Dubai’s standing as a global business and trade hub is long acknowledged and much celebrated. But what future historians might find most striking about Dubai could perhaps be its role as a crystal ball to gaze at the future of the region. Dubai has been a trend setter; so much so that the region appears to simply mimic its success.

Whether it is the modest renaming of a government department, or the launch of path-breaking concepts such as freehold property, Dubai has left an indelible impact on the rest of the region. The simple act of renaming the Dubai Economic Department as the Department of Economic Development has had such extraordinary appeal that every emirate within the UAE, like countries across the region, began adopting the new name. For Dubai, the change was not just in the name, but in the approach, and one does not know how far this was true of the other changes.

The whole region is riding the wave of a boom, manifesting itself in billions of dollars of investment into real estate, construction and infrastructure development. The unprecedented economic activity was in part triggered by a decision by the visionary Dubai leadership to introduce what was indeed a path-breaking concept. In a region where land is essentially state property, the idea of freehold property ownership was quite alien. By introducing the revolutionary concept, Dubai was unleashing a development force that had few parallels, not only within the country, but throughout the Gulf and the region beyond.

In one stroke, the move introduced private ownership of property and led to the evolution of a new development dynamics that opened up new areas of economic activities, services and financial products. Today, the concept has come to stay, with even expatriates being allowed to hold ownership titles, at least in some countries. Dubai can take full credit for bringing about this fundamental change.

Another pioneering Dubai move with far-reaching implications was the launch of the Metro. Dubai Metro was launched at the peak of Dubai’s real estate boom, which brought out a serious gap in the transport infrastructure, although by the time the multi-billion dollar got completed Dubai was in the middle of a serious crisis, caused by an unprecedented global financial crisis, coupled with Dubai’s own estate crash.

Detractors of the Metro lost no time in pronouncing the move a misadventure, but today they have been forced to eat their words. Not only has the Metro been acknowledged as an unqualified success and a showpiece of Dubai’s economic vision and self-confidence, it has inspired a railway boom sweeping across the region.

The Middle East region, which until now had a very low density of rail networks, is poised to witness an unprecedented rail construction boom, estimated to cost $250 billion in the next five to ten years. Metros have been announced in a number of countries in the Middle East, while large-scale national railway networks are being created in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. The UAE itself has announced $14 billion worth of railway projects while Kuwait has earmarked $14 billion, closely followed by Qatar with $13 billion and Oman with $10 billion. Saudi Arabia has announced $31 billion worth of rail projects, linking all the economic and industrial zones of the kingdom.

The massive rail infrastructure development effort is expected to help create huge opportunities for both local and international businesses, ranging from consultancy and design services to track, rolling stock and communication systems.

Dubai’s integration with the regional economies is not just one-sided. For instance, the serious real estate crash with its epicentre in Dubai has had its impact felt throughout the Gulf and Mena region as hundreds of projects got scrapped amidst a slowdown that was as dramatic as the boom itself. So strong is the symbiotic relationship that it seems when Dubai sneezes, the region catches a cold.

— The writer is a UAE-based journalist.