Emerging global cities: comparison of Singapore and the Cities of the United Arab Emirates.

Sharjah: The Emirate of Sharjah extends along approximately 16 kiometres of the UAE's Gulf coastline and is a major industrial base for the UAE. Sharjah is the junior partner to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in terms of contribution to overall GDP. As with the other two main emirates Sharjah has also made a concerted effort to diversify its economy in to trade, retail, tourism as well as its capacities in producer service functions. The government has sought to boost foreign investment and trade in several ways, including the setting up of the Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF Zone) and the development of the Hamriyah Free Zone (HFZA). Shaijah was recognized by UNESCO as the Cultural Capital of the Arab World in 1998.

The overall institutional set up in the UAE is a two tier system comprising the federal level and individual emirate levels. The rulers of the seven emirates in the UAE comprise the Federal Supreme Council which elects the country's President and Vice President at five-yearly intervals from amongst its members. The different emirates, however, have a large degree of independence in deciding and implementing their social and economic development strategies and policies.

KEY FINDINGS

The most important message emanating from this work is to reconfirm the central role of institutions in economic development and competitive position of cities in the world economy. In Singapore a clear definition and openness of the intended goals for the country along with the initiatives that are made available to both public and private organizations through a focused, harmonised, transparent and accountable institutional structure has allowed the regulations and business markets to align their interests. This unification has resulted in Singapore attaining immense growth and global recognition.

Active feedback with the international business in developing policies has allowed businesses to realign their respective objectives, thereby avoiding shocks and increasing adaptability. This two fold advantage of effective implementation and continuous dialogue on policies is set to be taken further with the establishment of the Singapore Business Federation, whose primary mandate is to cater to the business community in Singapore. Notably, the responses from public and private organizations bore similarities that reflected the transparency and openness in the business culture. This is one of the keys to a successful city, where interests and aspiration of the business community are in line with the institutions and vice versa.

As a result of the strong institutional participation in business facilitation and efficient servicing, there is an air of business security created. This is further substantiated by a strong legal sector. Singapore has been commended by all respondents for its ability to maintain a just legal framework that is pragmatic and highly efficient. The move by an international company to include Singapore laws for any arbitration in their regional assignment is an adequate reflective of the same. In addition to the sound legal environment, the regulations for conducting businesses were also seen as highly adequate. Except for the rising property prices, the availability of local finance and over regulation, all other issues ranging from the policy stability, corruption and business set up were seen to be pro-business. The accountability and openness of the institutional structure, moreover, allows for early identification of problem areas and implementation of strategies for rectifying the situation, be it in terms of enhancing the city's cultural and leisure facilities or liberalization of the banking sector.

The most important issues facing Singapore in terms of its future development strategy is ensuring the supply of high calibre knowledge based workers and managers for the expansion of its corporate services and knowledge based services as well as fostering greater innovation. The former is dependent on maintaining the city's attractiveness to foreign talent as well as expanding training of home grown talent through its well developed education system. The latter on the other hand can be partially explained by the stage at which the country has entered this innovation train. ADB (Asian Development Outlook 2001) outlines that areas such as Singapore and Taipei relied on initial acquisition of technology, through collaborative R&D and joint ventures with multinationals to seed the innovation. It then marketed this innovation through the development of necessary physical infrastructure and telecommunications for firms to practice the same and sustain. Therefore the actual cultivation of R&D ventures is restricted . Another aspect to nurturing innovation may be sought in a cultural change to set the mind free and allow expression of individual initiatives outside the current tendency for "in the box" and secure work culture and practices.

