Dubai in the Making ?
I get the feeling from reading a number of websites (including this one), that Doha and Qatar generally is heading dangerously to becoming another Dubai. Examples:
- Overnight success / growth which is both wonderful yet surreal
- Foreigners given the right to buy real estate, but prices are sky high, built for the exclusive classes that most will never be able to afford them in the first place
Surely we don't Doha to end up like Dubai ? expensive, exclusive, debt ridden and when things go bad, and they will e.g. current global economic mess, the foreigners which they attracted so hard to come and live in Dubai, start fleeing the place.
To grow a country wisely would entail building affordable housing, infra, schooling, health ..etc - only then you have the basis for a successful risk-free future.
Shouldn't the advisors to the government heed the warning signs of Dubai ?
Ah well, as one historian once said .. The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.
fair enough ..
Logical point Roberto. Makes senses.
oil doesn't last forever and qatar would be wise to build a country that will be sustainable when the oil runs out. Otherwise you are just delaying the inevitable.
One big difference between Doha and Dubai. Doha is underpinned by lots and lots of hydrocarbon cash. So unless the gas price crashes they have enough money to underwrite their debts. Dubai did not and that is why abu dhabi had to bail them out