3 ms·

> living there and doing well I 'm sure there are but its not clear a) if they started their businesses there and b) if dubai played an essential role other th

• charlesdm 8y ago
  Some did, others didn't. Some have built their next company out of Dubai (and are doing well), others have opted to base it somewhere in Europe with the staff being based in Europe (and they commute a few days per week from Dubai). However, they are all spending their money in Dubai (property, purchases, etc), so generally a net win for the local economy. A lot of foreign brands (i.e. supermarkets, car manufacturers, certain fashion brands) are concessions that are held by local Emirati families granted to them decades ago by the Sheikh. So those profits mostly flow back to the local Emirati population.
  • zerostar07 8y ago
    Understand. I think Dubai offers a level of luxury due to abundant cheap labor, general safety and an abundance of of supercars, but not sure how it fares as an entrepreneurship center. Or how they are going to fare if other cities with similar "luxury" offerings catch up in asia. IIRC real estate prices are still falling in Dubai, but people keep on building new empty buildings, which sounds unsustainable and goes against the optimistic image painted in the article. Dubai is also benefiting from the general tax and secrecy crack-down in all of EU and OECD countries like malta, cyprus ireland, switzerland, singapore (Dubai was until very recently non-cooperative jurisdiction) but it's not clear whether this will last forever. It will be interesting to see whether the UK will seek to lower taxes post-brexit.