Marina Sarruf, special envoy*
Dubai – The word simplicity does not exist in the vocabulary of the many building companies operating in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The buildings are skyscrapers, the hotels are palaces and the houses are mansions. These are the features of the many constructions in progress in the Emirates. “Everything is surprising due to the quality and quantity of buildings and projects under construction,” says Nivaldo Pinheiro, president of Procave, one of the biggest building companies in the state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil.
Pinheiro integrates the trade mission of the building material industry from Santa Catarina to the Arab Gulf, organized by the Federation of Industries of the State of Santa Catarina (Fiesc) and by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. “The Dubai buildings are the dream of any builder, " Pinheiro claims.
To have an idea of the civil construction boom in Dubai, one just has to look at the surroundings of avenues and highways. On Sheikh Zayed, the main highway connection between the country’s seven Emirates, for instance, there are over 30 buildings under construction, with investment estimated at US$ 50 billion until 2010.
Another construction site in the city is the Dubai Marina building complex, which includes several projects for hotels, restaurants, residential buildings and a marina. Some of these buildings have had a 1,000% appreciation in four years.
Tourism and foreign trade
Much of the money invested in these buildings does not come from oil, as in other countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), but rather from products re-exports and tourism. Dubai receives approximately five million tourists each year; therefore hotel construction is always on the rise.
The luxury in the buildings is found not only in their bold architectural style, but also in their interiors. The decoration of the Al-Masyaf hotel, for instance, is bound to impress any tourist. Inspired on a palace of the Ottoman Empire, the hotel is decorated with crystal lamps of over 15 layers, inlaid wood, one-metre-tall vases and very high clearance. Daily rates for a single room range from US$ 880 to US$ 1,980. The Al-Masyaf is also well known in the region for the lake that surrounds it and on which there are gondolas to take guests for a ride.
With a population of 2.7 million citizens, Dubai offers about 40 shopping malls with stores for the world’s major clothing, cosmetics and electronics brands, such as Armani, Hugo Boss, Virgin, MAC and Diesel. At the Mercato shopping mall, for instance, even Brazil is represented by the Moda Brasil store, which sells Brazilian bikinis and dresses. As the Brazilian businessmen in the mission from Santa Catarina have put it, “one must see it to believe it”.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
