Dubai and Toronto: The Difference in the Dream of an Entrepreneur

Toronto and Dubai: The differences in the dream of an entrepreneur
Prof Philbert Suresh, Chief Knowledge Officer, TransLogistique Canada - August 11, 2005

A couple of summers ago I visited Toronto to study the global logistics of this world-class city. Toronto has provided inspiration and direction to the economic development strategies of a bustling metropolitan city in the Arab region – Dubai. Dubai shot into the limelight primarily due to its ability to manage large events such as the IMF conference in mid-September 2003, which drew 27,500 participants from 184 countries. Even against the backdrop of the Iraq war, Dubai was an oasis of peace where normal business and trade was undertaken in spite of the regional concern for safety and security.

Indeed, this is the hallmark of an intrepid entrepreneurial state – it creates a business climate conducive to the success of global entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial dreams are fulfilled thanks to the active and proactive policies of the Dubai government. Visions are transformed into economic realities, and strategies for global trade evolve.

The linking of cities with the processes of globalization is a critical area of the logistics research done by the author. Cities are where globalization takes place. Urban geographers and sociologists, among others, have attempted to give meaning and coherence to the rapid and dramatic changes to cities in the past 30 years. There appears to be consensus that cities and the dynamics of urbanization have been changed by the intensification of globalization.

Cities that command and control global economic, political or cultural processes are called world cities. World cities have been defined as: major sites for the accumulation of capital; command points in the world economy; headquarters for corporations; important hubs of global transportation and communication; intensified areas of social polarization, and destinations for domestic and international migrants.

Toronto is classified as a city by the study as follows:

Alpha Cities
London, New York, Tokyo, Paris, Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan,
Singapore

Beta Cities
San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, Zurich, Brussels, Madrid, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Moscow, Seoul

Gamma Cities
Amsterdam, Boston, Caracas, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Geneva, Houston, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Osaka, Prague, Santiago, Taipei, Washington DC, Bangkok, Beijing, Montreal, Rome, Stockholm, Warsaw, Atlanta, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Miami, Minneapolis -St. Paul, Munich, Shanghai (Source: Globalization and World Cities Study Group (GaWC))

Although the city of Dubai does not figure in the above study, it is a new city in the Arabian Gulf with the potential to become an alpha city like New York and Tokyo. A real estate and construction boom is drastically changing the landscape of the emirate.

The popular notion exists that oil reserves are fuelling the economic growth of the region. However, Dubai is an exception, as its non-oil trade jumped by 41 per cent last year, reaching Dh215.72 billion compared to the previous year's Dh153.06 billion, according to Dubai Customs. This is about 220 per cent more than the emirate's GDP, which last year reached Dh97.98 billion. The UAE Dirham is pegged to the US Dollar at the exchange rate of 3.65 Dirhams to the dollar.

Embedded in the city plan are clusters –“Free Zones” – that have given birth to free trade without any tariff or non-tariff barriers to the movement of goods or services within these cities. Among these Free Zones are: Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (JAFZA); Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority (DAFZA); Dubai Internet City; and many more. Dubai is a city with a population estimated at 971,000 in 2001 (Source: Ministry of Planning), within the country’s total of 3.2 million people.

The city’s entrepreneurial dream is being fulfilled by the hard and industrious work of people from neighbouring countries – 45 percent from Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka), 20 percent from Arab countries (Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Palestine etc), 20 percent from the Western world (UK dominant), and 15 percent from other African countries.

In 2004, Dubai recorded trade with 210 countries - almost all the independent countries on earth. Dubai's imports, which make up 69.1 per cent of the emirate's total non-oil trade, increased by 37.1 per cent, to reach Dh179.04 billion last year compared to Dh108.723 billion in 2003.
The door to young entrepreneurs, professionals and small and medium businesses in Canada is now open to share in the dream of Dubai – which beckons technological partnerships and trade on mutually acceptable terms. The time is right now for forging these alliances and enhancing trade relationships across the Atlantic and into the heart of the desert region where life is vibrant and abundant. [805 words]

References

(1) Suresh,P, Logistics in Emerging Economies, Research Paper, Aston University, Department of Civil Engineering, Birmingham, UK, 2001
(2) Benton,L, Price,M and Friedman,S, Global Perspective on the Connections between Immigrants and World Cities, GW Center for the Study of Globalization, 2001
(3) Gulf Newspaper July 17, 2005