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Web-Exclusive Materials
Arabian Oasis or Desert Mirage?
Lessons from Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Class of 5th Governance and Leadership
Programme
DUBAI
It is said that one in four of the world’s construction cranes
are operating in Dubai, pounding away on US$180 billion worth
of development projects. This is a 21st century miracle city,
built on the bold vision of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid al Maktoum.
Pressured by
drying oil fields, Dubai was forced to diversify in the 90s
when its six brother cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
were still enjoying fortunes from the black gold. Today, Dubai’s
oil contribution to its GDP is only 3%.
Dubai city is seven times Singapore’s size,
but with a population of only 1.2 million; 80% of its residents
comprise 210 nationalities. Foreigners run much of its operations
and are growing its wealth.
Audacious Projects
Some 78 kilometres of shoreline (double its current length)
are being manufactured by dumping sand held against waves
by breakwater rocks to create The World — 300 man-made islands
shaped and clustered as a map of the world and visible from
space — and the Palm Islands — three of the world’s largest
artificial islands each in the shape of palm trees. At the
project office, prospective buyers pore over huge models of
the dream homes with a starting price of US$9m, up from US$1m
for the smallest unit on the Palm Jumeirah when it was launched
in 2001.
A piece of The World costs at least US$7m,
but only for uncompacted sand. Buyers build their own dream
home. The showhouse has already been sold (US$300m!). Football
legend David Beckham and Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher
have each been given an island. Sir Richard Branson of Virgin
Airlines was reported to have “staked a claim” to Great Britain
though it was unclear if “staked” meant “bought”. Prices for
the islands are slated to rise this spring.
Dubai is clearly designed to shock and
awe; its developmental ambitions, nothing short of audacious,
include:
- putting the first Emirates planes in
the skies within five months, after a cancelled flight;
- outbidding PSA International for P&O
by $0.4b with two phone calls in half an hour;
- building cutting-edge “media and internet
cities” in under a year, with plans to attract movie-making
Hollywood and Bollywood;
- touting tax-free prizes worth US$25m
in cars, cash and a private jet at the Dubai Shopping Festival
- offering indoor skiing (world’s first
indoor ski slope) and desert six-wheeler adventures back-to-back;
and the Mall of the Emirates (the size of 50 football fields)
with International brand-names, soon to be outsized by the
Dubai Mall (yet another “largest mall in the world”, now
under construction);
- converting a hotel helipad into a tennis
court just for an Agassi show match and a Tiger Woods US$1m
tee-off to get a photograph in all the world’s golf magazines;
- replicating the seven wonders of the
world in its Falconcity of Wonders development. “We are
building the pyramids bigger than the original sizes, the
Eiffel Tower higher than the actual, Taj Mahal bigger than
the original, in addition Leaning Tower of Pisa, Great Wall
of China and Light House of Alexandria,” said its chairman,
founder and CEO;
- creating US$6b Dubailand, a six-theme
world in the desert — it will be twice the size of all of
the Disneyland/DisneyWorld resorts put together
- a second Burj hotel, taller than the
iconic, sail-shaped Burj al-Arab (the world’s tallest hotel);
- carving out a city-within-a city called
the Dubai International Financial Centre dubbed its “Vatican
City” stock exchange (with its own civil courts based on
English law though the currency trading base is the US dollar)
to capitalise on the four-hour trading gap between Western
Europe and East Asia;
- gearing up to receive 10 million tourists
by 2010 and 15 million by 2015 (up from 5 million in 2003)
on its new six-runway international airport touted as the
world’s largest, of course.
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