Updates:
Dubai World shocks investors
26 November 2009
Sovereign cuts Dubai World adrift
27 November 2009
Dubai debt crisis: Dubai bailout only the start of a long road
January 2010
SEPARATING MYTH FROM reality is not easy in any developing economy and never more so than in Dubai. This is a city fuelled by rumour, exaggeration and excess.
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"I thought I was a conservative. I think I could have been more conservative" Mohamed Alabbar, Emaar |
But thanks to the global economic shocks some of the hyperbole that accompanied Dubai’s transformation over the past decade from desert to high-octane urban metropolis has dissipated. Even the emirate’s biggest cheerleaders, such as Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties, are adopting a more cautious tone. "We’ve learned the art of managing business, which has changed forever in my opinion," Alabbar said in a recent interview with CNN. "I thought I was a conservative. I think I could have been more conservative." He added: "I am much harsher in the operation now." It’s as close to an admission as one will get from a senior Emirati that mistakes were made; that Dubai’s phenomenal growth was unsustainable.