Guests jostle to snap selfies with the beaming ruler-in-ready flanked with the aid of using dozens of nearby officers. The royal works the room with the benefit of an Instagram movie star who is used to blending with superstars like footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. A few meters at the back of him, mixing into the group at an occasion withinside the Dubai Expo in advance this yr, stood some other guy who can be much less conspicuous withinside the metropolis’s social scene but whose effect is triumphing reward from overseas traders even as preserving executives at government-run agencies on their toes.
As their 73-yr-antique father, the ruler of Dubai, fingers them extra responsibility, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, 39, and brother Sheikh Maktoum, 38, have every carved out a niche. They face the undertaking of safeguarding Dubai’s reputation because the Middle East’s pre-eminent enterprise hub amid opposition from nearby competitors and global scrutiny following Russia’s battle on Ukraine. Think of it as a company,” stated Nasser Al-Shaikh, Dubai’s former finance leader, who helped steer the emirate thru the 2009 debt disaster. “Hamdan is the chairman and Maktoum is the CEO. Hamdan is the face of Dubai and the crown prince, however choices on all problems are made after session among the 2 brothers.”
Sheikh Hamdan, the charismatic crown prince and heir, is marketer-in-leader in a metropolis constructed on glitz and its cappotential to draw capital and tens of thousands and thousands of tourists. Sheikh Maktoum is proving key to Dubai as a economic marketplace this yr as he calls the photographs throughout the emirate’s sprawling kingdom-run enterprises. He’s a part of a push to promote stakes to traders – maximum recently, street toll operator Salik this month – and has sometimes summoned company chiefs to speak thru their numbers.
Beyond economic markets, Dubai is beneathneath strain to clamp down on unlawful cash flows, even as the electricity disaster might also additionally have supplied a lift to grease sales withinside the United Arab Emirates however withinside the long term will boost up the worldwide circulate farfar from fossil fuels.
The brothers – who had been born a yr aside to the identical mother – additionally want to preserve the sensitive stability of electricity in the UAE. That comes after Dubai’s management persuaded Abu Dhabi to refocus on enterprise and the economic system and much less on overseas coverage that brought about navy engagements in conflicts stretching from Yemen to Libya and Turkey. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, poses some other project with its preference to emulate Dubai as a magnet for overseas skills and funding. The guys not often communicate to the media. The Dubai Media Office stated it turned into now no longer feasible to set up interviews in the time frame given and declined similarly comment. Sheikh Hamdan is nicknamed Fazza, Arabic for one that rushes to the useful resource of others. He turned into appointed crown prince in 2008, bypassing an older brother Sheikh Rashid, who handed away in 2015 on the age of 33.
While his social media bills are peppered with extra formal snap shots of presidency enterprise, Sheikh Hamdan has additionally been featured skydiving, mountain climbing, horse driving or status on pinnacle of the world’s tallest tower. He has 14.6 million Instagram followers – equal to extra than the populace of the UAE – and mingles with human beings in Dubai’s department stores and restaurants, persevering with the picture of the approachable chief his father cultivated as he prepares for his destiny position.
Hamdan accompanies his father to maximum conferences with different rulers withinside the UAE’s sheikhdoms and chairs Dubai’s 22-member Executive Council, which incorporates his brother. The Council’s internet site says Hamdan “is characterised with the aid of using his younger and dynamic personality” that has helped him construct connections with the Dubai populace. He’s additionally chairman of the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, the Investment Corporation of Dubai.
Maktoum, meanwhile, is defined with the aid of using the council as having “the trends of an bold younger chief.” He shot into the highlight while he turned into appointed finance minister for the UAE in September 2021 after the demise of his uncle. Spearheading percentage income of lengthy prized kingdom-owned companies delivered him to the eye of traders. For years that they’d known as for the list of kingdom-run agencies to reinforce Dubai’s inventory marketplace.
“Sheikh Maktoum is presently gambling the position it truly is set out for him, that is described and technical,” stated Sheikha Najla Al Qassimi, a senior researcher at Dubai Public Policy Research Centre, B’huth, who has additionally served as a UAE ambassador. “Sheikh Hamdan’s position because the crown prince is extra political. He’s properly favored with the aid of using locals and tribes even as additionally capable of join and enchantment to Dubai’s massive expatriate community.”
This yr’s public listings are the begin of a flurry it truly is set to peer a complete of 10 kingdom-owned companies provide stocks to traders. Sheikh Maktoum has helped push thru the sale of stakes withinside the foremost utility, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, at the side of enterprise park operator Tecom Group, elevating extra than $6 billion in total.
