World is “jealous” of Dubai says Falconcity CEO
Emirate is a victim of its own success according to Dubailand developer
People worldwide are “jealous” of Dubai’s success in building a city in record time, according to Falconcity of Wonders chairman and CEO Salem Ahmad Abdulla Al Moosa.
“We’re not supermen, but we’ve built a country of freedom, investment, education, health and communication in a very short time and you are obviously going to have people being negative about you because they’re jealous,” Al Moosa told The Big Project at Cityscape Global.
However, he said Abu Dhabi and Dubai would have to “complement each other” to weather the storm and reach their full potential in terms of their development and tourism markets: “They have to act as one body. If the emirates act as different bodies, foreigners will take advantage of us. We are one country.”
Al Moosa spoke specifically of negative reports regarding delays to, and the eccentricity of, the Dubailand development, home to, among other projects, The Falconcity of Wonders, a 41 million ft2 falcon-shaped megaproject featuring replica structures of world landmarks including Cairo’s pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The development will combine commercial and residential facilities, in addition to a four million ft2 theme park.
He asserted that the Falconcity of Wonders was still progressing to its full original scope in spite of some “damage” caused by the economic downturn.
“We already have people living in villas; we have our finance in place. We’re going through a rehabilitation period.”
When asked when the project would be completed, Al Moosa commented: “I would have liked to have seen the project completed yesterday, but there have been a lot of preventions.”
In October 2009, Al Moosa told reporters that the development — which was launched in 2005 — was not expected to be finished until 2017.
The Falconcity of Wonders developer has consecutively participated at the annual Cityscape show.
“You have to be at the event to tell the world I am here, I exist and I am continuing.
“The show is a place where people can meet and discuss their success or problems.
“There are visitors from consultancies, engineering companies, contractors and media, as well as others, so you can tell people what your aims are and what you want from society; from a financial, sales, marketing and an operational point of view.”
