High growth to lure global investors

Dubai: Dubai's GDP growth of $54.3 billion in 2007, coupled with its strategic plan and upcoming projects will continue to create opportunities for global investors, officials said.

"Dubai's non-oil foreign trade reached $185 billion in 2007 compared to $139 billion in 2006 recording a 33 per cent rise," the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in a statement. Dubai Chamber officials yesterday briefed 130 senior officials of the French company PPR whose chairman, Francois-Henri Pinault chose Dubai as the venue for the Group's top executive meeting.

The focus also fell on key sectors of development including tourism, retail, infrastructures, knowledge, transports, logistics, manufacturing, professional and Government services and called upon the private sector to play a larger role by working together with the public sector.

"The hospitality industry is expecting a real boom with its target of 100,000 rooms for 15 million visitors by the year 2015. Currently, there are 324 hotels, 33,731 rooms with occupancy rate of more than 85 per cent throughout the year as a total of seven million people used Dubai hotels in 2007 compared to 1.9 million in 1996," Hesham Abdullah Al Shirawi, second vice-chairman, Dubai Chamber, said during the briefing.

The presentation highlighted Dubai's ambitious economic targets under the Strategic Plan 2015 that indicates a real GDP growth rate of 11 per cent for the next eight years. Dubai's GDP by the end of 2005 was still higher than other Gulf countries and even Asia and US.