As seen on 60 Minutes Dubai Inc. reported by Steve Kroft.
The Biggest Story in the World — Dubai – home of the world’s largest construction site and one of the most amazing stories in our world today.

While millions flock to Dubai annually, from an American perspective it’s “the Middle East we don’t know”.

Still surrounded in misunderstanding by so many in the US, the massively positive story of Dubai and Middle East 2.0 is the real story of change in the Gulf.

It is a story of peaceful, constructive excellence and the pursuit of dreams. A story very much in line with true American values.

Dubai is a city in the emirate of Dubai which is part of the United Arab Emirates or UAE in the Persian Gulf. The UAE is part of the GCC, Gulf Cooperative Council, an economic group of nations along the lines of the European Union (EU). The GCC includes the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

The growth in Dubai is representative of the growth in the region. While many in America associate the Arab world, the Middle East, the Gulf or sadly Islam and Muslims with terror and terrorism, war and violence, the real story of the Middle East is what is going on with construction, commerce, art, development and millions of people making a better life for themselves.

There is clearly a big difference between the perceptions of Iraq or other areas in the region and reality. Some people tend to think that Iran, the UAE, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are all the same – the region is as varied as the Americas.

Richard Branson, Tiger Woods, Martha Stewart, Madonna and Donald Trump all have business ventures in Dubai. The area is known mostly for real estate but many other projects continue there daily.

Dubai has received interest from sovereign wealth funds ‘beyond the region’ for the second tranche of the $20 billion bond it expects to launch this year, the emirate’s finance chief said on Friday.

‘Immediately after the issuance of the first tranche, we did receive interest from entities beyond the borders of the UAE. Our only issue is that… we will not issue the second tranche until it is needed,’ Nasser al-Sheikh told Reuters Financial Television on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea in Jordan.

‘We are in talks with some sovereign wealth funds and some financial institutions who have expressed their interest… We have continuous dialogue with a number of them… beyond the region.’

Earlier this month a member of Dubai’s financial crisis committee said the $20 billion bond programme will be sufficient to stimulate the Gulf emirate’s economy, hit hard by the global financial crisis.

Asked when the Dubai government would begin to invest again, Sheikh said: ’2009 is a year of stabilisation for us — stabilising the economy, the government stepping up and supporting some of the corporates that have been playing a strategic role in the evolution of Dubai.’

Sheikh, director-general of Dubai Department of Finance, said the priority now was to ‘reactivate’ Islamic mortgage firms Amlak and Tamweel and then start a merger process.

The fate of the merger of the two firms has been under review by a federal government committee this year since the United Arab Emirates government announced in November it was merging them with two state-controlled banks.

The Islamic home financing companies developed their businesses during an economic boom in Dubai that was kicked off by the emirate’s decision in 2002 to allow foreigners to invest in properties on a freehold basis.

They ran into trouble when the global financial crisis brought the boom years to a swift end in Dubai, prompting the government to say it would merge them with two banks to form Emirates Development Bank.

‘Their intentions have changed. We were working on the merger, the merger was the priority but now looking at the importance… they realise how important Amlak and Tamweel are to the Dubai property sector,’ Sheikh said.

‘Priority today is to reactivate both companies because both companies have not been extending mortgages for the past 4-5 months,’ he said.

Dubai World has announced that it is investing in a game park in Zimbabwe as part of its on-going expansion plans into Africa, despite confirming the postponement of future construction developments in the Gulf.

The government-owned entity sees Africa as a prime place for future investment, and already holds major stakes in three game reserves in South Africa, according to a report in UAE daily The National.

Zimbabwe has become more attractive to international investors since February’s power-sharing arrangement was set up between the president Robert Mugabe and the former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

“The game parks are basically nature reserves. Part of it is the social responsibility that we feel towards being in a country, but also part of it is investment,” said Dubai World chairman Sultan bin Sulayem at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in Dubai yesterday.

“Africa is a very interesting place. It is a place where you can see growth. In Africa, you will see double-digit growth. Africa is virgin, Africa has so much charm, nature. This is something that we know we can add value to,” he added.
Sulayem said Africa’s “scenery would fit” Nakheel Hotel’s One&Only brand, which had opened its first resort in Cape Town last month.

At the same conference Sualyem confirmed Dubai World’s announcement in January that it would be delaying all new developments, including the world’s tallest tower, concentrating instead on completing already started projects.

“Anything committed to we shall finish it, everything that cannot currently be financed will be delayed,” he said.

“The tower will be delayed until the market changes. You can’t build something like that in this kind of market,” Sulayem concluded.

Other Dubai World projects in Africa include a string of first five-star hotels in Djibouti, which started with the Djibouti Palace Kempinski in 2006 that has seen good returns since opening.

Last year, Dubai World bought a 50% interest in the Kruger National Park concession owned by Singita Game Reserves.

With an average price tag of $7,151 per square metre, property in Dubai is the fifteenth most expensive in the world, according to a recent study.

But it is still cheap compared to Monte Carlo where a top-end apartment costs on average $47,578 per square metre – almost seven times as much as Dubai.

Property in Moscow, which came in second place, costs $20,853 per square metre, followed by London at an average of $20,756.
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At the other end of the scale, Cairo was found to be one of the cheapest cities in the world, with a high-end apartment there costing an average of only $574 per square metre.

