10.12.08

Dubai

We have just arrived from Dubai. It was a long awaited trip, because it was really difficult to figure out what was happenning there without seeing it by yourself. Dubai is not a country, but one of the seven Emirates of UAE or United Arab Emirates. Its currency is AED or dirham and it is dollar peg.

Dubai has almost no oil, so its interest was to create a new business model, based upon its free trading zones, such as Jebel Ali, its capacity to become a great financial center for the Middle East, and its increase in tourism. The Burj Al Arab is the most amazing building we have ever visited: it is really worth to dine there. But beneath the above, it has created a huge real estate boom.

A few years ago, it allowed freehold properties for foreigners in certain areas, so money started to enter the Emirate from England, Russia, Iran, and India. And with the money, foreign workers from all around the world. You could tell English is the most widely spoken language in Dubai: if not, how could an Arab may ask a Bangladeshi for a tea? However, there is a sense of ephimeral expectation within the expats. They are going to stay if the boom continues, if not, they will leave inmediately. As the crisis hit everywhere, here they are going to slow down many projects. Perhaps they tried to do everything at once, perhaps too many projects in too many different areas, perhaps too ambitous... Of course they somehow can reach the money of its friendly neighbour, Abu Dhabi, but in any case the crisis finally got here.

We do not think Dubai is death. Its tax system, basically no tax at all, will help many companies to stay or come here. It is the same for individuals. Dubai is a tax haven, where you do not have to declare how much money you enter or exit the Emirate.

Dubai is all or nothing.