Dubai has triumphed

DP World will not manage six ports in the US as initially agreed, but the aborted deal has achieved for Dubai an outstanding triumph by any yardstick.

First, and as Ghassan Tahboub, media manager in the executive office of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, said, it is an invaluable lesson. "It was an exercise you have to live with, win and then learn from. This was America. There are lobbies, politics and interest groups, and Dubai found itself in the middle of a jungle. In the end I have to thank everybody there for this lesson," he said.

Then, Dubai has gained the greatest international publicity possible and people anywhere can now name the emirate that has laid bare an obstinate mindset of racial discrimination and ethnic prejudice that no public relations gloss will ever cover.

It has also shown beyond any doubt that its amazing success story has never been a cheat and that the geographically small emirate could now compete with the most advanced economies of the world.

Cairo in the 1950s and Beirut in the 1960s succeeded to define trends, but it was mainly on political issues. Dubai in the 2000s thanks to its pro-globalisation trends is showing values that promote success and prowesses that indicate leadership and triumph.

Dubai has demonstrated that while it is moving vibrantly ahead with globalisation, other countries that have always championed free trade are now shackled by a xenophobic tsunami and are likely to feed a global backlash against globalisation.

It has shown the world that the US economic anxieties are being senselessly fuelled by nationalist sentiments that seem to be inexorably on the rise.

The port deal debacle has also proven that Dubai possesses a broader mind than the US when it comes to welcoming and promoting investments and that its openness is genuine and not decided by race or creed.

Last week, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez told Gulf News in Manama that the decision against DP World was not racially motivated. Either he was not aware of the strong anti-Arab powers within his own country or he did not wish to hurt our feelings.

Either way, the truth is here for everyone to see and contemplate: Dubai is an economic power that is re-writing books and all those who opposed the port deal should think in that direction and should appreciate that it too can cancel deals.

US economists were quick to bandwagon the belief that the flap over the ports acquisition is unlikely to make a consequential dent in foreign investment flows into their country. But Arab analysts predict that this unwarranted hostility will certainly affect Arab investments in the US and will make US assets less attractive to Arab buyers.

Economically, DP World's takeover was never a special case: a state-owned company from the Middle East is buying an American asset already managed by a non-American entity. Suddenly, ethnicity, tainted by hostility and envy, and not a proven success record, became the guidelines to assess the deal.

America has always been comfortable with most multinationals that invested in the United States because they came from Western countries and are unlikely to be subject to such scrutiny. However, the United States is obviously becoming a less welcoming place for investment from Arab countries.

The port deal opponents should appreciate that their public statements might secure them some political benefits, but will most certainly have grave economic consequences.