Sectors such as transportation, healthcare, education, and financial services will become more important components of the emirate’s GDP, DIFC governor tells Dubai Chamber event

The composition of Dubai’s economy will undergo a structural shift over the next few years toward sustainable long-term sectors such as transportation, healthcare, education, tourism and financial services, HE Dr Omar Bin Sulaiman, Governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), told members of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Thursday.

“This shift in the relative importance of various sectors of the economy is, in fact, a central component of the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015, but it’s happening more quickly than envisioned by the plan, largely due to the impact of the global crisis,” said Bin Sulaiman during the Dubai Chamber’s quarterly Business Breakfast, its second of 2009.

From now through July 2, the public will get a peek at some of the art that will fill the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the 260,000-square-foot museum designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and expected to open in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates by 2013.

At a ceremony last week to commemorate the beginning of construction, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, officially opened an exhibition at the Emirates Palace hotel that includes 19 works of art bought over the past 18 months for the Louvre Abu Dhabi, as well as loans from the French national museums.

Acquired for what is being billed as the first universal museum in the Middle East, the works range from a Greek ceramic figure from about 520 B.C. to two 1862 canvases by Edouard Manet.

Customs managed to seize 11.4 kg of opium on a transit flight heading from Asia and on its way to a western country passing through Dubai International Airport.

While performing the regular inspection procedures, a customs inspector working at the Parcels Post at Dubai Cargo Village in Dubai International Airport has suspected the contents of a postal parcel that was two cartoon boxes loaded with rolls of cloths and curtains tools. While checking them through the radiation detector machine, the inspector noticed a murky dark material, and so he contacted the Technical Support Unit at Dubai Customs where the Customs K9 Unit- Dogs Unit was brought into the scene to sniff the suspected parcels. After opening the two boxes, some reels were discovered hidden under the curtains materials, after checking the cloths, 8 pieces of opium were found ducked with a tape and sprayed with black pepper to cover the smell and to mislead and deceive authorities.

The temperature shot up to 46 degree Celsius in Sharjah and Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

The temperature could reach 48 degree Celsius in Jebel Ali and Minhad Air Base outside Dubai on Wednesday, said a duty forecaster at Dubai met office.

It is still very dry with humidity at less than 10 per cent, but things will get worse when the Monsoon rains reach Mumbai around June 10, according to the forecaster. "A lot of moisture will come in from the Arabia Sea during mid-June, pushing humidity levels into the uncomfortable zone," he said.  

Dubai-based real estate giant Nakheel PJSC said Wednesday it has received funds from the government of Dubai, without specifying the amount.

"Some of the funds will be used for payments to contractors," Dubai's Palm Island builder said in a statement on Nasdaq Dubai's Web site, adding that the "amount, terms and use of all the funds remain under discussion".

The company is at the center of growing concerns over Dubai's ability to repay billions of dollars in debt and is entangled in a growing number of disputes over unpaid bills to foreign contractors.

Dubai prices have dropped 32 percent in the last year and 40 percent in the last quarter, according to the latest edition of the Knight Frank Global House Price Index, released today.

Along with Dubai, Latvia (36 percent) and Singapore (23.8 percent) saw the largest declines since the first quarter of 2008, the property firm reports.

Israel posted the largest gain in the last year, a 10.9 increase from the first quarter of 2008, followed by the Czech Republic with a 9.9 percent increase, Jersey (an island off the coast of Normandy that is part of the British commonwealth) with a 6.9 percent jump and Switzerland, which recorded a 5.6 percent increase.

The United Arab Emirates in the Gulf has its first confirmed case of A(H1N1) or swine flu, UAE Health Minister Hanif Hassan said on Sunday.

The official WAM news agency quoted the minister as saying a man who had flown in from Canada was being treated in hospital, and that although he was no longer showing symptoms he would be kept in for treatment for 10 days.

Low-fare air just landed smack-dab in the middle of the Middle East - specifically in skies-the-limit Dubai. That’s the place they’re building the world’s tallest building, the Burj Dubai, which already towers some 2,300-feet above the desert.

