Transforming Dubai

"Fast running out of oil, which now accounts for just 6% of its gross domestic product, Sheikh Mohammed is racing to transform Dubai into a huge business-cum-leisure park on a breathtaking scale... The plan also involves the creation of a city for 10m people, compared with the current population of 1.5m. Its free enterprise zone is booming, as is its stock exchange (up 1,200% in two and a half years with stocks valued at $253bn). The amount of money raised from initial public offerings will have hit $15bn in the past 12 months. Hundreds of luxury hotels are being built and many hundreds of thousands of flats and luxury homes aimed at housing the rich, the retired and the tourists as well as the immigrant workers tasked with making his dream reality."