Diversification

“Dubai is not Abu Dhabi,” quoted a BusinessInsurance.com article on Monday. Yes, we have come to understand that during our time here. Dubai’s economy is not fueled by oil and it could not survive on import and export trade alone. So, the government in the early 200’s decided to build the economy based on five key areas—port operations, real estate, tourism, transportation and financial services. Today, I took advantage of three of these areas.

Port Operations: Today we visited DP World and received a tour of the port by bus, which allowed us to see the magnitude of this single port. I was personally amazed about the level of security inside the port since I have worked on campaigns in the past to enhance security in US ports. Every shipping container is x-rayed to ensure the contents are correctly identified in paperwork, all areas of the port are on surveillance at all times and they have no tolerance for illegal activity. This is completely opposite of the ports in the US. Hardly any shipping containers are x-rayed and many of them are not even locked allowing for all kinds of illegal activity to take place.

I also appreciated our presenters’ responses when asked politically charged questions. He simply answered, “we are businessmen not politicians.” Also fascinating is all of the security services in the port are provided by the parent company Dubai World.

Transportation: After our business meeting we had the afternoon free to explore the city and we chose to take the opportunity to ride the world’s largest unmanned metro. We decided to splurge and spend the extra money to ride in gold class. We were surprised to see that there was a specific car for women and children. I think this was more of a courtesy to those individuals that would feel more comfortable in this car verses a mandate to ride there. It provided a different view as we traveled through the city.

Tourism: That evening we participated in some more aspects of the tourism economy and spent the evening on desert safari. It was quite an experience and was beautiful to experience the sunset over the desert dunes. We also got to ride a camel, eat a traditional Arab meal, watch a belly dancer, and have henna painted on our hands or feet. I wish there was more of an explanation to the food, henna and dance. I feel like it is such a big part of their traditional culture but I also would not be surprised if it is more of a tourist attraction than anything else.
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