What has had the biggest effect on your life in the UAE over the past 10 years? No, we’re not talking about the opening of a swanky new restaurant or spa, or even that little corner store that (finally) stocks the right brand of cereal. We’re referring to the bigger things; things that have improved thousands of lives and helped to push the UAE into the forefront of 21st-century living. Whether it’s the opening of the Dubai metro or the introduction of key labour laws, the past 10 years have seen some big social changes in the city. We look at six of the most significant.
Free zones, 1985 onwards
Dubai currently has more than 30 free zones, offering company benefits such as 100 per cent foreign ownership (companies outside the free zones must be part-owned by a local partner) and a zero per cent tax rate. Though free zones were first set up before 2001 (the oldest being Jebel Ali), their number has rapidly risen in the past decade and the trend is spilling over to the capital.
Abolition of child camel jockeys, 2002
Think children riding camels sounds like a laugh? Well, it isn’t – the practice of using children as jockeys for camel races (the thinking being that they’re lighter) had links to reported child slavery and abuse. The UAE was the first Gulf state to ban the use of jockeys under 15; HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, then chairman of the Emirates Camel Racing Federation, announced the ban in July 2002. Camels are now jockeyed by remote-controlled robots. Seriously.
Labour laws, 2007
The UAE published its revised labour laws in 2007; the decision was made to publish the draft labour law online, thereby allowing the public to comment. The Human Rights Watch has commended the move as a step towards transparency and taking all views into consideration. In June 2011, the Ministry of Labour also issued a labour law guide in five languages. Among other issues, the guide outlines the labourers’ midday break rule, and stresses the importance of abiding by safety standards, as well as instructions on first aid and ways to deal with sunstroke. The Human Rights Watch is also urging for the anti-strike rule to be abolished, although these labour laws are definitely a step in the right direction.
Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum Foundation, 2007
At the World Economic Forum for the Middle East, held in Jordan in May 2007, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum donated Dhs37 billion to set up the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation. This was one of the largest charitable donations in history and was used to set up an educational foundation in the Middle East that has been tasked with finding solutions to challenges faced by the Arab world, such as literacy and cross-cultural programmes. Initiatives so far include The Arab-German Cultural Dialogue, The Turkey-UAE Cultural Dialogue and Casa Árabe in Spain, all of which promote cultural understanding between Arab nations and the rest of the world.
Nuclear power, 2009
The past 10 years haven’t heralded the arrival of nuclear power in the UAE, but significant steps were made towards going nuclear in 2011. Formal construction applications for the first two units were filed with the UAE’s Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) in December 2009, and construction on the UAE’s first nuclear power plant in Braka, 75km from the Saudi border, is expected to begin in 2012. The ominously named ‘Unit 1’ is scheduled to start up in 2017, and Unit 2 will start lighting up skyscrapers in 2018.
Dubai Metro 2009
Dubai environmentalists (and anyone who can’t afford to pay for taxis every day) rejoiced as Dubai Metro partially opened on September 2009, and became fully operational in 2011 (services on the Green Line started last month). But how does Dubai’s metro stack up against comparable transport systems across the world? It is the second most affordable metro transport worldwide, behind Tehran’s metro in Iran. Dubai’s Green and Red Lines span more than 75km from Al Rashidiya to Jebel Ali, and future extensions are a possibility. The metro also sparked an increase in the number of buses, with 68 more bus stations added to help feed passengers to the metro. As an added bonus, the Palm Jumeirah monorail line opened on April 30 2009 to connect Atlantis on the tip of the Palm to the mainland. Now all we need is something similar in Abu Dhabi and Mother Nature will truly rejoice.
