Dubai 'an oasis of prosperity'

Dubai: Dubai Senior government officials have advised the business community and residents alike to look at the bright future of the country and stop searching for the "dark spots."

Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director-General of the Dubai Naturalisation and Residency Department (DNRD) told a gathering of foreign businessmen at the American Business Council in Dubai and the Northern Emirates that the myth about the collapse of the Dubai economy is circulating just because some people tend to have a bleak vision of the future.

On the contrary, he said figures available to the DNRD suggests that nothing of this sort has happened in Dubai and that the future of the city is quite bright.

"Those who keep searching for the dark spots and walk in darkness will stumble and fall one day. Those who look at the bright future of the city will keep a big smile on their faces and will achieve their goals," Al Merri said.

He said rumours of 3,000 cars being left behind at the parking facilities at Dubai International Airport and the imposition of a travel ban against people leaving the airport with one-way tickets and thousands of visa cancellations - suggesting an exodus of expatriates leaving the country, are baseless and magnified the dark spots to draw a bleak picture of the economy.

"What I can say at this moment is that the DNRD has cancelled the residency visas of about 44,000 people during February and issued more than 66,000 residency visas in the same month.

"The same rate of cancellation and issuance in the past months suggests a significant growth in population and that people coming to stay in Dubai outnumber those who are leaving the country by 50 per cent.

"Looking at categories and nationalities, statistics shows that the number of US citizens who came to reside in Dubai during the same period was 999, while those who cancelled their visas were just 478 people," he said. Currently, Al Merri added there are more than 19,000 US citizens living in Dubai and the cancellation of residency permits and the issuance of new ones for fresh residents are constant transactions at the DNRD. The current global economic crisis has, however, attracted public attention on them.

He said the question posed for those spreading these myths were where those who had left Dubai would go to escape from the economic downturn. "There is no country in the world that can claim it has not been affected&. There are projects that were cancelled or delayed for some times.

"Workers in these projects understand this fact and feel strongly that Dubai will remain an oasis of prosperity and development in the world."

He said the government is reviewing its policy regarding the 30-day grace period granted for residents whose work contracts are terminated before they have to leave the country.

"The objective of the revision is to extend the 30-day period for people who have lost their jobs for reasons beyond their control in order to allow them extra time to look for work assignments with other companies, but no decision has been formed yet," Al Merri said.

Al Merri said: "I advise you all to invite your friends and family members to come and see Dubai and judge for themselves the state of prosperity and security the residents of Dubai are still enjoying."