The World's Best Enterprise Zone
Halliburton is moving its headquarters to Dubai. Could Dubai, with its world-class infrastructure and business-friendly environment, become the world's preferred destination for multinational corporations?
"With scant oil reserves, Dubai's ruling family, the Maktoums, long ago realized that their state's future lay in serving as the commercial hub of the Arab Middle East, not pulling petroleum from the desert sands. 'They have had to live on their wits,' says Bulent Gultekin, a Wharton finance professor. 'So they've tried to build Dubai into the business platform for the region.'
To that end, the Maktoums, led by the billionaire known today as 'Dubai's CEO,' Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, have invested heavily in the infrastructure of a modern economy. They have built a first-class port, airport and airline; created lightly regulated enterprise zones to foster the development of new industries and attract foreign firms; and spent lavishly on amenities ranging from the white, sail-shaped Burj al Arab, the world's tallest hotel, to an indoor ski slope chilled to about 30 degrees Fahrenheit."
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Dubai Urban Planning
It is easy to underestimate what is happening now in Dubai. It is also easy to drink the kool-aid. But in the reality between those extremes, is a real-time new town planning experiment. It is a factor of 10, even 100, over the efforts at Letchworth Garden City and Milton Keynes.
I was part of the new town efforts of Jubail and Yanbu in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s. This Dubai experiment in internationalism and free market economy is its own animal. It has unique energy and hope. It is waiting for all to study.
Dubai Landscape
http://web.mac.com/eflaherty