Dubai is known for grand schemes and projects writ large. Its service-intensive, globe-girdling airline is Emirates, which flies A380s replete with shower baths for First Class flyers. That’s why it’s so seemingly out of character for a low-fare new-entrant to set up shop in this opulent desert kingdom, somewhat as now-defunct Skybus did in Columbus (CMH). Skybus was the quintessential “unbundled” airline. After paying a pittance for the seat itself, you shelled out for virtually everything else a la carte – a practice that’s gained lots of traction over the past couple of years among not just discount airlines, but majors as well.

While their biggest customers may continue to wallow in recession into 2010, the oil-producing nations of the Persian Gulf are again luring foreign investment and looking for places to park their own wealth.

Crude prices that have stabilized above $50 a barrel mean the Middle East’s oil-rich economies are likely to pull out of the global financial crisis sooner than the rest of the world. Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the world’s biggest oil exporter, is attracting renewed interest from investors including leveraged-buyout firm KKR & Co. Qatar and Abu Dhabi have returned to international capital markets.

Dubai World Central (DWC) - the 140-square-kilometre aviation and logistics city in Jebel Ali - will open for business in June 2010, the government has reconfirmed.

"Our vision for Dubai is to be an unparalleled global commercial, trade and transportation hub with a unique integrated multi-modal logistics platform in DWC which will change all known air, land and sea transportation parameters," Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai Aviation City Corporation (DACC), who is also president of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline and Group, said in a statement.

"Construction on all related infrastructure works is continuing with all our stakeholders recognising the fact that Dubai World Central is a committed Dubai government project; and once the global economic recession tides out its cycle, work towards its final master plan will resume at its original pace."

The Dubai government dismissed Nasser Al Shaikh as director general of the city-state's finance department, removing a key player from the recently assembled team shaping the emirate's response to the economic crisis.

The government gave no reason for the dismissal and representatives for the government weren't available to comment. Mr. Al Shaikh didn't answer calls seeking comment.

A statement Monday from the official Emirates News Agency said that by royal decree, Mr. Al Shaikh was succeeded by Abdul Rahman Saleh Al Saleh. Mr. Al Shaikh will assume a minor role, as assistant director in the office of foreign affairs in Dubai.

Fish stocks of the UAE are 'stable' according to a ministerial fisheries official.

However a proposal to enforce a minimum size for marketing hamour at supermarket level is under review.

Fishermen will not be fined for catching undersized hamour, however shops and markets will - if found to be stocking hamour smaller than 45 to 50 centimetres explained Abdul Razzaq Anwahi, fisheries advisor at the Ministry of Environment and Water, after the closing deliberations of the Regional Commission of Fisheries (RECOFI) held in Dubai on Thursday.

The Ministry of Labour is set to introduce new rules for labour accommodation standards and a fresh mechanism to ensure payment of salaries, to protect workers' rights and improve their conditions.

Speaking to the press at the sidelines of the labour and human rights symposium, Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash, Minister of Labour, emphasised that payment of workers' salaries and dignified living conditions are fundamental principles for the ministry of labour.

In order to safeguard those rights, the ministry will introduce a set of new measures such as the adoption for new criteria for labour accommodation and a requirement for companies to pay workers' salaries through banks.

Sex on the beach or drunken trysts may not raise eyebrows in many cities, but a recent case in Dubai has exposed a growing cultural divide between native Muslims and Western residents seeking fun in the sun.

The story of a British pair facing possible jail terms on charges of having drunken sex on the beach made headlines around the world, but in Dubai, reports are frequent of hapless foreigners falling foul of local laws that strictly control drinking and ban homosexuality or kissing in public.

Dubai's foreign population has expanded rapidly in recent years, dwarfing the native population, as the Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub tries to put itself on the international map with a promise of tax-free earnings and year-round sunshine.

Dubai government is pushing for reforms to company law to allow 100 percent foreign ownership of businesses across the UAE to boost foreign investment and help weather the global financial crisis, a senior government official said in comments published on Monday.

Currently 100 percent foreign ownership is only allowed in designated areas, known as free zones. Outside these areas all companies must be at least 51 percent owned by a UAE national.