Dubai offers to host United Nations

Landmark projects, such as the airport, are one reason Dubai is a strong candidate to host the UN.

The government of Dubai has issued a statement offering to house the United Nations, should the organisation decide to move from the US – prompting cheers from the construction industry.

Following a report in US-based Forbes magazine last week by an American academic, publicised across the GCC here on constructionweekonline.com, the government of Dubai has announced in a statement that it is: “Fully prepared to host the UN headquarters on its territory in the event its officials take the decision to move from New York"

The article, written by Joel Kotkin, a professor in ‘Urban Futures’ at Chapman University in California, makes a compelling case.

He argues that following the construction boom there is plenty of office, residential and hotel space available, saying that the government could: “…Offer to build a United Nations City to house the UN in any number of vacant office towers. Business Bay has 65 million square feet of office space under construction in more than 200 high-rises.

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Among the comments left on the original story, Andrew Bannister summed up the mood by saying: “In my opinion, having the UN [re-located] into the centre of the most populated landmass on earth and with simply the best airports and available buildings and housing already finished and currently empty would be the perfect centre for world unity.”

As yet, the UN has not commented on the suggestion. However, the headquaters in New York are known to be riddled with asbestos and in need of extensive repairs. An internal report recommended moving, at least on a temporary basis, in 2015.

Singapore was marked as a possible location; however, the author of the article points out: “[Singapore] is already crowded, expensive and highly regulated… In contrast, the Dubai government has transformed a once vast, empty landscape into a Star Wars-like capital city of the future. There is no skyline more arresting than the one built over the past 15 years by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.”