<p>Is Dubai booming on business? Just look at this bad boy being built in the United Arab Emirates in the city of Dubai... <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Dubai%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burj_Dubai</a></p>
<p>That is crazy...just imagine being in your office 140 stories in the air! Alexandre you currenlty live in Dubai right? Can you see the construction of the Burj?</p>
<p>The sad thing is that in today's society, many people don't want to work in such buildings because they can become terrorist targets. I read in the Wall Street Journal that the Sears Tower is almost half-empty. Skyscrapers just aren't what they used to be.</p>
<p>Well Goldman Sacs just opened up a pretty big skyscraper in Jersey City right accross from their Manhatten headquaters. So I guess alot of I-Bankers just going to have to cope with it (lol).</p>
<p>There are also plans of a big hotel/condo building in Chicago, as well as the new Trump tower, but like I said before, these are extremely risky investments. The new Chicago tower won't even be built unless half of the space is sold in advance.</p>
<p>Goldman is actually selling that scraper in Jersey City cause noone at the firm wants to work in Jersey City :)</p>
<p>The perfect person to ask is Alexandre.</p>
<p>Frank Lloyd Wright's Mile High skyscraper was never built because of parking considerations.</p>
<p>Check out the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai. It is flat out amazing.
<a href="http://www.burj-al-arab.com%5B/url%5D">http://www.burj-al-arab.com</a>
Dubai, literally, has been able to turn deserts into cities. Dubai is fast becoming the center of the World's greatest architecture.</p>
<p>Dubai is a city that has experienced a rather rapid growth spurt over the last few years. the growth is limited in how long it can last. From an Economics standpoint, what you have here is a classic case of irrational exuberance brought about by poor regulation and lack of proper control. </p>
<p>Dubai is a city of extremes. You have a very traditional and conservative local culture that accepts and welcomes modern and liberal expatriates with open arms. We all co-exist peacefully here. People are free to do as they please so long as it is not dangerous or disrespectful.</p>
<p>I personally live half a mile away from Burj Al Arab hotel, and about 10 miles away from where Burj Dubai is being build. Construction on the soon-to-be world's tallest building has started, but it won't be for a few more months that people will be able to see the actual building taking shape. It is expected that the building will be anywhere from 700 meters to 900 meters (2400-3000 feet) tall. Scary huh?! LOL Accross from my apartment is the mall of the Emirates, a mall that will have the world's largest indoors ski slope (1400 feet long). </p>
<p>What else do you want to know about Dubai?</p>
<p>Is it true that everyone either drives a BMW, Mercedez-Benz, or some other luxury car? And is the price of the vehicle there equal/less/more than the same car in the US?</p>
<p>And is it true that all of the police drive S-Classes?</p>
<p>My friend has been telling me things too great to believe without confirmation from a 2nd person.</p>
<p>^ haha, no. there's a lot of SUVs though, a lot of people like to go offroading in the desert in the weekend. petrol's hella cheap too.</p>
<p>I think the tallest building right now is the office block of the emirates towers (3rd tallest twins in the world) - I worked on the top floor for a couple of weeks and it's quite a view! I don't think people really care about terrorist attacks here, to be honest (there have been threats but they've never been carried out and so are ignored).</p>
<p>Do you guys know/speak arabic?</p>
<p>it's required up until year 9 (end of middle school) / throughout all the years at government schools (but the people that go to these tend to be local / arab scpeaking anyway). Or used to be anyway - last year they passed a decree saying it's mandatory for everyone now but it'll take a few years to fully implement I guess. I just have very basic skills ( ie, how do you get to _<em>? my name is _</em> etc) which I've mostly forgotten. I can read/write it but not understand, meh. I might try to brush it up in my senior year actually.
speak arabic - all that i'd use is slang in everyday talk - everyone speaks english here. add to that the cosmopolitan-ness (is that a word?) of the place (only some 20% of peopel in the country are uae nationals(who tend to live in a neighbouring city anyway); the rest are expats.</p>
<p>I speak Arabic, but that's because I am an Arab. Over 75% of the people who live in the UAE cannot speak Arabic.</p>
<p>just curious, how safe is it to work in the UAE? also, would an american minority (say for example, a chinese-american) stand out a lot?</p>
<p>The UAE is very safe. there have not been a race or nationality based crime for a long time. As long as you do not attempt to stir political or religious debates, the UAE is one of the safest places in the World.</p>
<p>Very safe, very diverse.. you wont have a problem with the language here.. everyone speaks English really. Nice place to work if u get a good oppurtunity. Now that business is booming, it is easy to come and set up here.. Beautiful place, everything close by.</p>
<p>Correct me if i'm wrong Alexandre, but here are some other things going on in Dubai:</p>
<p>Dubai also just opened their own stock market. This is positioned so that it covers the several hour trading gap between tokyo and london.</p>
<p>Emirates airlines is planning an expansion into the US that would necessitate direct flights from major US cities to Dubai (Emirates' global hub)</p>
<p>The jebel ali free trade zone in Dubai is booming</p>
<p>I participated in a case competition for Emirates Airlines last month and learned a lot about Dubai in the process.</p>
<p>I did an internship with a local corporate law firm some time ago,one of the things I did was a report on the growth of freezones. I tihnk the count was 37 designated freezones in dubai alone, probably even more now.</p>
<p>Dubai's growing at anamzing rate, sure, but maybe it's even too fast I think. take inflation,the officialrate is something like 7%, but its estimated to be well around 15, 16%. Same with the property and stock markset, its superprofitable - you could easily make returns of 3/400% pretty quickly (huge case of excess demand), but it's hella unstable/risky too.<br>
Utmost respect to the sheikhs here, though,its incredible what they'veachieved in just 30 years (before shiech it literally was sitll the bedouin tribesliving in the desert).</p>