Like the sands of Arabia, the movement of money has shifted, and those economies considered too slow (Saudi Arabia), too conservative (Abu Dhabi), too risky (Lebanon) or too small to be a player (Qatar) are now destinations for the region’s capital. Dubai, once the flagship of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s prosperity, is nursing a bruised ego and considering its options.
What’s the moral of the tale? That steady-Eddies are the best bet? That the tortoise eventually beats the hare? That Saudi Arabia was the perfect example of a state exercising leadership and intervention when crisis hit?
Well, it’s not quite as simple as that, and maybe the answers can still be found among the skyscrapers of Dubai, where businesses, or should we say the business community, is still struggling to adapt its strategies to the new reality. Essentially, human nature is risk averse and there is a reluctance in Dubai to seek out new markets, because businesses in Dubai are playing a risky waiting game, hoping to turn a corner that may not loom into view for a while.
It is a syndrome that the Lebanese know only too well. They sat around in the late 1970s convinced that the civil war would soon be over — in just a few months things would pick up again. Fifteen years later, they realized they were wrong and that for many of them, the best years of their lives had been wasted. The Dubai mindset must change. The private sector must seek its corporate sustenance in the fertile plains of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, all markets that rode out the financial storm.
But it is not all gloom and doom for the glamorous emirate. Its time will come again. The hard work has been done. Not only is Dubai ‘built’, it was built at a time when the price of construction commodities was lower than it is today and a time when the dollar was in ruder health. Today, anyone wanting to emulate Dubai’s undoubted magnificence, and they will for this is the nature of the beast, will have to pay triple the price.
The hard work has been done; the table is set; the private sector just needs to get hungry enough to go find some food.
