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Dubai the financial hub for global investors |
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5/13/2006 11:49:14 AM |
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DUBAI: Taking a bus down the main streets of Dubai, one cannot help but notice the immense volume of construction work going on in this small but wealthy part of the United Arab Emirates.
There is so much construction activity that there is a light-hearted joke going around that the national bird of Dubai is the crane.
But crane or no crane, Dubai is fast becoming a financial hub for investors and businessmen from around the globe, and the construction of more buildings is just to cater for the sheer number of of transactions going on in this city everyday.
Emirates Group executive vice president for service delivery Nigel Hopkins told StarBiz that with the smallest oil reserves in the Emirates - oil contributes 6% to Dubai’s gross domestic product - Dubai has to find other ways to attract investors.
“They have to build and look at alternatives on how to draw tourists and international businessmen to the city. Fortunately, its good location of being situated between the East and the West makes this easier,” he said.
He said there had been huge expansion and construction projects with airports, ports as well as trading centres around the city, and the government of Dubai hoped to achieve the target of 15 million tourists by 2010-2012.
The liberal trading environment was one of the main reasons foreign investors were flocking to this city, said Hopkins.
“Dubai Airport, with its 110 airlines competing freely and fairly, is just an example of the trading system here. It is also easy to set up new businesses, which adds to the dynamism of the city,” he said.
Hopkins said foreigners who came to Dubai also did not find it troublesome to purchase property and apply for permanent resident status.
On the safety of the Middle East region, and Dubai in particular, he said: “There will be conflicts sprouting here and there around the globe. But Dubai has seen two Iraq wars, and it does not appear to have been affected.”
In fact, the city had grown by leaps and bounds in the last 20 years, and the Dubai government had confidence the positive environment would continue, he added. |
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