Dubai has long been a major commercial hub for the Indian Ocean basin, a region that stretches from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia and includes East Africa. As such, the city-state's prosperity has always been rooted in its ability to attract human and economic capital from all over this part of the world. The 2010 Chazen Dubai Study Tour made clear that Dubai's economic future more than ever hinges on its continued hub status for transportation, logistics and finance in the Indian Ocean basin. Increasingly, the emirate's fate will be tied less to that of its Arab Gulf neighbors and more to its relationships with other large actors on the world stage, especially India. As the source of much of Dubai's talent, trade and even culture, India will play an ever-larger role in Dubai's prosperity.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Dubai served as a transit point for goods and merchants from South Asia, Persia, East Africa, central Arabia and Mesopotamia, its free-port environment protected and promoted by the ruling Maktoum family. Oil concessions were signed in the 1930s and Dubai began building a modern city in the 1950s. The Maktoums' strategy has been to retain the free-port model, and the building of modern Dubai saw the rise of tax-free Special Economic Zones and a state-of-the-art port facility. Sheikh Mohammed, the current ruler, has stated that his vision for Dubai is a modern version of 10th-century Cordoba, a center of Arab enlightenment, although the modern city is often assumed to follow the mold of Las Vegas. In reality, of course, the result is somewhere between the two. Based on the Chazen study tour's observations, many of the professionals in Dubai are focused on investing, trade and advisory services for the hydrocarbon-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that form the Arab Gulf - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While many of the flashy real estate projects do exude a Vegas approach, these have been pulled back during the current recession, leaving the economic core of professional services.

Read the Article

Andrew Umans MBA '10
Download PDF