Business
Dubai has a penchant for doing things big, so it should come as no surprise that it's looking to capture a piece of the $4.3 trillion global wholesale market. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched Dubai Wholesale City, the largest wholesale hub in the world.
The emirate expects to spend $8.17 billion over the next ten years to develop the huge 550 million square foot site, which will be located close to Al Maktoum International Airport. Dubai anticipates that some 15,000 wholesale traders will operate there, across strategic sectors including food, construction materials, electrical appliances, electronics, vehicles and spare parts, textiles and clothing, and machinery. Simultaneously, Dubai Wholesale City will debut the region’s largest e-commerce platform for wholesale trade.
Countries will also be able to show off their products in commercial centers at designated Country Pavilions. According to Arabian Business, already India, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey, Australia, China, South Korea, Germany, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and several South American countries have made the list.
The global wholesale market is expected to grow to $4.9 trillion in the next five years. This type of lucrative trading will be a key part of Dubai’s future, cementing its years-long diversification away from oil. "Our aim is to build a sustainable national economy," al Maktoum said, adding "Dependency on oil was never a choice and we will not bind our future to it."
Last month, Dubai said it was pressing ahead with plans to build the world’s largest shopping mall, which will have a total price tag of $22 billion. The project was announced in mid-2014, once Dubai's real estate industry had recovered from the post-financial crisis crunch in 2008. Despite recent signs the economy is slowing down, the government is confident enough in a brighter future to start building “The Mall of the World.” The 8 million square foot complex will be connected to a theme park as well as 100 hotels and serviced apartment buildings that together have 20,000 rooms. (Dubai's art scene is also up and coming; see Blouin Art Info's post on Dubai Art Week 2016.)
In similar fashion, Dubai Ports World is also expanding its Jebel Ali container port to increase its capacity to a staggering 22.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units by 2018. “It’s a huge number, which is not consistent with the population,” said Jamal Majid Bin Thaniah, the firm’s vice-chairman. “We in Dubai and the UAE don’t believe we are serving 7.5 million people. We are serving 7 billion people,” he stated.
Dubai’s development track is one of extreme excesses, but it has succeeded in moving to a post-oil economy. If the other Gulf emirates and kingdoms don’t take heed, they’ll be in real trouble down the line.
