UAE Revisited

Overnight, Emirates Team New Zealand defeated BMW ORACLE Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup Round Robin 2 series in Valencia.

Six weeks ago, I visited the UAE, home of the Emirates, for the first time and met some great people. I was joined by John Beer, my UK-based Pingar partner.

We met Hesham Salah, Business Development Manager - Middle East New Zealand Trade & Enterprise at his offices in Dubai. I actually have a scheduled teleconference with Hesham tonight. We met Vimal Sethi, Developer and Platform Group GM for Microsoft Gulf in Dubai Internet City. Another great person to meet was ex-pat Kiwi, Lucia Dore, Senior Business Correspondent of the Khaleej Times.

From times past, it was also good to catch up with John Boutros, who is now General Manager of Grapheast, Middle East distributor of Adobe and Corel products. Sixteen years ago, I supplied Al Hayat and Sawt al Kuwait newspaper groups with Apple publishing systems. I met John and his brother Mourad in London during this time. Mourad remains one of the most eminent calligraphers of the Arabic typeface.

The UAE is made up of different emirates, the two largest being Abu Dhabi and Dubai. And they are everything you read about. Architects and planners there are not constrained by a New Zealand style Resource Management Act. Yet the region's growth, amazing as it is, is all part of a long-term plan. It is the living proof of one of my mother's favourite sayings. 'If you put your mind to it, anything is possible'.