UAE will not be affected by the current global slowdown as much as the industrial countries

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 Khalaf Ahmed Al Habtoor says in exclusive Oxford Business Group interview
 
The UAE will not be affected by the current global slowdown as much as the industrial countries, Khalaf Ahmed Al Habtoor, Chairman of Al Habtoor Group, said in an exclusive in The Report: Dubai 2009, the latest edition of the authoritative business guide to be published by Oxford Business Group (OBG), the highly acclaimed publishing, research and consultancy firm.
 
“We still have companies growing at rates of between 45% and 60% and the overall economy has a growth rate in excess of 6.5%, so business is still progressing,” he said.
“However, growth in certain sectors may have been exaggerated in recent years.  
“This disease that is infecting the economies of the rest of the world will slow our pace, but business will continue.”
Al Habtoor said he did not think any private companies were going public at the moment, and he asserted it was better for larger private companies to remain private and wait until market conditions had improved.
 
“The stock market has been constantly going down without any reason: many of our local companies are producing great results and fantastic dividends, yet they continue to see their share prices go down,” he said.
“This is purely psychological and it is very difficult to cure this issue.”
 
Al Habtoor said he did not think the GCC common market had impacted intra-GCC trade, because each state acts as if it was on its own.
He added: “There is no real coordination between GCC countries and I would prefer it if we could find a common economic strategy and even some political views – then we would have more weight on the international stage than we currently do.
 
“The establishment of a common regional currency, identity and even government would be fantastic.”
The interview with Al Habtoor will be carried in The Report: Dubai 2009, which will be available in print form and online, and will be part of the range of OBG publications, renowned as leading sources of information on developing and emerging economies around the world.
Rated as the premier guide for foreign direct investment into the emirate’s dynamic economy, The Report: Dubai 2009 will offer a comprehensive and detailed assessment of Dubai’s opportunities for growth, the economic challenges which lay ahead and the overall attractiveness of the emirate for investors.
 
It will offer a complex guide to the many facets of Dubai, including its macroeconomics, infrastructure, political landscape, banking and sectoral developments, and is considered the most comprehensive intelligence review produced on the emirate.  
The publication, which will contain the most extensive, independent and accurate intelligence available, is to be produced by a team of OBG analysts based in Dubai for six months, conducting some two hundred interviews with leading political and economic figures.

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