What direction will the future economy of the UAE take?
Some commercial sectors are saturated, as in the electronics market. Export and re-export will be of paramount importance to this sector in the immediate future. The service industries will rise to meet international standards; the tourist industry will fluctuate as it is reliant on factors that are beyond our control such as climate, the state of the world economy, international politics and many other variables. We must therefore focus on industrialization. Our wealth comes from oil and there are infinite possibilities for development in the petro – chemical sectors. These could be managed by the public sector as oil products play such a vital role. The medium scale industries will expand simply because of the availability of capital, labour and raw materials. The UAE economy has been mainly run by ‘family firms’. Will the fledgling industries you speak of have any chance of gaining a foothold, taking into account the fact that vast capital resources will be required before any proje
