ABOUT THE UAE: About Dubai
Dubai : A Catalyst for Positive Regional Change
As recently as 40 years ago, Dubai was made up of modest dirt-floored desert houses and assorted seaport buildings, sprinkled along an estuary called Dubai Creek. Residents harvested pearls from Arabian Gulf oysters and ran a small trading harbor, receiving vessels from around the region. Life was slow and easy. Incentives to improve were rudimentary and directly related to survival. Change was an anathema and often avoided.
In less than a generation, Dubai has evolved into a vibrant city state with an international reputation for remarkable growth in a host of categories that create interest, innovation, and investment at incredibly high levels.
When oil was struck in Gulf waters off Dubai in 1966, Sheikh Rashid bin Sa’id al Maktoum, father of the current ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, began to use the proceeds to improve life for his people. He brought Dubai electricity, running fresh water, schools, and other modern infrastructure. As he began a cycle of change for his community that remains the foundation of today’s phenomenal growth, Sheikh Rashid developed a vision that embodied dramatic change centered on economic development. Sheikh Rashid’s vision would change life in Dubai from a slow and simple fishing/trading environment to a fast paced, reward-driven meritocracy, administered, encouraged, and promoted by his son.
Today’s Dubai thrives on change. No longer dependent on oil revenue—now only three percent of its GDP— Dubai pursues and manages dynamic change in every aspect of life. Aggressive in building its capacity in finance, tourism, professional services, trade, science, culture, education, and an array of other areas, Dubai maintains a relentless pace of reform that generates impressive statistics along with visible and tangible results.
For example, non-oil trade in Dubai grew at an annual average of 31 percent between 2000 and 2004. Tourism is expected to contribute up to 30 percent of Dubai’s GDP by 2010, with the number of current visitors outnumbering the total population of more than one million by more than four times. Dubai Holding has been called by some the world’s largest conglomerate. The market value of its assets exceeds US$2 trillion. Dubai Cares, a newly formed philanthropic venture, raised enough money in a few months from Dubai businesses and private citizens to educate more than one million children in developing countries, such as India, Pakistan, Sudan, and others. And, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed has endowed a foundation bearing his name with US$10 billion that is committed to expanding education and promoting entrepreneurship among Arab nations. Dubai’s strong participation in and support of the Young Arab Leaders organization exemplifies its recognition that young Arabs must become expert managers, directors and senior executives to meet the competitive demands of globalization and to maintain Arab nations as responsible members of the international community.
Dubai ’s commitment to bringing change to its region reaches beyond the Arabian Gulf area. Recently, the Dubai Mercantile Exchange partnered with the New York Mercantile Exchange to build a market for Omani crude oil futures, a venture that is exceeding analyst expectations for success. Borse Dubai’s 20 percent investment the NASDAQ will create a tri-continent securities exchange along with Sweden’s OMX and the London Stock Exchange that will redefine modern capitalism. The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is a massive financial services Free Zone that has attracted the world’s premier banking, investment, accounting, insurance, and legal institutions. The DIFC is receiving international recognition for bringing the Gulf region into the ranks of global financial centers such as New York, London, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Hence, Dubai’s leaders are establishing it as a fulcrum of economic activity that leverages its influence among other global markets through active and passive investment in multiple disciplines throughout the world.
As Dubai grows, it receives more recognition and creates more curiosity. Even President Bush wanted to include Dubai on his Middle East trip so that he could see for himself the progress about which he has read and heard. Dubai’s leaders want the world to know that Dubai is a different kind of place, run by different kinds of leaders, achieving a different kind of success, against a different kind of vision. Dubai is a progressive, sophisticated, cosmopolitan society that is strongly allied with the United States and shares many American values and success criteria.
Dubai ’s future is bright. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed has produced a comprehensive long-range plan—the Dubai Strategic Plan (2015)—that outlines aggressive reform in several integral areas of Dubai society, including economic and social development; infrastructure, land, and environment management; national security, justice, health and safety; and excellence in government. For example, in the economic development component, the plan sets three impressive goals:
- Sustain real GDP growth rate of 11 percent for ten years
- Increase GDP per capita from US$31,140 in 2005 to US$44,000 in 2015
- Increase productivity by four percent per annum through 2015
Dubai uses innovation and leadership to act as a regional change agent and catalyst for creating economic, social, cultural, and scientific growth. It seeks to solve the challenges associated with growth in a modern, fair, and expeditious manner, consistent with its culture but competitive with other developing economies and societies. Its leaders want Dubai to be a model of change management, building bridges that will produce measurable mutual benefits between Dubai and nations in the Middle East and around the world, especially the United States.
Click here for more information about visiting Dubai
Click here to read highlights of the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015
Click here to read Newsweek International profile
Click here to read more about The Pilot of the Dubai Dynamo |
