World learns from Abu Dhabi
World learns from Abu Dhabi
James Bennett
Abu Dhabi has been identified as the ultimate “power city” of the next millennium in a survey of 130 global cities drawn up by one of the world’s largest property advisory firms.
In its fourth biennial World Winning Cities study, Jones Lang LaSalle unveiled Abu Dhabi as the “power city” that would become one of the world’s fastest growing “urban stars” and be on the “radar screen of the real estate industry” for the next decade.
The company also predicted that Abu Dhabi would be a “city of substance” by 2010, a “regional hub” by 2015 and a “world winning city” by 2020, a decade ahead of its proposed Plan 2030.
“In our first study in 2002, we highlighted Dubai, Dublin and Las Vegas as being among a new wave of city winners. However, this year’s winner is Abu Dhabi, [which] in the past used to learn from other cities, but now other cities are learning from Abu Dhabi and its approach and impressive vision for the future,” said Blair Hagkull, the managing director for the Middle East and North Africa at Jones Lang LaSalle.
“It now has a lot to teach the world and in a decade, it has gone from being a student to being a teacher,” Mr Hagkull said.
The company chose Abu Dhabi after extensive research assessing more than 130 countries and cities. It assessed 10 principles of city competitiveness: performance, population, planning, power, place making (events, culture, meeting places), purity (sustainability, quality of life, environment), people, physical and property.
The report stated that Abu Dhabi offered one of the most favourable combinations of ingredients to become an emerging world-winning city, as well as having a chance to learn from the successes and challenges of Dubai.
“The predominant factor is its ambition to become a truly sustainable world-class city based on massive infrastructure investment, large real estate development, world-leading cultural facilities and major events, underpinned by significant population and employment growth,” said Mr Hagkull.
The report said the city was fully embracing urban master-planning with the launch of Plan Abu Dhabi 2030. This, it said, was unique to the region and created a “structured and clearly articulated framework for the city’s long-term growth”.
It added that the city epitomised a fresh spirit of city building, which is almost “unmatched anywhere else in the world”.
“We believe that Abu Dhabi is a city to watch over the next decade with an importance and influence that is expected to extend well beyond its immediate geography,” Mr Hagkull said.
“It is not often you get a city of fewer than one million people that has so much global influence. How many countries with such a small population have as much power as Abu Dhabi? Virtually none. It is one of the most influential cities in the world in the fact that it is a city that is not only building itself, but also helping to build others around the world.
“Historically, it learnt lessons from other places around the world, but now people are coming to Abu Dhabi, international firms like ours, to learn from what it is doing. Its influence is now being applied to other cities around the world. It is not only the capital city that is growing, but it is emerging as a global investor.”
The report said Abu Dhabi was chosen as this year’s winning city despite Dubai’s growth and proximity.
“Abu Dhabi’s city planners have clearly watched Dubai’s less controlled growth and, arguably, an erosion of its local heritage to formulate their own expansion agenda,” the report said. “One that puts culture and community ahead of pure commercialisation.”
Mr Hagkull said: “Abu Dhabi is complementing Dubai. It is not often you get two very different cities 150km apart growing at such a rate. Both have different focuses. Abu Dhabi is in a unique position that it can learn from what Dubai has done well and the mistakes it has made and build on them.”
The research also identified the challenges ahead for the city and emirate.
The main challenges, said Mr Hagkull, would be for the city planners to carefully manage its ambitious expansion plans and, from a property perspective, to ensure the market was transparent.
The city would also have to cultivate indigenous growth and ensure sufficient differentiation in its offer from neighbouring Dubai, he said.
“Not only does a transparent market attract global property investors, but crucially it is a key constituent of an open and globally connected city,” the report said, adding that it was imperative the city attracted top quality multinational corporations to “feed” it with intellectual capital.
“The challenges for Abu Dhabi are that it is a very young and very fast growing city. There is a lot of pressure being put on some very young institutions and some that are only just being formed,” said Mr Hagkull.
“Infrastructure could hamper its progress. The challenge for any city is infrastructure.
“There are many things under one vision, but the key will be for that to be effectively distributed to the right people. It will need organisations like the Urban Planning Council to take the pressure off the leadership.
