SEBASTIEN CHAUVIN
Veolia is a French-listed company and world leader in the environmental business, with three main activities: water, waste, and energy.
Can you provide an overview of your operations in the UAE and the defining features of your relationship with the country?
Veolia is a French-listed company and world leader in the environmental business, with three main activities: water, waste, and energy. Veolia Middle East has supported the public sector and industries to meet their biggest challenges in terms of resources efficiency, growth, compliance, workforce safety, and digitalization. As the global leader in optimized resources management, Veolia Middle East is committed to delivering innovative, cost-effective, and sustainable solutions to its clients. We are both developers and operators. We have more than 1,000 patents for specific water-treatment solutions. In the UAE, the majority of our business is related to desalination and wastewater treatment. Within the energy division, we are experts in energy efficiency and the management of energy production facilities for several industries. This expertise also includes steam production, heat production, cooling, and energy management in buildings. Furthermore, we manage energy efficiency specifications for buildings, including malls.
How do government policies concerning various aspects of energy, waste, and water management influence your business models?
The water business is driven by the government and has minimal influence on Veolia's business model. Waste management is slightly different as it is still growing because of the boom in the UAE, and with the continuous increase in population, the government needs assistance to structure the market. We aim to find the most appropriate business model, making sure that the investment tax requested by the government is reduced as much as possible by recovering waste to create recycled raw materials. Moving forward, with the population increasing across the region, waste will probably be the biggest challenge; therefore, we must be innovative and deliver solutions to help the government convert waste to new resources. This is called the circular economy and it involves creating local value chains that engage a broad range of stakeholders.
SEBASTIEN CHAUVIN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Interview
Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Former Minister of Economy,
The ministry's way forward is to spur more international collaboration, whether inside the country through FDI flows and encouraging foreign entrepeneurship or outside the country through China's highly-valued Belt and Road Initiative.
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Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Director General, Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority (DAFZA)
In addition to pursuing an aggressively innovative trade and industrial policy, DAFZA is working behind the scenes to boost Dubai's role as the world's most dynamic hub for global halal services.
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Hatem Sleiman, Regional Vice-President, Head of Network, Middle East and South Asia, Western Union
Technology, globalization, and migration will ensure that no matter the nationalization policies carried out by regional governments, the remittance spout is unlikely to dry up any time soon.
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Hamdan AlShamsi, Senior Partner, Hamdan AlShamsi Lawyers & Legal Consultants
With the expected increase of business in the region, Hamdan AlShamsi Lawyers & Legal Consultants stands ready to assist new or current businesses with the implementation of ideas and the protection of IP.
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Marwan Bin Haidar, Executive Vice President of Innovation and the Future, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)
Through its digital arm, DEWA seeks to disrupt the entire business of public utilities by becoming the world's first digital utility to use autonomous systems for renewable energy and storage.
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Will Goodwin, Managing Director, The Priory Group
Social media can lead to living a virtual life, with limited face-to-face interaction, avoidance, and often misconstrued reality. This may lead to mental health-related issues such as depression, loss of individual value, low confidence, and anxiety.
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Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Dubai Duty Free (DDF)
One of the leading airport retailers in the world, DDF currently operates some 40,000sqm of retail space at Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport, reporting sales over USD2.029 billion in 2019.
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