Bishoy Azmy
CEO of Al Shafar General ContractingYou said “The UAE’s construction industry is presently valued at more than a trillion dollars and even as we speak new projects are being planned and announced.”
Robert Lee
Nakheel Managing Director for investment projects of Nakheel The universe is our future. That is basically our plan for the future as to what’s coming next. It is a new waterfront development or community that is going to be 10-15 years down the road. What’s important is that it’s showing the grand master plan: what’s possible and where there’s more and in that spirit we’re saying look: this is what is coming up, this is how we are solving some of the issues and this is how it’s going to look like as sharing our grand master plan.
Dr. Sulaiman Al Fahim
CEO of Hydra PropertiesThe way Abu Dhabi is growing is by supporting the industrial zones and cities, by improving the ports, creating new university cities and media cities; that will support the real estate. We are going to see how Abu Dhabi will be for the next ten years; the prices are going to go up and appreciate. Also, demand won’t match supply; there will be much more demand than supply.
Emirates Palace, Leading Luxury Hotel in Abu Dhabi
Hans Olbertz, General Manager of Emirates Palace Another point is that the Emirates Palace has been operated by Kempinski Hotels and Resort, a very established hotel company. At present we have 59 hotels around the world and in the next 2 years we will open another 40. With the network Kempinski we promote the Emirates Palace in our portfolio, plus with all our partners and that in itself is a great deal. I think the destination is much better known then before. Naturally with the destination comes the Emirates Palace.
Tirad Mahmoud
CEO of Abu Dhabi Islamic BankWe have been successful in differentiating ourselves from the others. We don’t emphasise transactions with customers, we emphasise relationships with customers. The customers know the difference. When they deal with a bank that is focused entirely on them and their needs, they feel and appreciate it, as opposed to when you are dealing with a customer for the purpose of selling that customer a specific product.
Merwiss Azizi
Founder and Chairman of Azizi InvestmentsFirst, thank you very much. My story is that I left Afghanistan in 1988. At that time there was a war with the Russian army inside Afghanistan.
RAK Petroleum, Petroleum Company in RAK
Alain Duport, General Manager of RAK Petroleum RAK Petroleum present portfolio does not have significant oil prospects, because, as you say, the exploration that has been done is shallow exploration for RAK Petroleum. But for deep gas prospects, because there was no incentive previously to drill these prospects, the exploration is not yet completed and seems optimistic for RAK Petroleum.
Dr. M Taheri & Steve Nosrat
CEO of Azizi Investments and Marketing Director of Azizi InvestmentsThe report by EFG-Hermes estimates that more than 100,000 new apartments will hit the market by 2008 alone and that the total supply of housing in Dubai will double by 2010.
Imad Dana
CEO of Al ZorahAl Zorah development is worth 220 billion U.A.E. dirham ($59.9 billion) will be a 12-kilometer squared self-contained city with housing, offices, retail, schools, hospitals and leisure facilities, including marinas and a number of 5-star resort hotels completed in different phases and within a time frame of seven to 15 years.
Le Meridien Al Aqah, Fujairah Top Hotel
Patrick W. Antaki, General Manager of Le Meridien Al Aqah In the long term it’s going to impact Fujairah in a pretty serious way. Already in the short term, it’s not even built and already people are talking about moving their houses from Dubai to Fujairah because of the differences in rent. If you imagine people arriving here to this hotel, at the Meridien Al Aqah, they have to come through the Dibba side and that takes about an hour and a half time.