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Oil reserves in Dubai are less than one-twentieth for that of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, and oil income is now only a small proportion of the city's income.
Dubai is an important tourist destination and port because of its strategic location in the world. Increasingly, however, Dubai is developing into a hub for service industries such as IT and finance, with the new Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
Transport links are bolstered by its rapidly-expanding Emirates Airline, founded by the government in 1985 and still state-owned; based at Dubai International Airport, it carried over 12 million passengers in fiscal year 2005.
Plans to build one of the world’s largest airports in Jebel Ali are to be implemented in February 2007. The Airport City project will cover 140 square kilometers and will include, not just an airport, but also several smaller cities which will cater to the financial, industrial, service and tourism industry needs connected to the aviation industry. When completed, the airport will have the capacity to handle 120 million passengers and 12 million tones of cargo annually.
Dubai’s urban elevated metro system is already under construction and will supply additional transportation capacity to relieve growing traffic, and support the city's continuing development and visionary image. It is due for completion in 2 phases between 2008 and 2010.
The government has set up industry-specific free zones throughout the city: Dubai Internet City, now combined with Dubai Media City as part of TECOM (Dubai Technology, Electronic Commerce and Media Free Zone Authority) is one such enclave whose members include IT firms such as EMC Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Microsoft, and IBM, and media organisations such as MBC, CNN, Reuters, ARY and AP. Dubai Knowledge Village (KV) is an education and training hub which has been set up to complement the Free Zone’s other two clusters, Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City, by providing the facilities to train the clusters' future knowledge workers. |
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