The worldwide economic crisis has reached Dubai.
Dubai, the financial center of the Middle East, known for its wealth, its fabulous lifestyle, and the artificial islands called The Palms, has been hit hard by the worldwide economic crisis. Foreigners who flocked to the city, part of the United Arab Emirates, are losing their jobs and have one month to leave the country.
Dubai is known for being the epicenter of the financial services, construction, and oil and gas industries in the Middle East. It was more modern and cosmopolitan than many of its Middle Eastern counterparts and with the money came an easing of the conservative culture that marks most of the nations in the region. Compared to Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, Dubai had the reputation as the more flamboyant of the two cities.
Remember the Dubai Ports World controversy? That was when DP World agreed to buy and manage six US ports. Coming only five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many in the US objected to a Middle Eastern firm managing US commercial ports. The company withdrew its bid.
Dubai and the United Arab Emirates have also become synonymous with sovereign wealth funds, those giant investment funds that are run by governments and take huge stakes in public companies. According to this article, the UAE’s funds are among the most secretive.
Now the city is under siege from the worldwide economic crisis. The glitter is starting to flake off.
What will happen to the city? Will the Palms sink? (They might already be.) Will the famed moderate nature of the city give way to a more conservative climate?
Or will Dubai recover its high-rise attitude?
Perhaps the most striking image of Dubai now is this one, from the New York Times:
“Lurid rumors spread quickly: the Palm Jumeira, an artificial island that is one of this city’s trademark developments, is said to be sinking, and when you turn the faucets in the hotels built atop it, only cockroaches come out.”
Good-bye, Dubai: It was fun there for a while.
I was in Dubai last week and everything was quiet empty, the malls , city and the new airport. What goes up fast goes down faster. They became arrogant and very expensive , Indeed Good bye Dubai
Interesting article.
There is, however, a very embarrassing error for a resoected organization like Hoovers. Dubai is NOT known for being at the epicenter of the oil and gas industries for the Middle East. To the contrary. Dubai barely has any oil or gas. Abu Dhabi, on the other hand, has 97% of the oil in the UAE. But even Abu Dhabi pales in comparison to Ras Tanurah, Saudi Arabia.
http://www.raisethehammer.org/index.asp?id=781
As a UAE national with PhD in law I have to admit that Sheikh Mohamed has failed to put in place a transparent judiciary and has concentrated more on self PR by anouncing unrealistic projects and reading clever lines which secures his own ego problem. His family members treat the society like animals… they steal from foreign businessmen, threaten them, and some times using the famous state security even arrests them to reach their commercial goals.
it s sad that sheikh mohammed’ s brother in law sheikh hasher maktoum has stolen a multi billin dollar bussiness from a foreign investor just because he is related to sheikh mohammed. We have no human rights here, the judiciary is as corrupt as real estate, finance, immigration…. dubai is crashing
Basil D: You are absolutely correct in that oil and gas is not the primary industry in Dubai. However, the money generated by the oil and gas industries is what had fueled Dubai’s growth. That’s what I was getting at and wrote it badly. Thanks for the correction.
Patrice Sarath
Retry – comment didn’t appear the first time:
DP World didn’t give up its bid as far as I know. They sold the US ports to a third party to put the controversy to rest. The irony is that DP World were at the forefront of anti-terrorist security measures, in conjunction with the USA, at ports they run around the world.
When even the NY Times throws aside accuracy for the sake of being sensationalist, it seems their agenda is to run down Dubai rather than report responsibly. Yes people are losing jobs etc, but they are in the rest of the world too. Dubai is hardly a ghost town yet as the thousands of drivers still stuck in daily traffic jams know all too well.
It is definatly crashing and its good.
Its become a very tacky place in recent years driven by greed. Dubai has an inferiority complex to be the biggest and best and everything, biggest mall, tallest tower, largest indoor ski resort and now it can add to in the biggest real estate crash.
I dont know why anyone would every want to live there. An expensive sandpit!. Expats have no rights. Indian workers who built the expensive hotels, tower are treated as slaves. As everyone leaves the rulers will realize how dependant they are on these people!
The UAE Dubai needs this to bring it back to ground.
Welcome to the party pal!
Hi, I am working in Dubai for last 3 years now. I am writing this without any offense to those who have suffered here, (my sympathies to them), my experience about Dubai is tremendous so far. Of course real estate businesses has sufferred but as a working professional I do not foresee any issues rather life has become more comfortable as less traffic congessions, reduced rents and above all we are getting metro, water taxis and plenty of cheaper taxis. We feel security at homes not imaginale anywhere in the world. I have seen the real enforcement of law first time in my life. You feel really secure where ever you go like shopping, parkings, beaches, hotels etc.I I have not seen corruption in any of the departments whatsoever. The customer service is one of the best. My kids go to school where environment is great and teachers are very cooperative. I strongly feel that the image of Dubai is being detriorated delibrately as rulers have very tight control over those who tried to earn unbelievable profits. The way the infrastructure is being managed here, is worth seeing. Lots of initiatives of the rulers are in fact great like metro, go green buildings, dubai sat 1, nuclear plants, new airport and excellent communities and parks.
Okay, see, now I want to go!