DUBAI The Hub of MENA Opportunity

Dubai has long been acknowledged as the trading and re-export hub of the MENA region. The emirate’s excellent infrastructure facilities, cosmopolitan ambience with a multicultural demography and an unbeaten track record in making a success of everything that Dubai initiates has earned this city-state kudos worldwide.

Well known as a shopping hub of the region, Dubai is undergoing a massive retail expansion with shopping space set to rise to over 20 million square feet in six year’s time, creating a plethora of business opportunities in its wake.

The rise in retail space is some close to 600% more compared to 2000. The UAE and Saudi Arabia will see the largest increase with Dubai leading with 4.25 million square metre by the end of decade compared to 1.37 million in 2006.

Dubai has also set clear economic objectives targeting to sustain real economic growth rates of 11 per cent and to reach a GDP of US$108 billion in 2015 and to increase real GDP per capita to $44,000. In pursuit of this objective, the Government of Dubai has put in place a Dubai Strategic Plan – 2015, which will focus on key economic sectors, including a major thrust on the services sector, to drive economic growth.

The new plan has been put in place following achievement of the targets set in an n earlier 2010 plan. The goal of achieving GDP of US$30 billion by 2010 was surpassed in 2005, when Dubai's GDP was $37 billion. The plan also included an increase of GDP per capita to $23,000 by the year 2010. In 2005 the average GDP per capita reached $31,000. In other words, in five years we exceeded the economic targets that were originally planned for a 10-year period.

Thanks to this dynamism, Dubai’s economy has also been growing faster than the emerging economies of China and India and the developed economies of Ireland, Singapore and the US. The services sector has been the key driver of economic growth with an annual growth rate of 21 per cent since 2000, constituting $27.6 billion or 74 per cent of Dubai's GDP in 2005, making it a very competitive economy.