December provokes a universal reporting catharsis whereby entire journals are devoted to a retrospective of the year either in pictures or news stories, fortunately this magazine has decided to look forwards. Allow me, however, to look back for a moment.
In this region and for Dubai alone, 2006 will stand out as the year the city slammed its footprint on the world stage in style. So much has been achieved in the last 12 months. Dubai’s imprint on the global awareness map is way above its relative size. Imminent developments in the world of sponsorship, corporate acquisition and social charter seem set to maintain the challenge undertaken when the gauntlet was first cast.
The pace of change here is overwhelming and no more so than in the region’s favourite pastime, real estate. Anyone attending the recent property show Cityscape must have wondered where all this was going. In a world of product clichés, all too often hyped by superlatives, it is difficult to make product-marketing stand out.
For many developers, however, the alternative to concise, snappy catchphrases is to sink to the baroque, the meaningless, or all too frequently, the absurd. Experience teaches us that the moment marketeers turn to this kind of gibberish, it’s normally time to run. Take these random samples from some of the exhibitors and decide whether or not it’s time to buy some new track shoes.
“Beyond history, your opportunity to new lifestyle.”
“A bridge to the Mediterranean, a platform to Europe.”
“Discover a sense of belonging.”
“A world beyond imagination” (I have no idea where this could be, presumably beyond our solar system?)
“The dawn of serenity.”
“Two partners — one solution.”
And fabulously, “We design profitable people places.”
Among so much good, however, it seems a little unreasonable to draw attention to a few omissions and to some of the more questionable practices around such a fine body of work.
However, Christmas is wish list time and I see no reason to change that format now.
Among my thoughts on any such inventory would be the following:
– An explanation as to why everything in the Dubai developers’ world is branded as a city, except Knowledge, which is only a village.
– An end to the media ignoring the environmental aspects of living and working in the Middle East. I suggest authors should travel a little more widely and note just how unattractive everything is becoming.
In recent weeks I have had cause to drive the length and breadth of the Emirates and to travel extensively throughout some of the peripheral regions in the Gulf. I propose that the next time someone wishes to write a gushing tribute about the state or the region, they should follow my route. When the haze of exhaust fumes and other atmospheric pollution clears slowly, it reveals a landscape strewn with every conceivable type of discarded waste imaginable.
Tourism brochures will shortly have to employ the babble so beloved of the property developers in order to gloss over such an eyesore.
– An end to meaningless inflation forecasts. My wish would be for an efficient retail price indicator or the establishment of an independent body capable of acquiring and tabulating the data necessary in order to offer precise guidance to companies attempting to make sensible decisions about their part in this remarkable evolving commercial story.
In a year that has seen 70% hikes in some school fees, a doubling of petrol prices and average increases of 40% in the property sector, Central Bank estimates of inflation of 10% to 4% down are not realistic.
– An end to unrealistic hopes for a stock market turnaround. It may happen but only when the fundamentals are right and hopefully, when investors begin to look for sustainable returns rather than the casino-like jackpots offered earlier last year.
For stability, the banks must be held accountable for leveraging the entire edifice to an extent where the outcome is inevitable.
But for the moment Eid Mubarak and a happy New Year Dubai and may you continue to astonish everyone in 2007.
Stephen Corley is a business consultant with experience in fund and asset management. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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