Andrew Chambers
Managing Director of AstecoDecree No.27 for 2007 states that “rent will be capped by 5%, which is a drop of 2% from 7% last year. In 2008 we have seen the rent lower from 7% in 2007.
Muath A. Jalil
General Manager of Rasyat Real EstateI am not saying we are only short – we are suffering from the short supply. To recover from that short supply, we need a minimum of more than 6 years of development to cover such a supply. As has been planned by one of the codes of the Urban Planning Council, so far up to this year, there is a 270 billion US dollars project launch, and there is another one expected within the next two years of 190 billion US dollars, to be launched again for more projects.
Lesley Sayle
Central Project Officer of Union PropertiesMotorcity is the first project of its kind in the world. It’s been operational for about three and a half years. It started with the Dubai Autodrome, which is the racetrack. It’s developed into a development that consists of five components. Dubai Autodrome is the first one that we launched, about three and a half years ago, and we’ve been hosting a number of races; there’s also the race school with a race track.
Ronald Barrott
CEO of AldarThe size of the gap between supply and demand now in the Abu Dhabi real estate market has been estimated to 29,000 units, and is expected to reach 83,000 units by 2017.
Dubai Airports
Paul Griffits, CEO of Dubai Airports I really want Dubai Airports to rightfully assume the crown as being the best airport company in the world. Airport companies are not known for delivering excellence in any way, shape or form. Most of them are heavily criticised by their users and I want people to be saying “why can’t you do this like Dubai” in Heathrow or “in Dubai they’ve managed to sort this problem out” and we want to really be a shining beacon to the world. If Dubai Airports achieve that then, certainly.
Sharjah Tourism, Cultural Tourism
Mohamed Ali Al Noman, Director General of Sharjah Commerce & Tourism Development Authority Sharjah is well known to be a dry state, hence the Sharjah Cultural Tourism.Having said that, it has nice entertainment developed for families and Culture Tourism. Sharjah tries to have a lot of cultural activities. For example, a while back, four months ago we had Sharjah Heritage Days which coincided with United Nations Culture Days. There is also Sharjah Theatre Days, Sharjah Book Fair, and more.
Dubai Tourism Destination
Khalid A. Bin Sulayem, Director General of Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing Dubai Tourism numbers are quite high but Dubai Tourism uses another indicator: the contribution of tourism in Dubai economy is around 30% including both direct and indirect factors. If you take the global contribution of tourism to the economy it’s 10%. In addition, Dubai has one of the highest occupancy rates in the world now. These are strong indicators, which encourage Dubai and people abroad to invest in this sector.
Lina Chabaan
Eco Manager of TadweerWe have pollution, air pollution, water: unfortunately we are the highest water consumers in Dubai. We have a lot of construction waste and the construction creates pollution too, there are a lot of problems we are trying to tackle in Dubai.
TAQA, Peter Barker-Homek
CEO of Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) I think the big challenges for TAQA are around people. Not that TAQA has had trouble retaining people, in fact TAQA has got over 96 percent retention rate for people TAQA has offered positions to, but keeping people aligned with who TAQA is, where TAQA is going as a group of co-workers, building the identity. TAQA believes completely in health safety, security and the environment.
UAE Zones: Dubai Investments Park
General Manager of Dubai Investments Park Mainly, we are not a free zone area so major tenants or clients are GCC market companies and from the domestic market, especially after converting so many areas from industrial to commercial, this is the ideal location or solution for those who have been shifted or are going to shift from their old industrial location to the Dubai Investments Park.