Last week, Dubai announced an economic plan worth close to 9 trillion dollars that will be implemented over the next decade. The program is designed to establish and even upgrade Dubai's position as a global business, trade and tourism center.
The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed, announced that at the end of the period, the emirate will be one of the four largest financial centers in the world with foreign direct investment of nearly 180 billion dollars.
Dubai is planning no less than 100 mega projects during the next decade, with one of them aiming to increase foreign trade to about 7 trillion dollars compared to about 4 trillion in the past decade. Government expenditures in the coming decade will reach about 190 billion dollars compared to about 139.5 billion dollars in the past decade.
This huge plan is part of Dubai's attempt to maintain its status in view of what the senior neighbor, Saudi Arabia, is doing.
"Vision 2030" and its goals that the leader of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a challenge to the special status that Dubai has created for itself in recent decades as the trade center of the Middle East.
In Dubai they feel threatened and therefore react accordingly....