DUBAI, 17 September 2003 — The arrival of the annual World Bank and International Monetary Fund bonanza to this small city-state marks an apotheosis in Dubai’s bold bid to become a player on the world stage.
The Gulf emirate of about 1.2 million people has embarked on a strategy of headlong expansion, committing billions of dollars to the pursuit of phenomenal growth.
A sleepy pearl and trading outpost has been transformed into a dynamic regional economic and tourist power with world-class infrastructure in just 25 years.
The hosting of the 58th annual joint meeting of the board of governors of the World Bank and IMF - the first time the moneymen’s giant gathering has ventured into the Arab world - fits perfectly into Dubai’s strategy to tap into the global hospitality sector.
Dubai officials know that if they can organize this meeting successfully they can stake a claim to hold any of the major world jamborees and reap the income and prestige they automatically bring.
The emirate will earn an instant $45-million cash influx for the hospitality sector, according to Ibrahim Belsaleh, general coordinator of Dubai 2003, as the meeting has been dubbed locally. “In the short term, the tourism sector, namely hotels, restaurants and transportation, will see an instantaneous impact,” he said.
More than 10,000 hotel rooms in the city have been booked for the Sept. 23-24 event by the organizing committee. “This huge cash injection will have a spill-over effect across economic sectors, which will be very positive for business for all emirates in the United Arab Emirates,” Belsaleh said.
But Dubai has its eyes firmly fixed on a future in which the huge investments in mega projects require ever larger numbers of visitors and residents to be sustained.
“The long-term benefits will far outweigh the one billion dirhams ($272 million) that have been invested by the governments of the UAE and Dubai” to host the meeting, Belsaleh said. Officials in the emirate are gushing about the whole event which has seen a major clean-up from flowerbeds to roads and lighting.
Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Maktoum ibn Rashid Al-Maktoum went on record on Thursday to praise the “tremendous efforts” of all in preparing the meeting.
Maktoum urged “all public and private sector organizations and nationals and residents of the UAE to display the civilized image of the country and to interact with the event that will also launch a new conventions industry in the UAE,” Gulf News reported on its front page.
At stake is not just a decent slice of the global industry, but more broadly the booming development of the city-state. Fears of recession and terrorism in an unstable region have all been brushed aside, as billions and billions are added every year to feed the boom.
This year saw the unveiling of the world’s tallest tower and a development of 200 islands in the shape of the world atlas covering 60 million square feet (5.5 million square meters), some five kilometers (three miles) off the coast.
Property developers Nakheel said it would be completed by 2008, a year after the tower, capping a series of landmark schemes including three other giant islands - two in the shape of palm trees.
A German investor plans to build a half-submerged Hydropolis hotel off the coast and open it by 2006.