In the case of UAE, Dubai is clearly the most dynamic and institutionally most developed of the three examined cities. Similar to Singapore it has a focused economic vision built around its traditional role as the trade and transport hub of the Middle East which it now wants to expand to regional higher value added functions in corporate and IT services, niche research and development activity and tourism. Abu Dhabi is also following a similar development strategy but with a greater focus on the development of capital intensive petro-chemical industries and services. Sharjah has a substantially smaller economy. Its economic vision is in the first instance based on the more modest objectives of exploiting niche markets for establishing itself as a regional manufacturing base relying on its lower cost factors to attract largely small and medium enterprises. At the same time the city is also aiming at expanding its gas and oil industries, developing a niche cultural tourism industry as well as its higher value a dded functions for capturing at least a part of the market for regional corporate services and HQ functions. This is parallel to its desire for becoming the higher educational hub of UAE and the greater region while maintaining its strong local cultural and identity.

In terms of their regional ambitions and international investment all three UAE cities have to some degree a privileged position as none of their potential competitors can match the combination of incentives offered by their political and economic stability, high level of infrastructural development, business support facilities and quality of life. Indeed, all three cities and particularly Dubai have succeeded in exploiting this advantage in establishing themselves as the premier regional HQ and corporate service location as well as tourist destination. Based on the Singaporean experience, however, their long term success and further growth as regional centres for higher value added functions is dependent on addressing certain institutional concerns/issues highlighted in this research. These can be divided into common areas of concern emanating from federal regulations and structures and those that are specific to the individual emirates. The former relates to the need for reform of federal regulation in cert ain areas such as local partnership and agency requirements, labour laws and property ownership as well as enhancing the quality of the legal system. To a certain degree imminent UAE entry into WTO will enforce reform of the more restrictive federal regulations such as the local partnership requirement.

One area of specific emirate concerns that is common to all three UAE cities is the shortage of human resource capacities to enable greater instiutionalization of the decision making and implementation process, business facilitation and efficient servicing. Similar to the case of Singapore, this issue must be tackled through a twin strategy of training local capacity and attracting foreign talent of the highest caliber. In addition innovative schemes could be developed to enhance the efficiency and knowledge base of existing personnel as well as fostering greater inter-institutional coordination and creating a sense of common purpose and understanding. A good example here is the "fire-fly" scheme used in Singapore. To this must be added weaknesses in terms of robust feedback mechanisms with international business for policy development and implementation. Clearly there are differences between the three cities. Dubai is by far institutionally the most developed and focused. Abu Dhabi on the other hand has emer ged as institutionally the weakest. Not only in the areas outlined but also in its lack of institutional awareness, unnecessary bureaucracy and the prevalent gift oriented work culture which leads to excessive personalization of government/business interface and therefore creates uncertainty and the scope for increased corruption. The most important area of concern specific to Sharjah stems from a lack of sufficient clarity in its economic objectives and its effective circulation as well as a perceived imbalance between social and economic objectives.

Finally, a major issue of concern relates to the solitary go-it-alone attitude evident in all three cities. The Singaporean example has highlighted the benefits of creating synergies for full utilization of potentials and complementary factors endowments. In the case of UAE the most logical starting point for creating such synergies is between the different emirates themselves. Clearly none of the emirates can afford to be hampered in pursuing its developmental objectives by the conflicting interests and development strategies of the other emirates. Nevertheless, there are major interconnections and complementary functional activities which should be harnessed to greater effect. Nowhere is this more evident than between Dubai and Sharjah which from a regional perspective can be considered as part of the same urban conurbation. This was dearly evident from our interviews with firms in both cities highlighting the complementarities between the two cities as benefiting their regional competitive positions. Moreo ver the logic and imperative for creation of such synergies has increased, given the stated objectives of Dubai and Sharjah in becoming regional centres for niche research and development and educational activities. The most important element in the success of R&D regions is the creation of a highly innovative and networking milieu. Such innovative networks are in turn more likely to be created in a growing urban agglomeration which utilises all of its innovative potential including existing industries and academic institutions. Here there is a clear case for encouraging greater synergetic development between Dubai and Sharjah particularly in terms of academic and industrial links to harness and direct the innovative potential towards creating a sustainable R&D environment. This of course would have to be a long term objective building up research capacities through an interconnected programme of industrial and academic development in both locations.

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