12 Friday

International Friday, February 19, 2021 Battle of bases: Dubai, Riyadh head for corporate showdown UAE accelerates reforms amid fresh challenges

DUBAI: Modern infrastructure and a business- lies and competitors. “I do not think this is the inten- friendly attitude have made Dubai the regional base tion, but it is how it works out in practice, as Dubai of choice for international companies, but Riyadh’s tends to be the default location for international remarkable rise has woken a long-sleeping heavy- companies’ regional HQs,” said Steffen Hertog, as- weight competitor. The wealthy Gulf emirate has sociate professor at the London School of Econom- made opening businesses as easy as ordering a meal, ics and Political Science. in a region choking with bureaucracy, helping it at- tract around 140 headquarters in three decades, far Boiling competition more than any other Middle East city. Under Prince Mohammed, Saudi adopted a se- While Dubai’s business environment flourished, ries of once unimaginable social changes and abol- Riyadh, the capital of the biggest Arab economy, ished some of its old laws. Riyadh, a city of 7.5 floundered thanks to ultra-conservative policies, se- million once seen as a bastion for conservative curity threats and corruption. policies, opened its doors for entertainment and The young Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman investment, the notorious religious police were sought to end all that when he came to power in sidelined and anti-corruption campaigns em- 2017, and now the city surrounded by sand dunes is barked on. enjoying a relative boom, drawing new businesses But the new-look capital has nevertheless from restaurants to tech startups. drawn many hoping to cash in on multi-billion-dol- “Our target is to have Riyadh become one of the lar projects like the futuristic NEOM megacity top-ten largest city economies in the world,” the 35- planned for the kingdom’s Red Sea coast. DUBAI: A woman walks by the waterline at the Dubai Marina in the United Arab Emirates. —AFP year-old de facto leader said in January. But despite Saudi entrepreneur Haya Akhdar and her hus- the big salary packages and contracts that are draw- band Ugo Baudez, a French national, launched ing expats and foreign firms to Riyadh, the city’s lack their Dubai-based consultancy specializing in lux- restrictions on alcohol, offered long-term resi- Arabia still has 19 million largely conservative cit- of attractions, a no-alcohol policy and other disin- ury brands in 2017. dency, and struck a normalization deal with Israel izens who are going to be less amenable to copy- centives has slowed the shift. For the young couple, now is the right time to to harness the power of the two major economies. ing the relatively Westernised social mores of the Saudi officials have said the kingdom accounts open a new office in Riyadh, but like many they will To stay competitive with Saudi Arabia, a pow- UAE for many years to come,” he added. for less than five percent of the region’s HQs-even keep one foot in each city. “We have witnessed erhouse with a youthful market of 34 million, the While Dubai is seen as one of the safest cities though it’s the biggest Arab economy and offers the the growth of the market and the shift of many UAE has to “accelerate some reforms that are still in the region, Riyadh faces a threat from rebels “lion’s share” of business and contracts. To change brands’ attention to KSA, specifically in Riyadh... unthinkable for Saudi Arabia,” said Ryan Bohl, a and extremists in Yemen where its forces have the status quo, Saudi this week heaped pressure on We need to be close to our clients in both impor- Middle East analyst at risk consulting firm Stratfor. been fighting since 2015. “Companies and banks foreign companies to move their Middle East head- tant markets,” Baudez said. Saudi cities still lack proper infrastructure in key operating from Dubai for 30 years chose it be- quarters to the kingdom, saying it will stop signing areas like transport and banking, and some min- cause of the quality of life, competitive advan- contracts with firms with hubs in other countries ‘A million welcomes’ istries remain hopelessly mired in bureaucracy. tages, a legislative and social environment and a from 2024. The UAE has responded quickly to the new “Riyadh and Jeddah remain light years behind unique infrastructure”, tweeted Emirati professor The surprise move is a direct challenge to Dubai competitive mood. The country of one million cit- Dubai and even Abu Dhabi in terms of social lib- of political science Abdulkhaleq Abdulla. “They and threatens a heated open race between Saudi izens and nine million expats lifted a ban on un- eralism, housing, schooling and entertainment ven- will not leave it. Yet, a million welcomes to the Arabia and the United Arab Emirates-neighbors, al- married couples living together, loosened ues,” said Bohl. The other “hard reality is that Saudi competition.” —AFP

Tshering by implicating him in a corruption scan- Top Bhutan general dal. All were denied bail by the Thimphu district court and remanded in custody until a first formal conclusion that a human being cannot live for and judges detained hearing on February 27. According to reports, To- Missing three that long in such harsh weather. That’s why we bgay was alleged to have illegally obtained military are announcing that they are no more,” said for overthrow plot documents on the procurement of vehicles from Raja Nasir Ali Khan, a provincial minister for the United Nations. The Bhutanese newspaper climbers are dead: tourism in Gilgit-Baltistan, where K2 is lo- THIMPU: Police in Bhutan, the Himalayan king- said that while the tender was handled publicly and cated. Khan said the search for the bodies dom famed for its happiness index, have detained fairly, the documents were to be used to under- official would continue. a top general and two judges over an alleged plot mine the position of the military number one. “My family have lost a kind father and the to overthrow the country’s top military officer Other reports said the plot between the three , Pakistan: Three climbers lost on Pak- Pakistan nation has lost a great, brave, and ex- and chief justice. The allegations about the con- men was revealed to authorities by a woman de- istan’s K2 are believed to have died on the perienced mountaineer,” Sajid Ali Sadpara- spiracy to take over top jobs in the army and ju- tained a few months ago. The three “friends” mountain, a Pakistan official said yesterday, son of Muhammad Ali Sadpara-told reporters diciary have rocked the tiny country of 750,000 wanted to take on the jobs in charge of the mili- more than a week after the group went missing after the announcement was made. The latest people jammed between India and that tary, as chief justice of the Supreme Court and as while trying to summit the world’s second high- deaths further mar what has been a bitter- prides itself on its cleancut image. attorney general, the reports said. Batoo Tshering est peak. Climbers John Snorri from Iceland, sweet winter season on K2. Two climbers had Former Royal bodyguard commandant has been Bhutan’s chief operations officer for Juan Pablo Mohr from Chile and Muhammad Ali already died on its treacherous slopes since Brigadier Thinley Tobgay, Supreme Court judge more than a decade. The country is known as a Sadpara of Pakistan lost contact with base camp January, and a third mountaineer was lost dur- Kuenley Tshering and top district court judge tourist paradise in the and for its hap- on February 5, sparking a massive rescue effort ing an acclimatizing mission on a nearby peak. Yeshey Dorji appeared in court on Wednesday piness index which was developed in the 1970s that included military helicopters and planes. History was made, however, with a team of after being detained at their homes. The three have after a former king ruled that “gross national hap- “All the weather experts, climbers, and ex- Nepali climbers reaching the top-sparking ju- been accused of plotting to overthrow the coun- piness is more important than gross domestic perts from the have reached the bilation at home. —AFP try’s top military officer, Lieutenant General Batoo product”. —AFP