Page 290 - UAE Truncal States
P. 290

A City Stale - Example Dubai

        Dubai and his father during the latter years of his rule have led the
         development of the City Stale with single-minded determination, to
         provide facilities, to encourage existing business, and to attract new
         business.



         4 The Development of Community Services


         Background
         A conscious effort to develop the physical environment which went
         hand in hand with the economic development could not fail to change
         fundamentally the living conditions of most long-standing residents
         of Dubai, but more time was required to develop social services.
         Neither the government of Dubai nor the British Government was
         financially in a position to do more than initiate health care, epidemic
         control, and educational projects during the early 1950s.
           From the beginning of the 1950s the efforts which were made in
         Dubai, to create a basis for modern social service organisations,
         benefited from the fact that the British Government decided to
         upgrade its representation in the Trucial Slates and to move the
         newly created Political Agency to Dubai in 1954. Dubai became the
         headquarters of the limited development and social services pro­
         gramme which the British Government decided to organise.*15 Before
         1956 assistance was given piecemeal to selected projects; the first
         five-year plan with a budget of £450,000 was drawn up in that year.
         Selection, planning and supervision of development projects were
         until 1965 the responsibility of the British Political Agency in Dubai.
         The example of what was being done for one shaikhdom often
         aroused the interest of the rest of the Rulers in the Trucial States.
           The Development Office of the Trucial States Council was
         established in 1965 with its headquarters in Dubai, and a number of
         agricultural, medical and technical experts were provided by the
         British Ministry of Overseas Development. The presence of a group of
         foreign specialists stationed in the then small town of Dubai, where
         few other Europeans resided, gave Dubai an advantage over the other
         States, as development projects could be discussed informally in the
         majlis and the achievements of the Office could be observed at close
         quarters. Perhaps this gave some impetus to many projects in Dubai
         which were initiated with money provided by Shaikh Rashid bin
         Sa'id or donated by the Rulers of Qatar and Kuwait.

                                                                 265
   285   286   287   288   289   290   291   292   293   294   295