Page 184 - The Origins of the United Arab Emirates_Neat

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i o The Reform Movement of

J Dubai: The Beginnings
of Democracy

Dubai is today known as one of the most thriving commercial
centres of the world. Well before offshore oil was struck, in 1966,
it was a bustling city-state whose citizens were amongst the most
sophisticated and enterprising businessmen of the Arab world. In
making their imprint on the world of trade and commerce, they
did not wait for the discovery of petroleum, but proceeded to
make full use of the fact that Dubai had a fine natural harbour
to serve as the basis of communication with the outside world.
‘Indeed, if any state in the Middle East has lifted itself up into
economic prosperity by its own boot straps, it is Dubai.
Besides being oft referred to as the gold-smuggling centre of
the world, as a flourishing entrepot, and as the sparkling Venice
of the Arab world, Dubai is well known for having rapidly developed,
before it began to benefit from oil receipts, an advanced urban
infrastructure. Before it joined the United Arab Emirates, in 1971,
it could boast a public administration system comprising a central
.1; secretariat and departments with responsibility for education, health,
customs, petroleum, passports, the police force, land and property,
and postal services. Dubai town had a municipal council, which
•* i was founded in March 1957 and became responsible for such varied
public utilities as slaughterhouses, markets, baths, fire-brigades and
hospitals. Town planning was practised. Among the shaykhdom’s
. achievements were the founding in 1965 of the first Chamber of
Commerce on the Trucial Coast, a vast increase of water and
electricity supplies, the building of an international airport, the
evolution of a modern banking system, and the construction of
the largest dry-dock in the world.

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