Property research group Global Property Guide collected the data based on the average price of a 120 square metre high-end used apartment in the city centres of more than 110 cities around the world during 2008. The US dollar exchange rate used is that of January 27, 2009.

It is unclear whether the research takes into account the recent slowdown in Dubai’s once thriving real estate market as the global financial crisis has tightened its grip on the emirate.

As availability of credit has dried up, prices have fallen and developers have scaled back projects.

Dubai property prices slumped by 23 percent during the last quarter of 2008, with villas showing a more marked decline than apartments, according to a report published by HSBC last month.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that real estate prices have fallen by as much as 35 to 50 percent in developments such as the Dubai Marina, Downtown Burj Dubai, and the Palm Jumeirah.

The beach will be next to the the new Palazzo Versace hotel which is being built in Dubai where summer temperatures average 40C and can reach 50C.


The beach will have a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface.

The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.

The scheme is likely to infuriate environmentalists. The revelation comes as more than 11,000 politicians, green campaigners and others are gathered in Poznan, Poland, for the latest talks on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

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Competition to serve the world’s rich is getting intense, especially in Dubai. The city already boasts the world’s first seven-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, while Armani, a competitor with Versace, is building a similarly branded Dubai hotel.

The refrigerated beach is designed to give Versace the edge in this battle of luxury lifestyles. The system will be controlled by thermostats linked to computers.

“Hydropolis is not a project; it’s a passion,” enthuses Joachim Hauser, the developer and designer of the hotel. His futuristic vision is about to take shape 20m below the surface of the Persian Gulf, just off the Jumeirah Beach coastline in Dubai.

The £300m, 220-suite hotel was due to open by the end of 2006 but has experienced delays and is now scheduled to open in 2009. It will incorporate a host of innovations that will take it far beyond the original blueprint for an underwater complex worthy of Jules Verne.

The original idea for Hydropolis developed out of Hauser’s passion for water and the sea, and goes much deeper than just building a hotel underwater. More than just curiosity, it is a commitment to a more far-reaching philosophy. “Once you start digging deeper and deeper into the subject, you can’t help being fascinated and you start caring about all the associated issues,” he explains. “Humans consist of 80% water, the earth consists of 80% water; without water there is no life.”

In order to enter this surreal space, visitors will begin at the land station. This 120m woven, semicircular cylinder will arch over a multi-storey building. On the lowest level passengers board a noiseless train propelled by fully automated cable along a modular, self-supporting steel guideway to Hydropolis. The upper storeys of the land station house a variety of facilities, including a cosmetic surgery clinic, a marine biological research laboratory and conference facilities. On the lower levels are the staff rooms, goods storage and loading areas, and hotel and parking areas.

The land station also includes a restaurant and high-tech cinema screening the evolution of life in the ocean and the history of underwater architecture. As a finale, the screen will open to reveal the real-life Hydropolis. A viewing platform at the front opening of the spanning roof will allow views of the architecture as well as the light shows of Hydropolis.

Hauser plans to incorporate many different elements associated with the sea. The cosmetics will be ocean-based, the cinemas will screen films that focus on aquatic themes and a children’s seaworld will educate as well as entertain.

He views his creation as a place where those who do not dive – or do not even swim – can experience the tranquillity and inspiration of the underwater world. “We are expecting around 3,000 visitors a day in addition to the hotel guests. The aim is to inspire people to develop a new awareness of the sea.”

Here is the Video of Hydropolis Dubai Underwater Hotel Project

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The aquarium will showcase one of the most diverse collections of 33,000 plus marine life worldwide, according to mall officials. With one of the largest tanks in the world at 51 meters by 20 meters by 11 metres, the aquarium will feature the world’s largest viewing panel, which will be 32.8 meters wide, 8.3 metres high, 750 mm thick and weighing 245,614 kg.  The viewing panel at Dubai Aquarium surpasses the current Guinness World Record holder, Churaumi Aquarium in Okinawa, Japan, at 22.5 metres wide x 8.2 meters high and 600 mm thick.

Click here to see the image in Full Size….

The facility, built by Oceanis Australia Group, has a capacity to hold 10 million liters of water and will be completely illuminated. The aquarium is built in the center of the mall and is flanked by two acrylic tunnels that offer views of the diverse marine life within it.

Special acrylic has also been used to build the world’s largest indoor marine mammal pavilion at the mall. Though glass is traditionally used for aquaria, acrylic has proven to be stronger and lighter, with acrylic-soluble cement used to fuse the material together, allowing for the formation of unusual shapes.

“Glass is not used in the building of modern aquariums. An acrylic plastic is bonded together to create the windows in the mall’s aquarium and the Discovery Center. Acrylic is extremely strong and can be manipulated into a variety of shapes such as the unique curved acrylic tunnel,” said Yousif Al Ali, general manager, The Dubai Mall. “The 270-degree acrylic walk through tunnel makes for incredible close-encounter experiences with some of the most fascinating underwater animals. The special ‘lunar-cyclic’ lighting system will change the ambiance of the tank depending on the time of day.”

Click here to see the image in Full Size….

The 12.1-million-square-foot Dubai Mall will be the biggest in the world in terms of total size. It will include the region’s first SEGA indoor theme park covering 76,000 sq ft, the world’s largest indoor gold souk with 220 retailers, an Olympic-size ice rink, and The Grove, an indoor-outdoor street scape with fully retractable roof.