Government Consulting Work

The government of Dubai is considering offering their expertise in government management, tourism and real estate to foreign governments at a fee. Given Dubai's success in these areas, it would make sense that the government would capitalize upon this expertise to make money and extend their influence around the world. The concept that knowledge is something one can leverage in foreign relations is very compelling to me, especially as one would imagine that the transfer of knowledge is less politically charged than something more tangible like port management, another recent attempt of the Dubai government to extend itself in other countries.

Khalid Al Kassim, deputy director general for planning and development at the Department for Economic Development referenced Singapore's success in this area in stating that "Singapore has so many companies owned partially by the government and partially by the private sector which sell government expertise in other parts of the world, like the Science Park or the Singapore School of Government." It will be interesting to observe how this develops and whether other Arab countries are considered potential clients of Dubai or not.

The full article is at Gulf News.