Dubai
Investment in Dubai
By: Samy Sharif
2007
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Background
The Case of Dubai
Dubai & The Creation of a 'Global' Image
The Megaprojects
Dubai & Commercial Growth
Dubai as a world city
A permanent hub linking world economies
The Market
The Business Environment
The Costs
Doing Business
Special Investment Incentives
Free Zone Incentives
Dubai Business Climate
Licensing
The New Republic
Conclusion
Executive Summary
Long recognized as the leading regional trading hub in the Middle East, Dubai has established itself as a truly international business centre of global significance.
Background
The city-state of Dubai, a small emirate located on the Arabian Gulf, has been a crossroads for transient residents and travellers since its establishment as a small fishing village in the nineteenth century. Within the last two decades it has witnessed rapid urban growth due in part from the income generated from oil revenue, but mostly from various economic and industrial developments. Its multi-cultural (hybrid) nature is evident from its unique population make up: a city of approximately 1 million residents, where locals form a minority while the majority are of Arab, Asian and Western nationalities. Given this unique population as well as its location at the tip of the Arabian peninsula, Dubai has become a border region in which one can detect a variety of 'conflicts': West/East, modernization/fundamentalism, Arab/Asian and so on. These conflicts are resolved spatially through a policy which on the face...
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