Dubai building big name for itself

Last week’s announcement that Dubai will be the site of a new $2.2-billion Universal theme park is only the latest sign that the small Persian Gulf emirate thinks big.

In just 15 years, with the help of hundreds of thousands of imported laborers, the rulers of Dubai have built a modern city of skyscrapers, gleaming hotels and 10-lane highways along its desert coastline. Some estimate that one-fifth of the world’s construction cranes are working in Dubai.

Dubai already has the world’s tallest hotel, vastest man-made harbor and biggest indoor ski area. Workers are now raising an office tower expected to be the world’s tallest building, while plans are underway to build the globe’s largest shopping mall, the biggest airport and a resort featuring full-size replicas of the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal.

Where is Dubai?

Dubai is a Ventura County-size expanse of desert on the southern rim of the Persian Gulf, bordered by Abu Dhabi to the south and the emirate of Sharjah to the east.

Increasingly, Dubai is not just next to the gulf -- it’s extending into it, with hundreds of man-made islands being built for high-end hotels, spas and luxury villas. One development, called the World Islands, roughly mimics a map of the Earth with about 300 artificial islands. Two others extend into the sea in the shape of palm trees. A third “palm tree” is being planned.

Dubai is in the Arabian Desert, with daily high temperatures averaging more than 100 degrees for eight months of the year.

Is Dubai a country?

No, it’s an emirate ruled by an emir, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum, who is estimated by Forbes to be worth $14 billion. In 1971, Dubai was one of seven emirates -- the others being Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain -- to come together to form the country of the United Arab Emirates.

Somewhat confusingly, the main city of the emirate is also known as Dubai. Dubai City, as it is sometimes called, is home to 88% of the emirate’s people.

Who lives there?

Dubai has more than doubled in population since 1993 and is now home to 1.4 million people, only 20% of whom are natives.

About half of the foreign-born residents are from India, with another 16% from Pakistan and another 9% from Bangladesh, according to researchers at George Washington University. These South Asians are primarily construction workers imported for Dubai’s seemingly endless building projects.

About 3,200 Americans lived in Dubai as of 2005.

Dubai is not a great place if you’re looking for a girlfriend -- the emirate is 75% male.

How did it get so rich?

Until the 1930s, Dubai’s economy was based largely on pearl diving. But the development of cultured pearls in Japan caused prices to plunge and some residents to leave for other parts of the gulf. Only about 20,000 people lived in Dubai in 1950. Electricity and phone service didn’t arrive until the 1960s.

Oil was discovered in Dubai waters in 1966 and extraction began in 1969, with the resulting flood of cash triggering a flurry of spending on flashy cars and yachts. But although Dubai has oil, it doesn’t have a lot -- its neighbor Abu Dhabi has 23 times as much -- and its reserves are expected to run out in about 20 years. Recognizing this, the ruling Maktoum family launched a campaign to diversify the emirate’s economy into finance, shipping, technology and tourism.

In 1979, the gigantic port of Jebel Ali opened (U.S. Navy ships patrolling the Persian Gulf now dock there), and six years later an adjacent free-trade zone began inviting foreign companies to a tax-free environment.

More recently, Dubai has set up free-trade zones aimed at specific industries. Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Dell Inc., among others, have set up offices in Dubai Internet City, and CNN, Reuters and Sony Corp. have touched down in Media City. Healthcare City includes a Harvard Medical School post-graduate institute.

In March, Halliburton Co., the Houston-based oil-services firm, went a step further, announcing that it would be moving its headquarters to Dubai.

The diversification strategy has worked: Although oil revenue made up 55% of Dubai’s GDP in 1980, it’s just 5% today.

Is everybody wealthy in Dubai?

Certainly not. According to the emirate, the 2005 per-capita income was $33,000. Foreign construction workers complain of low wages, squalid housing and dangerous working conditions. Some workers report wages being paid months late, and say they are prevented from leaving the country before completing years of service.

In March 2006, 2,500 workers rioted at the site of the Burj Dubai, planned to be the world’s tallest skyscraper at more than 2,300 feet, causing $1 million in damage. Thousands of laborers building an airport terminal joined in a sympathy strike.

Human Rights Watch reported that as many as 880 deaths occurred at construction sites in the UAE in 2004, although the government said the number was just 34.

The advocacy group blasted a proposed revision of the country’s labor law this year, saying it still “falls far short of international standards for workers’ rights.”

Any other problems?

Environmentalists say that the construction of man-made islands on Dubai’s coast is destroying coral, sea grasses and oyster beds, as well as killing fish and sea turtles. The islands are also disrupting the natural currents of the gulf, leading to erosion of Dubai’s white-sand beaches.

With the Maktoum family holding absolute power, critics of the government are often silenced. Activist lawyer Mohammed Abdullah Roken was arrested twice last year, once after speaking to an Arabic TV station about the conflict in Lebanon. He has been banned from writing for the local press.

“The authorities should be encouraging these advocates, not harassing them and trying to silence them,” Joe Stark of Human Rights Watch said.

scott.wilson@latimes.com