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A land of ‘economic development’ rises next to the Persian Gulf
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
It was late at night and the question hung in the air.
“How can you possibly communicate past people’s preconceptions to tell them what your experience in a foreign land was like?”
One by one the members of a South Carolina delegation visiting Dubai for the first time grappled with the question, but came up largely empty.
“One things for certain though,” said Gregg Robinson, executive director of the Orangeburg County Development Commission. “Whatever else you can say about it, Dubai is certainly all about business and economic development.”
In fact, the city-state on the Persian Gulf that welcomed Robinson, Bill Cronin from the S.C. State Department of Commerce, Orangeburg County Council Chairman Harry F. Wimberly, Orangeburg County Administrator Bill Clark and Jeannine Kees, chairwoman of the Orangeburg County Development Council, proved to be a cacophony of construction that stretched out in every direction.
Well into the early morning hours, the sounds of cranes and heavy machinery could be heard everywhere.
But it wasn’t just the sounds of more buildings rising from the desert, it was the fulfillment of the vision of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who has taken the Emirate’s oil wealth and used it to completely transform his state and its economic future.
“The sheikh is all about the imagination,” said Kassem Al Naboulsi, a young professional from Lebanon. “At one time my native Beirut was the center of art and life and Western-style commerce in the Middle East. But today, that center is certainly Dubai.
“That comes directly from the philosophy of the Sheikh. He holds that our limitations are only in our minds and the way to supersede them is through creativity. If you have a proposal that will bring additional economic activity to Dubai, he’s happy to entertain it, so long as it’s a quality undertaking. Once you satisfy that requirement of quality, the sky’s quite literally the limit.”
In fact, Dubai is an architect’s dream. Buildings twist and turn their way toward the sky in a multitude of ways joining a skyline dominated by the Burj Dubai—the world’s tallest building—and the sail-like Burj Al Arab, the world’s tallest hotel.
According to Marshall D’Mello, a tour guide with the government of Dubai, more than 5,000 construction companies are now actively engaged in projects in the emirate.
The Sheikh Al-Maktoum’s vision doesn’t just extend upward, it extends horizontally as well.
In an effort to expand upon its waterfront and allow for more residential development along the water, the Emirate created a palm island expanding the developable waterfront on the Persian Gulf by 71 square miles, and is now in the process of building two more.
Further out into the gulf a 24-square-mile archipelago is being fashioned to create a map of the world, which will also be developed into residential properties. And the well heeled are already lining up for a place on their own private island, said Aaron Richardson, marketing director for Nakheel, the Jafza-related company that is overseeing the projects.
In fact, rocker Rod Stewart reportedly has purchased the island of “Great Britain” for a Middle East retreat.
But that’s not to suggest Dubai is neglecting inland development. Not far from Jebel Ali, its port and logistics center, the Emirate is in the process of building the world’s largest airport, a facility that will have six active runways.
Also in the works is an ambitious monorail system that will go into service next year and will link the new airport to the heart of downtown Dubai.
All work, no play?
Closer to the heart of the city, another massive project is taking shape, the creation of “Dubai Land,” a complex that will include Six Flags, Busch Gardens and Sea World amusement parks.
“The ruler of Dubai is one of the most visionary people I’ve ever met, and that’s underscored by the fact that there’s no shortage of things going on—not just the actual construction, but the zoning and planning and all the rest that supports it,” said Chuck Heath, managing director of Jafza International.
The challenge Dubai is faced with is having its infrastructure keep pace with the rate of the economic expansion.
Until last year, road construction, which was supervised by the Dubai City Council, lagged desperately behind the creation of new office and residential towers. Dissatisfied with the pace of new road project approvals, Sheikh Mohammed took the council’s authority over roads away and developed a new transportation authority.
“Roadwork is moving at a considerably faster pace, and the light rail system is another outcome of that action,” Heath said.
Roads are only one form of infrastructure. Water and wastewater service has also proven a challenge given the pace of construction. Today, it’s not uncommon for there to be as much as a six-month lag between when a building is completed and when its water and sewer hookup is complete.
The beginning
Originally incorporated as a city in 1833, for more than 100 years Dubai was entirely dependent on the pearl trade for survival on the edge of an unforgiving desert. But that economic underpinning was all but wiped out by the Japanese invention of cultured pearls in the mid-20th Century.
Dubai could have died then, but in the early 1960s, oil was discovered in what would soon become one of the seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, a confederation of city-states established in the early 1970s.
Given a second chance to prosper, Sheikh Mohammed’s father Sheikh Zayed, began the process of economic diversification that his son has pursued with gusto.
Embracing the free trade zone concept as the basis for growth, Sheikh Mohammed has foster the growth of several “mini-cities” within the confines of Dubai proper, among them, Media City, Technology City, Knowledge City and Aviation City.
And as in the case in development here, the arrival of international companies has led to a proliferation of service businesses with a Western bent, including scores of Starbucks coffeehouses, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Hardees restaurants.
In construction right now are the first of several Ruby Tuesdays restaurants.
“One thing Westerners, particularly Americans, say is that Dubai is an awful lot like your Las Vegas,” D’Mello said. “I guess that has something to do with the intensity of the place and the unreality of the architecture. But at the same time I think it there’s also a sense about
Dubai that this is a place where people can make significant financial gain.”
D’Mello moved to Dubai from India 15 years ago for that very reason. Intending to stay for about a year to “make some money and go back home,” he soon landed a comfortable job with the government and has stayed.
Today, about 80% of the population of Dubai are not locals. To live and work in the city-state, individuals need a sponsor. Jebel Ali, Dubai’s massive logistic complex, alone sponsors about 120,000 workers in the country.
Most of Dubai’s ex-patriot class consists of British citizens, followed by Indians, Lebanese, and individuals who hail from the Far East.
Then, there are those whose job it is to actually build all of those buildings, the Indian and Bangladeshi men who live in work camps and are transferred to their worksites on large white buses every day.
While much International consternation is heaped on Dubai as a result of the way these workers live and work, the city-state is rapidly evolving in this regard as well. New labor laws restrict how long workers can be exposed to the summer heat, and a court in Dubai recently gave workers the right to protest and seek redress for living and other conditions.
“It used to be eight men in a room, no air conditioning,” said one Bangladeshi worker whose current assignment was laying bricks outside what is being promoted as the world’s largest residential apartment tower. “No more.”
Why did he leave his home and family behind? The man smiled and said, “I make about $100 a month here; about what I would make in a year in Bangladesh,” he said. “I have no living expenses. My food is provided for me. So $100 a month is actually enough to send money home.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@scbiznews.com.
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