/UPDATE*/ARTS WEEKLY/ UAE: Dubai Evolves As ‘City of Cities’

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Meena S Janardhan

DUBAI, Apr 19 2005 (IPS) - Fast becoming the commercial hub of the Middle East, Dubai has in the past few years launched several projects to encourage investors and tourists alike. One noteworthy initiative has been the setting up of ‘cities’ for institutions with special interests to foster work environments with common ideologies, thereby opening up possibilities for collaboration.

So there is the Media City, the Internet City, the Knowledge Village, the Health City, Humanitarian Aid City, the Festival City, the Sports City, the Logistics City and even a Chess City, where buildings will resemble chess pawns.

This innovative idea is the brainchild of Gen. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE defence minister, whose visionary zeal has turned this small desert oasis into a gleaming chrome and glass economic marvel.

The liberal social milieu, competitive business environment, tax-free conditions and innumerable recreational facilities are incentives that attract expatriate and regional investors. Add to that are architectural plans that promise to turn the desert landscape into a wonderland.

”Dubai is all set to become a regional business hub. It is therefore only right that it attracts global attention through pioneering ideas. These ‘cities’ are a path-breaking venture and will be hugely successful,” said Robert Fischer, a German public relations manager.

The mission of the Media City is to create and market world-class services for the media industry. Aiming to provide infrastructure and environment that will enable media-related enterprises to operate globally out of Dubai, it is the place where every kind of business in the industry will thrive and have the freedom to create.

”The mandate states that it offers us the freedom to grow, to operate, to develop and to express, and that is what it exactly does,” said Fischer.

At the opening, Sheikh Mohammed said, ”Local, pan-Arab and international companies will find great opportunities here for the launching of new projects and the development of pre-existing ones. The infrastructure has been carefully prepared to facilitate participation in the latest methods of digital communication.”

”In this place we have laid the foundations of the ideal city, offering integrated services for the media…The infrastructure opens up new horizons, in step with the international electronic media,” he added.

But according to the latest report by the Paris-based media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF by its French acronym, though UAE is a leading moderniser in the region and foreign and local media enjoy a degree of freedom, strong social and political controls encourage self-censorship.

The UAE authorities presented the hundreds of news organisations at Media City with a code of conduct in November 2003 and asked them to keep to it. Media City chief legal officer Gerard Hobby told RSF the code, based on the one drafted by Britain’s Broadcasting Standards Commission, was an experiment and a first in the Gulf. It required media to be impartial and respect people’s privacy and said it contained no prohibitions because that would go against press freedom, which it said was the cornerstone of Media City.

However, RSF pointed out that the media were asked to take into account social and religious factors in the UAE, the Middle East and other Muslim countries. The code came with an independent body of seven lawyers to see that it was respected.

Other than the Media City, there is the Healthcare City, which aims to establish a regional gateway for customers and patients to receive world-class healthcare.

”The Healthcare City will be the biggest centre for medical and health care on an international level within the area between Europe, the Middle East and Asia,” said Saeed Al Muntafiq, the city’s board chairman.

Internationally respected institutions in health care delivery, education, services, and research and development have been invited to set up operations here and to take advantage of the synergies brought about by physical proximity, interconnectivity, and professional collaboration.

The Festival City, on the other hand, promises to be a waterfront city with shopping, living, leisure and working opportunities. Stretching four kilometres along the Dubai Creek, it offers an unmatched mix of entertainment, dining and shopping. Among the attractions are over 400 retail outlets, around 100 restaurants, a 600-luxury-room hotel, a waterfront promenade, a golf resort and much more.

Next is the Sports City – set to be the world’s first integrated purpose-built recreational city. The two billion U.S. dollar city will host the first Manchester United soccer school outside Europe, a golf course, a tennis school, a golf academy and the first global cricket academy. The city would also encourage women’s participation in sports in the Gulf region.

The Internet City is a strategic base for companies targeting emerging markets in a vast region extending from the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent, and Africa to the CIS countries.

It offers foreign companies 100 percent tax-free ownership and repatriation of capital and profits, no currency restrictions, easy registration and licensing, stringent cyber regulations, and protection of intellectual property.

”The global giants are all here: Microsoft, Oracle, HP, IBM, Compaq, Dell, Siemens, Canon, Logica, Sony Ericsson and Cisco, to name just a few. These companies represent a formidable community of over 5,500 knowledge workers,” said Sohail Ahmed, an Indian IT manager.

Another unique project is the Chess City that will house the headquarters of the International Chess Association. The project will include 32 buildings, with the two King towers standing at a height of 64 floors, in the design of the traditional black and white chessboard. The whole facility will cover an estimated 64,000 square metres.

President Kirsan Ilumjinov of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia, who is also head of the association, said in a press statement, ”We chose the Emirate of Dubai to host this gigantic undertaking, precisely because of Dubai’s international reputation as a place where imaginative projects such as the International Chess City can come to life.”

Dubai has recently announced plans to set up a Logistics City as well. ”This major initiative will allow Dubai International Airport to focus on the development of passenger traffic without suffering from congestion or bottlenecks caused by freight and logistics operations,” said Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of the Dubai Civil Aviation and Emirates Group chairman.

Not the one to leave education behind, Dubai has set up a Knowledge Village too, where leading academic institutions can set up campuses and educate future generations.

There are residential marvels as well – the ambitious Palm Project that will create two of the largest human-made islands has added a total of 120 kilometres to Dubai’s shoreline, a result of massive sea reclamation and ‘The World’ – a cluster of 250 artificial islands in the shape of the world map covering a reclaimed area of 5.574 million square metres off Dubai’s coast.

There is also the Bur Dubai district with the world’s tallest tower, Burj Dubai, surrounding which will be the world’s largest shopping mall too – a three million square metre colossus; Dubai Marina, Gulf’s biggest waterfront project measuring around 800,000 square metres, the Arabian Ranches – a multi-billion dirham paradise spread over 2,700 acres; and the Hydropolis hotel, the first underwater luxury hotel with suites offering underwater views and a sandy beach sheltered from the sun by artificially manufactured clouds!

As it metamorphoses from harsh desert conditions to cooler climes, even promising a Snow City, Dubai is all set to grab world attention and investment, combining commercial, residential and architectural bonanzas which will be tough to resist.

(*INSERTING Reporters Without Borders comments in 10th para)