Dubai construction boom powers ahead

The biggest trade show in Dubai this year will not be the huge Gitex computer exhibition, but the Index furniture and interior design show that opens this Wednesday.

For construction, and not IT, is the boom industry in the Middle East today. Index will occupy all eight halls of the, appropriately enough, just refurbished Dubai International Exhibition Centre, as well as two temporary halls and the Al Multaqa Ballroom.

'Furniture and interior products imported into the Gulf rose by six per cent last year and 10% in 2000,' said organizer Joe Berger of dmg Index Exhibtions. 'Within the past 10 years this exhibition has grown six fold.'

There are two factors explaining the current construction boom: high oil prices and demographics.

The increase in oil revenues in the GCC states, up from $61 billion in 1998 to a current level of $150 billion per annum explains where the money is coming from. From the demand side, one of the world's fastest growing and youngest populations is pushing construction forward.

At the present time, the centre of the construction boom is undoubtedly Dubai. In the hotel sector alone there are plans to build 150 more hotels over the next five to seven years, expanding the number of hotel rooms from 20,000 in 1990 to 55,000.

Other new projects underway in Dubai are the $2 billion Dubai International Financial Centre, a huge office complex rumored to include a major skyscraper; the $2.5 billion expansion of the Dubai International Airport; the $3 billion Palm Island project; $1.6 billion Dubai Marina leisure and residential development; $1.6 billion Festival City mixed-use development; further phases of the Dubai Internet City and Media City; and the new Convention Centre at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

In addition, Emaar Properties is developing the Emirates Hills/Emirates Lakes into a massive residential new town, and Majid Al Futtaim has a massive shopping mall and indoor ski resort under construction on a nearby site.

Around the Gulf region shopping malls are under construction all over the place. But for now the focus of building activity is Dubai, and all these new offices, homes and hotels will need furniture and interior design. No wonder Index will outshine Gitex this year in Dubai.