Page 79 - Aamir Rehman - Dubai & Co Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States-McGraw-Hill (2007)

CHAPTER 3

Here to Stay: GCC Market

Attractiveness and Risks

INTRODUCTION

Not long ago, no Hollywood studio was complete without a set it
could use as a ghost town for western movies. “Wild West” movies
were often set in largely abandoned towns located in rough terrain,
and these movies were full of cowboys, bandits, and rugged
lawmen. Ghost towns were great settings for movies because of
their faded glory: they were towns that had seen boom times dur-
ing the nineteenth-century gold rushes but later lost their luster as
the mines shut down and local economies lost their steam. As a
result, tumbleweed rolled through Main Streets once bustling with
economic activity.
The GCC today has, in some respects, the feel of a gold rush
town: there is rapid growth and economic transformation, the level
of wealth is unprecedented, and outsiders are pouring in as never
before. GCC markets are attractive to growth-seeking global compa-
nies that would have overlooked them before. Sophisticated business-
people read headlines about GCC investments in marquee global
assets like the Four Seasons Hotels or Aston Martin and about Western
companies paying ever-more attention to the region: Halliburton

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