Dubai needs federal government cooperation

Dubai: The emirate will witness consolidations similar to the case of Amlak, Tamweel and Real Estate Bank, along with more cooperation of Dubai with the Federal Government, Nasser Al Shaikh, chairman of Amlak Finance has said.

Speaking as a panellist at Dubai International Financial Centre's annual gathering of financial and econ-omic industry specialists, Al Shaikh said the current credit crunch in the market is because "we let financial institutions be way too creative," adding that now there is a need to return to fundamentals.

Al Shaikh compared the current situation to a computer freeze and said that the economy needs to "reboot".

Global integration

The way to recovery, he said would see the hand of the Federal Government support.

"Whatever hurts Dubai also hurts Abu Dhabi," he said, adding that "there will be more consolidation. I don't know when and which companies, but it will happen."

Meanwhile, Peter Oppenheimer, Goldman Sachs partner and chief European equity strategist and head of the European Strategy Group said that the outcome of the crisis would be lessons learnt in global integration.

"Global companies will be seeing how much leverage is possible in this market," he said.

On the other hand, Sa'ad Al Barrak, deputy chairman and managing director of Zain Group, said that companies should be making the best out of the situation.

Exciting time

"This is an exciting time for new plans. It is a real historic time where a global correction takes place. This gives us a chance to improve ourselves," he said.

Speaking of the challenges, it was also mentioned that, organisations should rely more on planning for future investments and not on traditional financial models.