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Dubai is the acknowledged jewel of the United Arab Emirates.
But it is a jewel in a remarkably functional setting.
Occupying an area of only 83,600 square kilometres, and
with a labour force of just 3.17 million, the UAE conducts
a $174 billion annual export trade with the likes of Japan,
South Korea, India, Iran, and Thailand. The similarly outsize
partners in its $141 billion import trade are even more
extensive: China, India, the US, Germany, Japan, Turkey,
Italy. Two very important sets of statistics – revenues
and expenditures – are in virtual parity at $54bn. And the
unemployment rate in the UAE is an enviably low 2.4%
(Estimates, the most recent available, are for 2009 or 2008.)