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> KSA has Dubai Envy - it always aims to do what Dubai is doing now, but with about a 20-year time lag, and it often fails. For example, the Riyadh Financial Di
by fakedang 3y ago
> KSA has Dubai Envy - it always aims to do what Dubai is doing now, but with about a 20-year time lag, and it often fails. For example, the Riyadh Financial District (KAFD) is largely empty, except for companies forced to go there by threats from the government.
All it takes is for Saudi government regulation to mandate setting up in Saudi Freezones, and one will see Dubai's spigot drying up. Saudi's inefficiencies were the reason for Dubai's gains, and with that going away at a very rapid pace under MBS, I don't know what future Dubai has, except as a tax Haven.
But for that, the Saudis have an uphill battle trying to get Jeddah and Dammam ports on par with Dubai's Jebel Ali freezone. The holdover time for cargo in JAFZA is 3 days on average, compared to Jeddah's 45 days.
- anakaine 3y ago45 day holdover when tour neighbour has 3 days? Holey moley. That's got to make it hard to be competitive.
- mikhailfranco 3y agoDubai DIFC has English-language commercial law, with British Law as a backstop for appeals and ambiguity. I can't imagine KSA agreeing to that, and even if they did, nobody would trust them - it's a rather capricious absolute monarchy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_International_Financial_Centre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_International_Financial_... Dubai does not have oil, so it depends on its business environment, plus a little tourism. That will keep it honest. KSA is inefficient, inept, corrupt and positively dishonest, so it will never win. And literally nobody on the planet wants to live in Riyadh.