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Dubai has experienced exceptional economic progress over the past few years, accomplishing the goals of 10-year development plan in just five years. On Saturday, Dubai's leader unveiled a new plan to further continue the success.
The Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 laid out by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, would triple the country's GDP from US$37 billion in 2005 to $108 billion in 2015, and at the same time boost per capita income from $33,000 to $44,000. Economic growth would average at 11 percent per year and 882,000 new jobs would be created.
Dubai's spectacular success of achieving 10 years of planned growth in just five years lies in contrast to Korea's current economic malaise. Few of the plans set out by the Roh Moo-hyun government four years ago have been achieved, including planned economic growth of 7 percent a year and the creation of 500,000 new jobs. In a speech called ¡°Dubai, Where the Future Begins,¡± Sheikh Mohammad promised that just as Dubai's last development plan was successful, so shall the new plan succeed.
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An indoor skiing facility that opened in Dubai two years ago flaunts Dubai's intense heat and shows the country's entrepreneurial spirit.
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Dubai¡¯s strategic plan in 2000 called for boosting GDP to $30 billion and per capita income to $23,000 by the year 2010. But in 2005, national GDP hit $37 billion and per capita income reached $33,000, thanks in part to a rate of growth that averaged 13 percent a year, higher than China at 9 percent and India at 6 percent.
Sheikh Mohammad credited the government as the key factor behind the success, as it recognized early on the importance of improving Dubai's investment and business environments. To express his gratitude, Sheikh Mohammad gave public officials a 20 percent base pay raise.
Sheikh Mohammad's new plan is ambitious, and if pitched by others would be met with skepticism. But in Dubai the local press has been supportive of the new goals, as Sheikh Mohammad has proven to the people of Dubai since the mid-1990s that he can not only plan for great success, but achieve it as well.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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