Investors in September snapped up all of the stocks on provide in street toll operator Salik, and Dubai accelerated the sale’s size. The transaction, coordinated with the aid of using Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch amongst others, is designed to raise $1 billion. “As the economic hub of the area, Dubai’s markets aren’t absolutely reflecting that reputation,” stated Mohamed Abu Basha, head of macroeconomic studies at Egyptian funding financial institution EFG Hermes. “If you need to similarly increase the Dubai story, you want to keep this IPO push which I suppose is lengthy overdue.”
Sheikh Maktoum has additionally zeroed in on company governance. As the top of the government’s auditing department, he maintains a hawkish gaze at the price range of Dubai’s kingdom-managed entities, a number of which had been at the foundation of Dubai’s economic issues over a decade ago. The cognizance makes sense – he is one of the foremost officers tasked with preserving tabs at the metropolis’s price range.
Since taking the helm on the Financial Audit Authority, the royal has ordered economic probes into numerous kingdom companies while suspecting feasible corruption, human beings acquainted with the problem say, declining to talk at the file approximately personal discussions. He maintains professional conferences short, severe and to the point, they stated, in a area in which prolonged chit-chat over tea regularly precedes setting out to enterprise.
An government at a Dubai-owned agency stated he turned into amazed while he acquired a name from Sheikh Maktoum’s workplace summoning him. As he arrived on the offices, he turned into ushered in best for Sheikh Maktoum to stroll in few moments later with a bottle of water in his hand. He straight away commenced going over a few transactions, requesting information and reasons. Unsettled with the aid of using the meeting, the government nervously commenced achieving for his documents earlier than being positioned comfortable with the aid of using the sheikh, he stated, declining to be recognized with the aid of using call while speakme approximately a non-public meeting. When he left, Sheikh Maktoum handed on his direct number.
Sheikh Maktoum, who additionally holds the jobs of a deputy top minister and deputy ruler of Dubai, is understood to request updates on particular initiatives a few instances past due at night time or on weekends, one banker stated. There’s been tremendous extrade in UAE inventory exchanges due to the fact that Sheikh Maktoum took over,” stated Tarek Fadlallah, head of Nomura Asset Management’s Middle East enterprise. “It truely allows that he is the son of Dubai’s ruler and that he is from a technology it truly is cushty with speedy extrade.”
Sheikh Maktoum’s intention is to make certain Dubai’s meltdown of 2009, while it required a $20 billion bailout from Abu Dhabi, isn’t always repeated. When Sheikh Maktoum turned into in his early 20s and Dubai teetered getting ready to default, he grew to become to Al-Shaikh, the finance leader on the time, for an in depth walk-thru of the economic situation. “He requested me to take a seat down with him and run him thru the numbers,” Al-Shaikh stated. “He desired to recognise in which precisely the pressure factors had been and what triggered them.”
Dubai now faces clean hurdles. Earlier this yr, the UAE turned into brought to the Paris-primarily based totally watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s so-known as ‘grey list’, indicating the Gulf nation’s shortcomings in tackling illicit funds. Since then, the UAE has stated it might ramp up extradition pacts.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, global scrutiny over how Dubai tackles illicit finance has accelerated. Politically, the UAE has maintained ties with Russia. UAE officers have stated privately the u . s . will abide with the aid of using global sanctions. Saudi Arabia’s commencing up beneathneath millennial de facto chief Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is likewise starting to trap overseas skills that could typically have ended up in Dubai.
The UAE has answered with efforts to make the u . s . extra appealing to overseas companies and inspire incomers to place down deeper roots. It decriminalized cohabitation of single couples, allowed expatriates to marry, divorce and use inheritance legal guidelines in their domestic countries, and eliminated a demand to have a license to eat alcohol. It’s additionally abolished the want for nearby companions to begin a enterprise. It has initiated lengthy-time period visa schemes and selectively opened the door to granting UAE citizenship, a unprecedented circulate withinside the Gulf area.
How Dubai navigates the subsequent bankruptcy will come right all the way down to the dynamic among the 2 brothers as Sheikh Hamdan sooner or later succeeds his father because the face of the city, whilst Sheikh Maktoum cements his position because the numbers man. When Sheikh Maktoum became first appointed, “there have been quite low expectations,” stated Jim Krane, creator of the 2009 ee-e book City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism. “He became form of an unknown quantity. But he is rising so prominently with the aid of using the pressure of his persona and his willingness to get involved.”