EDITORIAL

February 23, 2006

Khaleej Times - Original Article (English)

Bush Administration Officials At Senate Arms
Services Committee, Trying to Head Off Congressional
Action to Stop a Deal That Would Put Control of Six
Major U.S. Ports in the Hands of a Dubai
State-Controlled Company. (above);

— C-SPAN VIDEO: Senate Armed Services Committee
Hearing on Dubai Ports World, Feb. 23, 02:44:25
[SLIDE SHOW:Firestorm Over Ports].

Senator Hillary Clinton, Listens to Testimony. (below)






On Point: Deputy Treasury
Secretary Robert Kimmitt. (above)

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EVEN as the world's attention is riveted on Dubai's ambitious and high profile $6.8 billion bid for U.K.-based ports operator, P&O, the Gulf investors are making a big splash around the world, especially in Asian markets.

U.S. interest groups may have gotten all worked up over the Dubai Ports World's winning bid for P&O, which will allow Dubai and the United Arab Emirates to control some of the most important ports in the world, including those in the United States. But big markets elsewhere, such as the growing economies of China, India and Far East, are only too willing to welcome investments from this part of the world.

In fact, according to the available economic statistics, Middle Eastern wealth, buoyed by the recent upsurge in oil prices, is playing a crucial role in major markets other than those in the West. And it isn't only major Middle Eastern companies and investors, but also the region's governments that are looking to diversify financial assets and investments into non-oil sectors. Hence the attention on Asian markets, which are hungry for investment, even as they are linked to the reassuring economic stability of the U.S. dollar, the currency of the global oil industry.

This is a significant shift that could have important political and economic implications in the years to come. Since, historically speaking, the West – the U.S. and Europe - have always been a favorite destination for Gulf investments, this shift of economic focus is remarkable, although not altogether so. After all, post September 11, we are living in an altogether different world.