Tag Archives: Dubai

A few things I heard in Dubai and Riyadh

March 28th, 2010

I’ve spent the past few days in Dubai and Riyadh meeting with academic, official, and business contacts. I’ve also had the chance to talk on China’s relations with the Middle East at the Dubai School of Government and American Business Group.

A few random thoughts:

- Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al Faisal, was reportedly in Beijing recently. David Ignatius has earlier written about this in the Washington Post. But I’ve heard much the same from embassy officials, and Iran was the likely topic for discussion.

Dubai puts a dent in the reputation of Wenzhou’s speculators

December 6th, 2009

It seems that Wenzhou’s traders are taking a hit in Dubai. Wenzhou is a city in China’s eastern coastal province of Zhejiang. It’s famed for its entrepreneurs who make up a large share of the Chinese trading overseas. It seems that those living in Dubai dipped into the property market. As this Chinese-language article states, many started out selling hardware, home electronics, and other small consumer goods. However, they soon “fixated” on the property market and even went so far to invite their relatives back home to invest.

Dubai World and Chinese bankers

November 30th, 2009

I was speaking at the Emirates Towers in Dubai last week. A soft-spoken manager for a large Dubai company waited until the end of my presentation before speaking up. “The Chinese banks are hungrier than the Western banks these days”, he said. “They are prepared to lend when others are not”.

I wonder if they will still have the same appetite after Dubai World’s announcement this week that it will delay payment on its $37 billion worth of debt?

Lifting the hood on Dragon Mart

June 9th, 2009

Sometimes you get to lift the hood and take a look inside. Here’s an expose on Dubai’s Dragon Mart, the 150,000 square meter shopping mall selling mainly Chinese goods in the UAE. It’s taken from the Chinese-language “China Business Journal”. It makes a number of interesting points about how Chinese traders are dealing with the city’s crisis. (And, no, they aren’t dumping their cars at the international airport).

Look out Dubai. Yiwu is on the move.

May 28th, 2009

The Chinese city of Yiwu is on the move. Yiwu is a major destination for Arab traders. But China’s exports have collapsed in the past six months and city hasn’t been spared. So, the city’s manufacturers look like they’ve spent some money, created a corporate logo, and hired out part of the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre for three days in June. The press release claims that the UAE has taken over the United States as Yiwu’s largest export market.

Singapore’s Lesson For Dubai

April 26th, 2009

A lot has been written on Dubai in the past few months. Some are fans. Others are critics. But few offer an idea of what the city might look like in a decade from now.

I was in Singapore last week and was struck by the amount of construction taking place. The number of cranes on the skyline reminded me of Dubai. Now, Singapore has its problems. Its economy is contracting. Its construction sector is suffering. But this isn’t the first time the city took a hit. It was also shaken by the Asia crisis in 1997, and its experience then offers a way to think about Dubai’s future today.

Here’s the most important lesson. It’s the construction sector that will take the biggest hit. In 1997, Singapore experienced a Dubai-like boom in its property market. The resulting crash was spectacular and the construction sector has only just recovered. In fact, it was only last year that the country started spending as much money building residential apartments and shopping malls as it did during the mid-1990s.

If Only The World Spoke “Hunanese”

March 30th, 2009

It hasn’t been an easy year for the Silk Road’s largest investors. Their big-ticket purchases once caught the media headlines. But a number of their acquisitions are now struggling.

I think China’s Wang Qishan, a Vice-Premier and former Beijing-mayor, best sums up the challenges. Wang was speaking to Xiang Wenbo, president of Sany, a machinery-maker based in the central province of Hunan. Xiang had pointed out that the financial crisis gave Chinese firms a chance to acquire foreign companies.

“You are someone who is worthy to have come from the same soil as Chairman Mao”, replied Wang. But “have you analyzed the cultural differences between the two sides?. Do you understand the labor relations?” “If the engineer of your partner resigns don’t tell me that you would send people over from Changsha and get the entire company to start speaking Hunanese.” Ouch!

Dubai’s sucess is built on decisions take over the past century, not the past decade

March 28th, 2009

There’s a lot of chatter about Dubai at the moment. I’ve had my say. (Yes, I’m still a big fan). So have others in the Financial Times. But it’s also good to get some perspective on the issue. Christopher Davidson’s “Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success” offers just this in his review of Dubai’s history. The most important message is that Dubai’s booming economy is the result of decisions taken over the past century, not just the past decade.

How so? In the 1890s, Shaykh Maktum bin Hasher Al Maktum eliminated many of Dubai’s trade barriers to build the foundations of a duty-free port. In the 1950s, Shaykh Rashid bin Said Al Maktum dredged the creek to permit large ships to dock. In the 1970s, he then built Jebel Ali, the city state’s now famous deep water port. Not least, in 1984, Shaykh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktum established Emirates Airlines, yet remained adamant that Dubai maintain its open-skies policy (rather than protect the fledgling airline from competitors such as Gulf Air).

Dubai might have only captured the world media’s attention in the past decade. But it’s a story with deep foundations―it certainly isn’t likely to topple over altogether as a result of the economic crisis, although it might be buffeted a bit.

Silk Road Gallery

Archive
Canton Trade Fair
August 12th, 2010

Editorials & Articles

“China cheat sheet helps investors survive”, Bloomberg, September 1, 2010

“No more silver bullets for Beijing”, Wall Street Journal, June 17, 2010

“China’s historic return to the Gulf”, Foreign Policy, April 2, 2010

Speaking Events

International Monetary Fund, Washington, October 10, 2010

SuperReturn Asia, Hong Kong, September 29, 2010

The Global Pricing Forum, Hong Kong, September 14, 2010