Dubai A City Of The Future

When you first drive on the highway heading to Dubai you notice the Dubai Frame which is a 150 meter tall and 93 meter wide gold frame (museum) which represents travelling through into the future. Travelling from the old into the new through a picture type frame and our taxi driver told us it had 7.5 tons of gold plating which is not true and is made up of gold colored stainless steel. The cost of $43 million (Google) tells you there was no 7.5 tons of gold plating, but the locals believe it is gold.

When driving into Dubai it appears to have three distinct sky lines and the speed at which the buildings are going up this will one day become one mega city. I must have counted more than 100 cranes in just 3 days of driving around and they are that noticeable. These are not small buildings and every building seems to be over 50 floors. This is rather interesting and why I decided to dig a little deeper to see how this all works.

Above is the photo of the silver loop which is another museum representing the future of Dubai so they have some very big plans ahead. DXB the current airport for Dubai will be moving to Dubai International within the next 10 years as they expect huge growth. The current population growth through visa applications is a reported 1000 people per day which is roughly 6% per annum and this is all sustainable with everyone being employed. This city is doubling in size every 10 years and why the development is nowhere near done. There is a big difference to what Dubai is doing and what Europe is doing with regard to immigration because they are accepting people who add to society through the skills they bring.

One thing that hits you is the opulence of the place as wealth is all around you in your face. The cars on the roads are a dead give away and just driving from the airport to the hotel you pass dealerships such as Aston martin, Ferrari and McLaren. The Bentley dealership has been built to look like the front grill of their car so they are definitely doing some roaring business.

A good gauge of any country is the service industry and how efficient things are running. The taxi industry is something I experienced and the hotels use the Hala taxi app to call you a taxi. The average wait time is 30 seconds which is kind of crazy and i can vouch this is very true as the concierge called your taxi and you could walk to the front door and the taxi was arriving. This type of efficient service I have never experienced before anywhere in the world.

A sense of humor taken from Trotters Trading- Only Fools And Horses.

There are roughly 14 000 taxis in Dubai (5 government regulated associations)all symbolizing a different type of service and companies. Red (Dubai Taxi Association), Blue Arabia taxis, Pink female taxis, green eco friendly and yellow National Taxi. The growth of this business is an indicator of the economy and last year in Q1 these companies had an extra 500 000 trips compared to the year before. the industry is growing at 7% year on year with an average of 10 million trips each month. The industry generates $160 million per quarter and employs 20 000 drivers.

I think what fascinated me the most is the city is host to 4 million people and yet the crime we see everywhere else is non existent. The banks do not have security and you do not have to go through multiple doors like you have in South Africa. The tellers are wide open and yet there are no robberies. I overheard someone collecting $200K from one of the tellers in cash and your mind boggles how much wealth is lying around.

Back to the taxis as I think this sums Dubai up on their safety aspects as each taxi has 4 cameras. If you leave your phone behind by mistake you notify the company of where you were picked up or dropped off and either that taxi will return to you immediately or another car will chase that taxi down and will then return the item to you. Most other places you would kiss your phone good bye, but not here as theft is a serious offence. The people abide by the law and why this city of over 200 nationalities works which says something as the authorities do not play when it comes to protecting what they have. Bad news like crime would change things immediately and with a dwindling oil supply tourism, banking and AI is all they have to offer.

Posted Using INLEO