A brief introduction to Dubai's Strategic Plan 2015

fig 1: Burj Khalifa, Dubai, world's tallest building (source: worldpropertychannel.com) 

After analyzing the vision 2030 for Abu Dhabi, the author will now attempt  analyzing the strategic plan of Dubai, the second biggest emirate of UAE, known for being a perfect blend of economic dynamism and cosmopolitan charm. The strategic plan, namely Dubai 2015 #, had been devised in 2005 and aims to devise the future growth strategies and patterns for Dubai.

Five guiding principles of the strategic plan are as follows:

• Economic development: In 2000, Dubai intended to become a US $ 30 billion economy by 2010, but with a strong GDP growth of 13% (non oil gross domestic product or GDP growth of 15.1%) it achieved the milestone halfway itself, with a US $ 37 Billion GDP in 2005. With a per capita income of $ US 31,000; higher than developed states like Hong Kong and Singapore; it had recorded a higher growth than emerging giants like China and India ; even better than developed economies like, Singapore, USA and Ireland. Dubai had reduced its reliance on petroleum sector, with an annual contribution of 5% to the GDP, from 10% in 2000; had successfully diversified into various other alternate sectors like, construction, tourism, financial services, trade and logistics with service sector contributing 74% of GDP. The future of Dubai seems to be very strong with foreign investments coming into the Emirates, availability of plenty of land for construction projects, strong leadership, booming tourism sector etc. As a part of its 2015 plan it aims to sustain an annual growth of 11% along with achieving  a per capita income of US $ 44,000 and gross domestic product of US $ 108 Billion by 2015, annual increase of 4% in labor productivity, development of new sectors with strong competencies etc. The plan will focus on sectors like; tourism, financial service, trade, transportaion and storage, professional services and construction (where Dubai has relative strength and the sectors themselves have strong potential for global growth in the nearby future)and developing  enablers like; raising the productivity of economic sectors; raising the capability and efficiency of work force; science, technology and innovation capacity building; managing the rising cost of living index; improving the quality of lifestyle; building stronger and better policies; aligning laws and regulation with international standard. (dubai.ae, 2007)

• Social development: Social development is another area, where Dubai had made remarkable progress, with facilities like education, health and other social services to nationals at almost no price and plans seeking further investments in various social development sectors. The strategic plan 2015 aims; preserving the national identity of Emirate by, regulating the flow of immigration to maintain demographic balance, conducting cultural awareness programs, improving the proficiency of Arabic language etc; Increase nationals participation in work force and society by, equipping them with better educational , professional and life skills; improve the achievements of students and ensure all nationals have quality education by, implementing stronger education governance sector, enforcing better transparency and accountability for schools, improving the curriculum to meet international standards, upgrading teacher’s qualification and raising awareness towards education amongst the nationals; Improve the quality of health care service and status of health status of nationals by, improving the health sector governance structure, implementing better health insurance policies, encouraging hospitals to go for international accreditations etc; Ensuring quality social service be provided to meet the needs of population by, improving the social service sector governance structure, human resource development of the workforce, migrating the social service delivery model from “welfare” to “social development” etc; ensure equality and acceptable working conditions for the workforce and attract and retain required talent by, improving labor regulations, providing environment to attract and retain better talents, increasing awareness among the employers and employees regarding their legal rights etc; Enrich the cultural environment by, improving governance for cultural sectors, upgrading regulatory frameworks of cultural organizations, investing in infrastructure for conducting cultural activities, promoting cultural activities etc. (Dubai.ae, 2007)

• Infrastructure, land and environment: one of the factor that played a crucial role in Dubai’s success, had been its magnificent infrastructure and  in order to support its anticipated economic growth, it had further  plans to make huge investments in infrastructure, with main focus on, urban planning, energy sector, road and transportation and environment. Strategic plan aims ; optimizing land use and distribution while preserving natural resources by, optimizing existing land use policies, provision of medium and low income housing through govt. interventions, ensuring adequate facilities for community centers, enhancing the existing housing policies; provision of adequate energy, electricity and water supplies to meet Dubai’s growth demand by developing integrated policy frameworks, establishment of more installed power generation plants and desalination plants etc; provision of an integrated road and transportation system to facilitate mobility and ensure safety by, enhancing public transport and road networks, reducing private car transportation, implementing safety audits, installing modern technologies to cope with accidents, increasing awareness regarding safe driving ; maintenance of Dubai’s status as a safe, clean, attractive and sustainable destination by, updating and aligning environmental policies with best policies, increasing environmental awareness, integrating overall infrastructure development strategy with environmental focus to achieve sustainable growth and development. (dubai.ae, 2007)

