Incredibly, only 10 per cent of the UAE population are native Emiratis. The estimated 680,000 Phillippinos in the UAE have lately been making a major impact, their biggest advantage being their fluency in English and their willingness to “dirty their hands”, if necessary, which Indians and Pakistanis are reluctant to do. Pakistanis and Bangladeshis make up most of the other “expatriates”. Of the UAE’s total 10 million population, 3.5 million-35 per cent-are Indians.
Indian enterprise and hard work have been the major contributors, showing what we as a people can achieve, given the right, hassle-free environment. The UAE, and in particular Dubai’s, success story, is in reality an Indian one. However, the Japanese and Saudi pavilions were the bigger attractions, with hour-long queues waiting to get inside. She informed us that about ¢49 million had been spent on the Indian pavilion, with FICCI adding another $23 million. India’s Consul General, Aman Puri, despite re-confirming that he would be briefing the IMC delegation, the largest to visit the EXPO to date, failed to turn up-typifying the disrespect habitually shown to Indian business by senior bureaucrats.Ī lady from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( FICCI) was deputed instead. The only incongruity I noticed was the varying length of his beard in different pictures. Prime Minister Narendra Modi features prominently throughout, starting with pics of him in various yoga positions.
It showcases Indian culture and the nation’s major achievements. The Indian pavilion, architect of which Dikshu Kukreja, is one of the largest, three stories-high, with elevators and lifts. However, by that time 50 million people are expected to have visited the EXPO. And after its planned six months is over, except for five country pavilions (India’s is one of them), everything will be dismantled and something else will take its place! A humongous $12 billion has been spent on EXPO2020. It also makes sure it completes whatever it sets its mind to in the shortest possible time, no matter the cost. “Today, EXPO2020 covers a vast 125 acres, double the size of Monaco, with 192 countries participating, making it probably one of the largest of its kind ever held.”ĭubai likes to think Big. “Four years ago, this was entirely sand”, says Pankaj Savera, a veteran of the UAE, who was showing us around. The main intention was to visit “EXPO2020 DUBAI”, apart from meeting other chambers of commerce. He was leading a 30-member delegation of the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC), Mumbai’s premier business and trade organization. This time I tagged along with my tennis-playing buddy, Juzar Khorakiwala, head of Biostadt, a high-tech agro-chemical company. The place was unrecognizable: so many new residential buildings and commercial establishments had come up that I was completely lost and disoriented! I was there again recently for a few days. I was in Dubai two decades ago, for almost a year, as Editor of a daily newspaper. That cannot be said of many developed western countries. A woman can go out alone late at night, without any fear of being molested. Above all, it is an entirely safe and law-abiding place to live in. Dubai has been called “the Singapore of the Arab world”, an apt description.ĭubai, like Singapore, is squeaky clean, with top-rate public transport, and matchless financial infrastructure. The UAE is a shining exception, with its modernity and liberal outlook. Not surprisingly, the UAE ranks 11th in the world for the ease of doing business, whereas India is low down in the bottom half.ĭue to terrorism and the oppression of women in many societies, Islam is unfortunately associated with backwardness and widespread violence. Almost every major international company has a presence in Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Its prosperity is largely based on trade and commerce, the communications infrastructure there being among the world’s best.Īnd, as is well known, efficient up-to-date communications are the keys to rapid progress. Contrary to what people imagine, Dubai has little oil (Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate, is the oil-rich one).
It is one of the seven emirates that comprise the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary as an independent, united country. This article first appeared in The Tribune, the largest selling English daily in North India.ĭUBAI, UAE (IDN) - Dubai must be one of the most unusual places in the world.
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