally.
QUEST: And that's what we've been seeing while we've been here. Good to see you.
GIOKOS: Good to so you.
QUEST: Very nice to have you in the -- in the region on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Thank you. I don't get to see you very often but thank you for
all the work you do.
GIOKOS: Thank you very much, Richard. As we're saying in Dubai, My Salama, in Arabic Goodbye. Thank you very much for --
QUEST: Goodbye. Not just quite yet.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Turn you back and they want you gone. Profitable after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: My word, just look at it. Tonight's profitable moment from the garden in the sky at Expo 2020. For more than 50 years, the UAE and Dubai
have been building all of this and have created a phenomenal enterprise admired the world over. But in many ways, Expo 2020 is the turning point.
What's next? The legacy if you will. The truth is that the UAE and Dubai are highly unlikely to turn into a western style Wilsonian, a bicameral
democracy.
And that's OK. There are many different satisfactory government structures and ruling elites in the world. What matters is what change is affected
here to take Dubai to the next level on things like accountability, transparency, civil society, the rule of law. And the good news is that
here in Dubai, everybody we've met this week knows that Expo 2020 is the catalyst for legacy in this part of the world.
What an amazing achievement as the sun sets. It nearly rises on the next era for Dubai. And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard
Quest at Expo 2020. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. I'll see you next week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
