Page 104 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

88 Dubai & Co.

include housing, hotels, hospitals, and the world’s seventh-tallest
48
building. While the core of these holy cities remains the religious
sites, the surrounding business activity is accelerating at a remark-
able pace.
Trade among Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
markets is steadily increasing as ties among Muslim countries
grow. GCC investments in Turkey, for example, are on the rise: the
Saudi firm Oger won out a hotly contested bid for the privatization
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of Turk Telekom in 2005 in which a UAE joint venture was also
50
considered. Kuwait Finance House, a Sharia-compliant bank, is
pursuing an aggressive growth strategy in Malaysia. Al Rajhi Bank,
a Saudi institution, has secured banking licenses in Malaysia and
Indonesia. Dubai Islamic Bank is expanding rapidly in Pakistan. A
resurgence of Muslim identity and Islamic cultural values world-
wide is furthering the impetus to link OIC markets more closely, as
is the basic need of GCC firms to expand abroad into markets where
they can build viable and enduring franchises.

Links to Europe: Play and Stay
GCC countries, and especially the UAE, have built strong ties with
Europe as a trade partner, tourist destination, and—increasingly—
as a sunny place to work. The Gulf has become a tourist hot spot for
British, German, French, and other visitors: London–Dubai is the
fastest-growing long-haul air route in the world, and there are an
amazing 62 flights per week between Dubai and London on
Emirates Airlines alone. European tourists are well served in Gulf
hotels and resorts, which offer sun, sand, and world-class customer
service year-round. Europeans also enjoy working in the GCC
countries because of the favorable conditions, which include no
income taxes, English-speaking workplaces, generous compensa-
tion packages, and a high quality of life.
Of all Western countries, the UK has the deepest ties with the
GCC and the UAE. There are about 120,000 UK nationals living in
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the UAE alone, and another 30,000 in Saudi Arabia. For perspec-
tive: there are more British citizens in the UAE than there are peo-
ple living in Cambridge, and the number of UK residents in the
UAE and Saudi Arabia combined is about the same as the popula-
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tion of Oxford. More than 100,000 Britons have purchased homes