Dubai is on track to repay a US$10 billion (Dh36.73bn) loan from the Abu Dhabi Government. The emirate says growth has returned and it does not need further financial assistance.
It received support from Abu Dhabi in the wake of the global financial crisis, when liquidity in the local property market - which had frenetic growth during the boom years - dried up.
Mohammed Al Shaibani, the chief executive of Investment Corporation of Dubai, said yesterday that Dubai's economy was "in a phase of growth again".
The deadline to repay a $10bn loan from Abu Dhabi - due in "a couple of years" - would be met, he said.
"We are on track," said Mr Al Shaibani, who is also the director general of Dubai's Ruler's Court.
"There is a deadline, and we are committed to the same deadline," he added. "With this recovery, with this progress that we see in Dubai ... we expect to pay anything that is due from us on time."
Mr Al Shaibani said Dubai was well positioned for a recovery in the wake of the financial crisis.
"The fundamental businesses are really doing well. We probably will be the first to recover from the setbacks that we see [in] the world economy," he said.
"We don't need any more support from Abu Dhabi."
Dubai raised $10bn from bond sales to the Abu Dhabi Government and state-controlled banks as part of a support fund for state-owned companies. It also raised $10bn by selling bonds to the UAE's Central Bank in February 2009.
Dubai's residential property market - hit hard by the recent recession - is beginning to recover. Mr Al Shaibani said that the market for commercial property was also set to make a comeback.
"There was a big oversupply," he said. "We anticipate that in another two to three years at the most you will find a complete recovery in [commercial] real estate."
Craig Plumb, the head of research at Jones Lang LaSalle in the Middle East and North Africa, agreed that Dubai's commercial property rents had bottomed out.
"The commercial sector - office space - was currently at the bottom of its cycle. Rents have been going down for the past couple of years. And we now see some stability," said Mr Plumb.
"We would expect to see a recovery [over] a two-to three-year period."
Mr Plumb said Dubai office rents have declined by about half since the peak of the market in 2008.
"The continued growth of the economy is leading to job growth, and that is leading to new demand," he said.
However, commercial rents in some areas are expected to recover quicker than others. Mr Plumb pointed to prime areas such as the Dubai International Finance Centre and Downtown Burj as those likely to recover the fastest.
Mr Al Shaibani was speaking on the opening day of the Forbes Global CEO Conference, which is being held in Dubai.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, was confirmed as the keynote speaker at the event. The Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal also attended.
Steve Forbes, the editor-in-chief of Forbes, said that the outlook for Dubai's economy was rosy.
"Dubai is becoming a global crossroads between East and West. It's become a hub, a centre for world trade," said Mr Forbes.
"The fourth quarter in the US is not going to be very good … Dubai's performance is going against the global trend," he added.
bflanagan@thenational.ae
The biog
Favourite food: Fish and seafood
Favourite hobby: Socialising with friends
Favourite quote: You only get out what you put in!
Favourite country to visit: Italy
Favourite film: Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Family: We all have one!
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Company%C2%A0profile
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Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now