What's the reason for Dubai extreme wealth? Is it ALL oil money?

 

Dubai is just ridiculous when it comes to cars

can't wait to go back!!!

 

There is certainly lots of money to be made in that region of the world off of crude oil. But what the UAE is doing is trying to depend less and less on the export of oil and just becoming a huge hub in the Middle-East to the western world. I read in a magazine a few months back that Dubai takes in less than a third of what it's imported goods, and the rest goes back out into the Arabian Peninsula and other areas of Asia. Great read, I wish I could find the article.

TTRon

 

It would be interesting to have a discussion on Dubai. A very well off country, but relatively speaking there are many, many other countries that are more wealthy but you would never imagine so because Dubai does a real good job of showing it's wealth - a very positive thing for it's perception because I think it helps people "take notice" and brings the country more attention.

Singapore actually has just as many residents (4million) but also has $30bil higher GDP, a higher GDP per capita, and 3 times as many billionaires as Dubai. It's government budget is also roughly 3 times as high as Dubai's - a result of higher taxes and a higher cost of living that Singapore has. Singapore is beautiful country no doubt, but the Ferrari/Lambo/Porsche per capita ratio is MUCH lower than Dubai's - most likely because of the 300% tax on all imported vehicles Singapore has. A Carrera GT, for example, would cost around $1.2mil USD in Singapore, just as much as this Maserati.

I have found that expensive cars are not always a true reflection of an individuals/cities/countries wealth, rather it is a reflection of wealth, culture, and economics. The founder of Zara clothing, who's from the same part of Spain as my parents, is worth ~12.5 billion according to Forbes but only drives an A8 4.2L. Even here in Chicago, the 2nd most affluent zip code in the Chicagoland area has the Ford Focus tied in 1st place for the car with the most registrations in that zip code. This is getting a bit off topic, but I just thoght I'd throw that out there.

Nice pictures

-m

 

it's not a "country"

Dubai is one of the "emirates" that make up the UAE

it's not even the capital, Abu-Dhabi is

Abu-Dhabi is known for the oil, Dubai for the commercial trade and attracting foreign business

 

Mowarteriology,

I apologize, Singapore is a City-State and I was initially going to compare cities but then decided to do countries and forgot to change Dubai to UAE.

-m

 

Marcus just a little FYI.

There are a lot more billionaires in Dubai than is officially listed in Forbes, I can name about 10 on the top of my head that Forbes does not list, primarily because the money is all family money and the companies are not listed on the stock exchange.

The ruler of Dubai drives a G-Wagon, if your trying to infer that the owner of Zara drives a A8L and is thus more cultured then I suggest you re-think that. He probably does have other cars its just that he is more prominent in the A8L. If you want a poster child for non lavish living then take a look at the owner of IKEA he flies coach wherever he goes!

While I do agree that singapores GDP is higher than the UAEs you also need to realize that there economy has been around for far far longer than the UAEs has, Dubai is by far the most prominent of all 7 Emirates (so much so that Abu Dhabi has errected signs on the highway stating that they are the capital of the UAE). Once you travel outside Dubai its a different story all the Emirates with the exception of Abu Dhabi do not even come close to Dubais economic pace, they are in fact stuck in a comparitive time warp, little to no economic activity and standards of living that are comparitively lower. I'm sure any Dubai resident can chime into those facts, take that into account and per capita Dubais GDP/capita is a lot higher than you'd expect. We also had an inflation adjusted ~16.7% GDP growth last year (not too shabby no?)

If you want the scope of exactly what the spending power is in Dubai I suggest you take a look at the Dubai Waterfront
Its a project that when completed will create new land an areas 2.5 times the size of DC. Another project called Palm Diera will have more living space than the Island of Manhattan.

 

Recently Abu Dhabi has taken off the "Capital of UAE" signs. The liquidity of UAE is based on the business laws that governs the country. There are not much of bottle necks like corporate taxes and income taxes, resulting is high liquidity.

 

I'm sure this is the case for a number of countries.



My friend it's not saying one person is more "cultured" than another, not at all! I'm inferring that in Dubai the passion for cars is more a part of the culture there, so people will more readily invest in expensive cars because that's what they enjoy. Mr. Ortega comes from a lax and slow paced part of Spain, so anything more than an A8 really doesn't interest him. Please do not take my comments as offensive.



Not shabby at all! The potential for growth in the UAE I think is tremendous and my post really wasn't meant to at all get into economic growth, rather it was just to talk about how people percieve countries from pictures like this and how easily it can prop up a country like the UAE but one would not think the same as easily of a countrylike Singapore.

I really would like to visit Dubai one of these days, I've been meaning to try to make it out there for an F1 race - I heard on the opening day of the inagural race, they gave away an F360 Spider to a lucky ticket holder. That's class

-m

 

You are right about unaccounted wealth though in a country with no taxes the effect is compounded because people have no need to report their assets.

I'm hoping for an F1 race as well though we dont have one just yet! Give us time, they are already forming an F1 team called Team Dubai should be ready for next years F1 season

turbo77: thanks for the update haven't been to ABD in about 4 months now.

 

i think this is the same car you saw

 

It would actually cut the top .05% of cars!

 

On a flatbed? What at waste!!!

 

sheesh.. could've at least got a closed container...

 

Yeah, what a cheap bastard... oh wait he has a 1.2million dollar car.


:P