• Security, Justice and safety: Dubai is one of the safest cities in the world, and the strategic plan emphasizes on the fact that, in order to achieve its ambitious plans , needs to built further upon the existing security and justice apparatus. Dubai wants to achieve its security, justice and safety related goals by; ensuring safety of every one that is nationals, residents and visitors; raising the standards of security force as one of the best globally; ensuring equality, quality, accuracy and clarity in judgment process; ensuring easy access of justice by all etc. (dubai.ae, 2007)

• Governance excellence: The govt. machineries, known for its speed of execution of projects, had played a very important role in the success story of Dubai. As a part of its strategic plan, Dubai wants to excel further in govt. excellence to bolster its ambitious goals. It intends to implement a wide range of initiatives including; implementing performance management mechanisms, streamlining strategy building across various departments, building capabilities for improved policy making, ensuring principles of accountability and transparency be streamlined across various govt. departments, linking budget to performance and priorities, transforming financial system of individual departments from cash to accrual basis, establishing partnership with private sector, implementing the latest technologies to enhance the performance, Establishing electronic complaint system for the govt. of Dubai, updating the human resource laws  across govt. organizations, implementing employee training and development system and performance management system across govt. departments etc. (dubai.ae, 2007)

# the plan was devised in 2005 and hence most of the data are with respect to 2005, at that time Dubai was enjoying huge capital influx and hence achieving these ambitious goals does not seem to be a big deal, but after the global economic crisis there was a dearth of foreign capital and many of the real estate projects have got scrapped or delayed. In the past two years its GDP growth had been in the range of 2.5%, and under such circumstances, achieving a US $ 108 Billion GDP by 2015 along with maintaining a annual growth of 11% seems very difficult, hence govt. authorities are planning to review and revise the economic components of the strategic plan, but the overall vision of transforming Dubai, by building upon the existing strong capabilities and resources is going to persist and will be executed with full vigor and motivation. The given blog is just an abstract of the strategic plans formulated in 2005, and in subsequent blogs , the author will attempt, analyzing the strategic approach used by Dubai in tackling the present crisis and keeping the plan alive, which depends more on the spirit than the stipulated time frame. (Rob Corder, 2009)

Reference:

1> Dubai.ae, 2007, highlights: Dubai strategic plan 2015, p-15 to 22, available at < http://www.dubai.ae/opt/CMSContent/Active/Shared/Files/DEG_docs/Dubai_Strategic_Plan_2015. pdf>

2> Dubai.ae, 2007, highlights: Dubai strategic plan 2015 p-25 to 29, available at < http://www.dubai.ae/opt/CMSContent/Active/Shared/Files/DEG_docs/Dubai_Strategic_Plan_2015. pdf>

3> Dubai.ae, highlights: Dubai strategic plan 2015, 2007, p-29-33, available at < http://www.dubai.ae/opt/CMSContent/Active/Shared/Files/DEG_docs/Dubai_Strategic_Plan_2015. pdf>

4> Dubai.ae, highlights: Dubai strategic plan 2015, 2007, p-35 to 38, available at < http://www.dubai.ae/opt/CMSContent/Active/Shared/Files/DEG_docs/Dubai_Strategic_Plan_2015. pdf>

5> Dubai.ae, highlights: Dubai strategic plan 2015, 2007, p-38 to 41, available at < http://www.dubai.ae/opt/CMSContent/Active/Shared/Files/DEG_docs/Dubai_Strategic_Plan_2015. pdf>

6> Rob C, 2009, Dubai’s 2015 strategic plan, arabianbusiness.com, available at < http://www.arabianbusiness.com/dubai-s-2015-strategic-plan-b-40713.html?parentID=325206 >