“Usually, the biggest risk is that ambition and capital don’t meet. Abu Dhabi has laid out a very clear and defined vision and the risk is not being able to achieve that. Abu Dhabi has the chance to be the epitome of a 21st century city, but you won’t have to wait until 2030 to see the city being completed. The majority of its ambitions will be achieved well before that date.”
jbennett@thenational.ae
Plans for tax on goods ready by end of 2008
Plans for tax on goods ready by end of 2008
Robert Ditcham, THE NATIONAL
Last Updated: May 07. 2008 1:56AM UAE / May 6. 2008 9:56PM GMT
The introduction of VAT is likely to be unpopular with Emiratis, residents and businesses, who have enjoyed years of tax-free conditions. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National
The UAE will be ready to introduce a system of value added tax (VAT) by the end of the year.
Abdul Rahman al Saleh, the executive director of Dubai Customs, said the “infrastructure” for an Emirates-wide taxation system would be put in place between October and December.
Dubai Customs was commissioned by the Government two years ago to look into a potential VAT and is finalising the strategy. If implemented, it would be the first time VAT, which is applied to the sale of goods and services and not income, has been imposed in a GCC nation.
However, a government source said although the mechanics would be in place, it was “very unlikely” that VAT would be introduced this year because Federal approval and GCC co-operation, on several related issues, would be required.
VAT would be introduced to replace customs duties, which the UAE must phase out as part of the free trade agreements (FTAs) it is signing with a number of major trading partners, Mr Saleh said.
The government source, who declined to be identified, said a GCC-wide agreement on these FTAs is still some way off.
Mr Saleh told a seminar at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai that VAT was likely to be set at a flat rate of between three and five per cent. It would be applied to all goods and services.
The introduction of VAT is likely to be unpopular with Emiratis, residents and businesses, who have enjoyed years of tax-free conditions.
If the UAE were to introduce it before other members of the GCC, analysts warned the tax could drive business away from the UAE.
Although the proposed three to five per cent rate is lower than in many other countries – the rate in the UK, for instance, is 17.5 per cent – residents are likely to oppose any measure that could increase already rising food and accommodation costs.
But Mr Saleh said prices were unlikely to climb because of the removal of customs duties.
“I don’t expect a negative reaction from the public because the providers of the services and the goods will take care of this [VAT expense],” he said.
“They would not be paying customs duty so they should not need to increase their prices.” Mr Saleh said if Federal authorities decided to press ahead with VAT, there would be a provision for tourists to claim back the tax they paid on purchases over a set amount. Small businesses with revenue of less than a specific annual figure – expected to be about Dh3.67 million (US$1m) – would also be exempt, he added.
Customs officials have said the VAT would be necessary to replace the “lost revenue” from the removal of customs duties. The funds would be required for investment in health, education and public infrastructure, they said.
The International Monetary Fund is backing the initiative.
Mr Saleh said Dubai Customs had been working for the past two years to develop a VAT system that could be applied across the Emirates.
He said research was conducted in countries such as the UK and New Zealand, many of which use different forms of the taxation system. While some countries apply a low flat rate to all goods and services, others tax certain goods heavily but exempt others.
“We will put in a low rate and have direct aids to the right people, rather than having exemptions. Products and services in certain areas, such as education and health, can be looked at by the Government.”
rditcham@thenational.ae
Cool ideas to beat the heat
Cool ideas to beat the heat
Bradley Hope for THE NATIONAL
In recent history, property developers have had a pretty basic strategy for dealing with summer heat which can reach 50°C with 97 per cent humidity – air conditioning.
Buildings have blasted out an arctic-style chill to such a degree that some people need a sweater. But as the city evolves into a year-round destination for tourists and business travellers, and a permanent home for an increasing population, developers have been busy working on a slew of new technologies and techniques to mitigate the climate.
Not only have they been trying to create more energy-efficient indoor cooling systems, but they are also working to reduce the outside temperature as well. It is a far cry from the days when Emiratis just evacuated the city by camel to Al Ain in the summer.
The strategies range from the elementary – canopies, building layout, cool-water misters — to the complex, like mechanical roofs that respond to the temperature, or seawater circulating under pavements.
