An aquarium and an ice-skating rink in the desert kingdomÂ
The king of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan who died recently, was immortalised by naming the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa in Dubai, after him. The Khalifa and his brother Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan who succeeded him as the President of UAE, deserve to be applauded for working closely with the brilliant head of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. This collaboration has helped both the neighbouring emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, making these highly prosperous and renowned.
Oil shock
A bit of history will help understand the magnitude of this. Right up to the oil shock of 1973, little was known about these desert kingdoms. The first taste of the power of oil producers came with the ten’fold increase in the price of crude oil in 1973. Americans, Dutch and the British oil companies, referred to as the seven sisters, controlled the global oil trade. The massive expansion of the automobile, aviation and energy sectors and the rapid growth of petrochemicals underscored the precious value of oil.
Oil producers understood their importance and, worried over the limited reserves, ended the monopoly of the seven sisters and took control of production and safeguarded their interest. Increasing price of crude oil also helped in innovative ways of exploration taking recourse to technology and investing larger quantum of resources. These also helped the spread of industry across the globe through more innovative prospecting, exploration and production methods.
Crude price >$150 drifting to $ 22/barrel
Crude prices were increased and ruled for a while even in excess of $150 in 2008. The ability to use gas associated with the production of oil and tap gas trapped between rocks helped moderate prices. the large buyer USA, took recourse to technology, to expand production of oil and gas and improved efficiency in use of oil and reduced dependence on oil imports.
In times of over-supply, as happened in the mid-2020s, prices dropped to a low $22 per barrel. In the last two years there have been continuous increases and presently it is ruling around $ 105.
Of the units of the Emirates, Abu Dhabi is endowed with large reserves of crude oil and is estimated to be the largest producer after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Abu-Dhabi – Dubai: Growing together
The Emir of the neighbouring Dubai, that has no oil, conceived a brilliant plan to work together with Abu Dhabi to build Dubai as a strong international, commercial centre. With deep insights he built Dubai as another Singapore/Hong Kong. Today Dubai has emerged a strong international business centre as also an important hub for travel, entertainment, consumer spend and tourism.
With foresight, huge investments have been made in infrastructure like the metro rail. In a very short time Emirates Airlines of Dubai, Etihad Airways, Oman Airways, have established themselves as airlines with state-of-the-art airports and aircraft. Emirates Airlines has invested large sums on Airbus 380s and Boeing Dreamliner 777s.
Look at the spectacular transformation of a small area around the Burj Khalifa in Dubai: until 2005, a few acres in that area were just desert sand. Emaar Constructions conceived building the world’s tallest building in 2005 with 160 storeys as Burj Dubai with liberal funding by Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa; it was renamed Burj Khalifa and opened in 2010. It attracts visitors in millions. Entry ticket is priced at Rs 3000 + at the minimum. The adjoining Dubai Mall, also owned by Emaar, was inaugurated in November 2008 as the second largest mall in the world with a total retail floor area of 5400,000 sq ft. It is part of the $20 billion Downtown complex and includes over 1200 shops, attracting over 54 million visitors each year.
In a section of the mall there is a deep-sea aquarium and also an ice-skating rink. Contrast this with outside temperatures ranging around 110 degrees!
The creek from the Arabian Gulf reaches a few hundred meters inside Dubai. In yet another audacious plan, it was extended in U shape with over 30 meter wide as a sort of a garland to get back to the gulf. One also notices a lot of greenery. Relate this to the desert kingdom depending entirely on desalination for getting every drop of water!
Palm tree island
I visited another audacious dream project – the palm tree island. The planners conceived creating a sprawling, new reclaimed land and developed it in the shape of a palm tree with branches extended on either sides of the main trunk – the thoroughfare – into the sea. The concept provides the owners of villas on the branches with access to the sea.
The palm island houses dozens of large hotels. The concept and execution are breath-taking.
A similar project of reclaiming land from the sea for constructing a world shaped enclave was also taking shape. But this project got hit during the recent difficult phase of the global economy.
Every single item in Dubai, whether it is milk, fruit, vegetable, pulse or grain, has to be imported. The French retail giant, Carrefour, has some of its large stores in Dubai. These seem to enjoy roaring custom from tourists that flock Dubai in never ending stream. I had a glimpse of this through the prosperous Ramzan week.
Please click the following links to read other articles of June 2022:
Russian petrol for western Europe and even the US!
A sleepy township morphs into an industrial hubA sleepy township morphs into an industrial hub
Everything gigantic in Dubai – Dubai Travel by SV
Sweet News on the Sugar Sector
Conference with New CII President Sanjiv Bajaj
Women forge ahead – Recent civil services examination
