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SMALL STEPS TO BIG STRIDES
it’s barely a decade old but the growth of DIFC and its surrounding area is a symbol of the Uae’s rapid transformation into the region’s business hub Acres of newsprint and millions of web pages have been devoted to the phenomenon of Dubai’s economic rise that it hardly bears repeating. And yet it does: it is nothing short of phenomenal to have turned Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum’s vision – to make a world player of his hot and sandy trading outpost – into reality. At warp speed. Of course, since the founding of the United Arab Emirates in 1971 Dubai’s fortunes have been tied to those of Abu Dhabi and the other five emirates, but Sheikh Rashid’s son, HH Sheikh Mohammed, the present Ruler of Dubai, also raced ahead with his own emirate’s agenda. With tourism as a springboard, and a nascent airline to transport those tourists, the marketing of Dubai Inc. went into overdrive at the turn of
the millennium. Government initiatives – including the Free Zones – encouraged foreign investment and expatriate-owned businesses and that led to one of the biggest construction booms in history, which, itself became a major driver of the economy. By 2008, with a GDP of $270 billion, the UAE was ranked third in MENA and 38th in the world. Private sector investment reached $35bn by 2008-2009 and by 2009 non-oil revenue accounted for 67 per cent of GDP, according to government figures. And while, in the fallout from the global financial crisis, Dubai (and therefore the whole country) received a very public bloody nose for its over-reliance on property, the September 2010 restructuring of Dubai World’s enormous debt boosted confidence and GDP was back
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