Dubai's hollow prosperity

Anumita Sharma

1st December 2009

I spent 2 weeks in the sweltering heat of Dubai in June 2007 . I was working on a brand and market development project talking to the general public and some retailers. And I felt the hollow prosperity of Dubai.

This was my first trip to Dubai after 1999 and the rapid and what seemed to be unplanned development left me with feeling of disquiet.

In true qualitative research questioning mode I talked to taxi drivers, doormen, construction workers, waiters, corporate executives, businessmen, whoever I came across, asking for their feelings about living in Dubai, the economy and working there. And their answers increased my disquiet.

They talked about the fact that the construction boom was made of sand: some of the new islands had been reclaimed so rapidly that 3 years after completion there was already subsidence in the villas built on them. They talked about rents rising five to ten fold in spite of having many empty buildings across Dubai. There was mention of houses being built with no water, electricity and sewage.

I walked into huge older malls, which were empty, with no customers and shops closing down.

The workers in Dubai have some of the highest rate of anxiety related illnesses.

For the first time in the 15 years I have worked in the region, I came across a Dubai sheikh's son working as a recruiter. This was one of the good things I saw except he told me he had to work to support himself through education because his father could not afford to. And he said many of his friends were having to do the same.

I heard of a Dubai Sheikh's daughter turning to entertaining foreign businessmen because her father could not support her. And many more cases of the earlier wealthy local Arabs running out of money.

Add to that the recession of the last two years has had a major impact on an economy built on 'shopping'.

I was not the only one feeling the change coming through. I met and heard of savvy local Arab businessmen expanding their businesses in India, Latin America, China, so they could spread their investments in markets which they thought would continue to grow. Taking their money out of Dubai.

In my opinion, the consumerism earlier in this decade was even more rampant in Dubai and unsustainable. This is the market correcting itself, a little late, rather painfully but with wide repercussions around the world.

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