Why nobody can catch up with Dubai

Dubai has long been a regional trading hub for the Middle East. But now this ambitious emirate is pressing ahead to become a regional centre for tourism, finance and the service sector.

Some see Dubai as a model for the region with its long-standing open, tolerant attitude to foreign investment paying huge dividends. Could anyone else now catch up?

The Bahrain Financial Harbour is a bold response to the upstart Dubai International Financial Centre, which already claims regional superiority without functioning yet. However, the DIFC will offer an English-language, Western-style legal infrastructure, while the BFH has a different niche with its Sharia legal system.

For tourism places like Oman, and even Iran, have more history and culture than Dubai. But investment in hotels and leisure infrastructure has been low in recent years.

By contrast the $5 billion Dubailand theme park, which is now under construction, is a knock-out blow. This will put Dubai firmly into another league, if it not there already with the Burj Al Arab and its great beach and city five-star hotels.

Dubai has also not forgotten its core, trading infrastructure and is pushing ahead with a massive expansion of port facilities and the Jebel Ali Free Zone.

However, Dubai is also putting its money on the service sector as the business growth area of the future. So far the Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City have been big successes, and both are undergoing further expansion.

But the new Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre will add a further dimension to the service and manufacturing sectors. So too will the Dubai Healthcare City, as private healthcare should also be considered a service sector activity.

Roll all this new business activity together with extensive development of real estate - The Palm Island, Emirates Hills region, the tallest building in the world, the largest shopping mall outside North America - and you see an unbeatable regional business centre coming together.

In truth if anyone wanted to catch up with Dubai they are too late. The distance between the front runner and the rest is too great. And one more thing, it would cost $30-40 billion to even try.