Dubai

 Dubai Click [|Here] for a story on former Vice President Dick Cheney's company, Halliburton, which relocated its corporate headquarters to Dubai (after making more than 25 billion in Iraq)

Here's a report from the NPR show Marketplace [|Dubai Financially Dry as Expats Leave]  Over the last thirty years, Dubai has becomea major center of business, with a diverse and varied economy that is amplified by a profitable geographical location. Dubai is the "biggest re-exporting center" in the middle East.

Because of its low "logistical and operatioal costs" and infastructure, investors are extremely interested in Dubai, and transport, tourism and trade growth has helped to boost the economy.

What Dubai has to offer: - Places for meetings, conferences and exhibitions - Tourism - Banking, finance and insurance - Business and industrial consulting - Manufacturing - Growing technology

Moreover, Dubai is home to a paritcular warm and inviting type of people, amazing facilities - such as hotels, business buildings, and other places of attraction - and "open and liberal economic policies."

Dubai's Key Advantages: 1. Strategic Location 2. Political and economic stability 3. Open and free ecnomic system 4. World class infastructure and Service Sector 5. Competitive Cost Structure ___\___  __ More Basic Information: Dubai and the Current Economic Crisis __ · Dubai’s luxury and wealth has attracted expats (expatriates) for the last ten years, but with the current economic crisis, many of these expats are leaving Dubai, which might spell out trouble. British businesmen comprise a major component of these expatriates. Most of the 100,000 British expats came to Dubai in the hopes of prospering enourmously, "but the real estate bubble that propelled the frenetic expansion of Dubai on the back of borrowed cash and speculative investment, has burst" - guardian.co.uk
 * The main related question is whether or not Abu Dhabi will come to Dubai's rescue (how big and how public)
 * Because Abu Dhabi has its own economic problems, with its lifeline, the price of oil, dropping more than 60%
 * **AMENDMENT**: Abu Dhabi issued a $10 billion bailout to Dubai

· Throughout the 90’s and the new millennium, Dubai was marked by beautiful real estate, enormous shopping malls, and other extravagant activities and attractions · With the economic crisis however, real estate prices are going down and thus many expats are leaving Dubai and returning home o **TROUBLE**: Because 90% of the population in Dubai is “from somewhere else”, the mass exodus of these expatriates will/have hit the economy incredibly hard  _

Dubai Economy: · Open economy, high per capita income o An economy in which businesses and people trade goods and services with other people and businesses on a global scale (as opposed to a closed economy in which international trade does not occur) <span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: 'Courier New'; msolist: Ignore;">o <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">Most basically, an open economy is one in which there is international trade <span style="font-family: Wingdings; msobidifontfamily: Wingdings; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Wingdings; msolist: Ignore;">§ <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">Exporting and Importing <span style="font-size: 70%; font-family: 'Times','serif';"> <span style="font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">The UAE at first went through a tremendous economic transformation (from poverty to wealth) because of the discovery of oil beneath its grounds over thirty years ago <span style="font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">Economic diversification was at first implemented so as to reduce the UAE’s reliance on oil and gas output such that the portion of GDP based on oil and gas had been reduced to 25% <span style="font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">Government has increased its expenditure on “job creation and infrastructure expansion” <span style="font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">2005: UAE signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement that worked with negotiations in the hopes of forming a Free Trade Agreement with the United States (which would eliminate tariffs on goods exchanged between Dubai and the United States) <span style="font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">The financial crisis and “tight international credit market” and decreasing oil prices will most definitely result in slower economic growth in months of this year (2009) <span style="font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">UAE depends greatly on oil and tourism (including foreign vactioners and expatriate workforce) which have begun to serve as issues with the ongoing fiscal crisis – as the expats return to their homelands and oil prices decrease further, the UAE will be forced to look for other sources of helping the economic crisis. That is, Dubai will be impelled to tap into other potential money sources <span style="font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; mso-list: Ignore; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';">**UAE response to economic crisis:** Diversification of the economy and creating increased opportunities for the citizens of UAE through improved education

What would diversification entail? "Economic diversification is generally taken as the process in which a growing range of economic outputs is produced. It can also refer to the diversification of markets for exports or the diversification of income sources away from domestic economic activities (i.e. income from overseas investment)." <span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times','serif';"> Quick Facts:
 * GDP**: $186.8 billion (2008)


 * GDP**: (Official exchange rate) $270 billion (2008)

· <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';"> Agriculture: 7 % · <span style="font-family: 'Times','serif';"> Industry: 15 % · <span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times','serif';">Services: 78% <span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">**Industries:** Petroleum and Petrochemicals; fishing, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, commerce, textiles, etc. Articles on Dubai's Economy: [|As World's Economy Crumbles, Dubai Keeps on Building] [|Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down] [|Global Economies: Dubai] [|High-Rolling Dubai Economy Comes Down to Earth: NPR] [|Marketplace: Even Dubai Feels Economic Pain] [|Dumping on Dubai: Have Hard Times Hit the Emirates?]
 * Labor Force:** 3.266 million (2008)
 * Unemployment rate:** 2.4% in 2001 (so N/A)