The latest project to go head-to-head with the heat has been planned for a 1.4 million square metre plot of parched desert near Zayed Sport City Stadium. The developer is Capitala, a partnership involving one of the Government’s local investment arms, Mubadala, and a Singapore developer, CapitaLand. Details of the project are expected to be announced next week during the three-day Cityscape Abu Dhabi conference at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, but the head of Mubadala’s property division, John Thomas, has released a few tantalising early details.
Mr Thomas said the project near the Zayed Sport City Stadium was partially inspired by Clarke Quay in Singapore: once a humid, nearly uninhabitable industrial quarter on the water. CapitaLand transformed Clarke Quay into a trendy shopping and nightlife district while the British firm, Alsop Architects, designed a system of canopies and umbrellas to shade the streets, placing misters and giant fans at different locations to create a cool, artificial breeze.
“It was an eye-opener,” said Mr Thomas. “It’s four or five degrees cooler. They know how to work with a climate similar to ours.”
What is more, if Capitala can make those technologies work in Abu Dhabi, it bodes well for what could become an entire industry devoted to weather mitigation. Developers and architects here could market their designs around the world, and even in nearby GCC countries, which are also undergoing a building boom thanks to an influx of money from high oil prices.
Some of the most dramatic solutions have been devised by the Abu Dhabi development company, Sorouh, and Arup, a UK-based design and architecture firm, on Shams Abu Dhabi. At the centrepiece of the island, which is an 84,500-square-metre green space with amphitheatres and activity areas called Central Park, the developer has planned to circulate seawater underground to cool the pavements and benches and hide misters in nooks and crannies on the exterior of buildings. Everything in the project will be crafted to take advantage of breezes and natural shading. Arup estimates that it can lower the temperature by at least 6°C.
Another firm at the forefront of this innovation is Foster & Partners, which has been designing the new Central Market, a residential development at Al Raha Beach, as well as Masdar, the zero-emissions project.
Gerard Evenden, a senior partner at the company, said that climate control starts with simple things like materials used in construction and the orientation of the building.
“It’s extremely important to consider the relationship of the building to the sun and the wind, and for Abu Dhabi, you have to think about the water supply and the dust,” Mr Evenden said.
For instance, in contrast to the wide avenues and tall buildings in Abu Dhabi, narrower spaces between buildings are shaded for longer periods of the day, which can prevent heat from generating in the walls.
“It’s called solar build-up,” Mr Evenden said, adding that heavy concrete walls should be in the shade because they absorb heat. But if kept cooler “the wall itself will radiate cooling”, he said. The effect can be felt in cathedrals, which are cold in the winter, cool during a summer’s day and warm at night.
At Central Market, Foster & Partners had designed a mechanical roof that can respond to weather and the time of day. In the summer, it can close to retain the air-conditioning, but in cooler months be opened to pull in a breeze.
“It’s about giving people choices in the way space changes throughout the year,” Mr Evenden said.
Building design itself can create a more energy efficient type of cooling. At Auto Mall, a development of three buildings in Dubai’s Business Park MotorCity, Union Properties has been using state-of-the-art architecture to reduce heat.
Adib Moubadder, the company’s director of facilities, said hot air was less likely to penetrate the Auto Mall because its design “reduces the cooling load by creating positive pressure on the whole building”.
Still, developers need to be wary of too many technological solutions, which can reduce the energy efficiency of a building, said Alan Paterson, Aldar’s head of planning. Air conditioning is inherently a wasteful way to cool a space, but cool water misters are not particularly efficient either, especially in a desert environment where water is scarce.
“Supplying the water to allow the misters and under-pavement supply may produce cooling locally but may be unsustainable generally,” he said.
Mr Paterson added that a major driver of smart cooling techniques was the increasing trend among developers, including Aldar, to use environmental standards like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) when making their plans.
“Although LEED covers all issues related to sustainability, this necessarily includes natural cooling and the reduction of energy requirements across the board,” Mr Paterson said. “All options are considered for each of our projects, but this has to be balanced against realistic and cost-effective proposals.”
bhope@thenational.ae
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