Opportunity Dubai, heading up the Amazon bestseller list

Amazon.com ran out of stock on the first day of the release of my new book ‘Opportunity Dubai’, an affectionate memoir of my business adventures in this city and the analysis of events and investments in the 2000s as reported on AMEInfo.com, the Middle East’s leading business and financial website.

However, the publishers Harriman House still have books available and the button on the right-hand navigation will take you to their website to place an order. The book is presently with the UAE censors for approval and should hopefully be on general sale in Dubai later this month.

Brown in town

I am reporting this news on the day that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrives in Dubai on his begging-bowl tour of the Middle East. Having bankrupted his own country with his incompetent financial administration – and who can deny that as the decade-long finance minister he failed to halt the runaway house price boom, and sacrificed the economic health of the nation to become Prime Minister – Mr Brown thinks the Middle East will rush to invest in the UK.

He underestimates the wisdom of the people running the UAE. They are not impressed by the sudden collapse of the UK economy and will need to see proper measures being taken to put things right. Emergency nationalization of the banking sector is the ultimate failure for one of the financial capitals of the world.

Failed financial institutions generally fire their CEOs. It is ironic that an unelected Prime Minister is running the UK, having failed to call an early general election that he could so easily have won. Even the Business Secretary is an unelected bureaucrat recalled in a hurry from Brussels and given a peerage. So much for democracy.

Team GB

What is the Middle East supposed to make of this management team? It would be laughable if it was not so serious. Team GB deserves better than this national embarrassment.

Surely the ‘Opportunity Dubai’ of today is for Middle East countries to invest in a proven success on their own doorstep, and not to risk their money on a proven failure. Inward investment will secure the future of the region, and assets can be acquired overseas when the prices are at the bottom, not while they are still on a slippery slope downwards.

Mr Brown will not doubt be given a polite reception in Dubai today. But he will need to do a great deal more if he is to secure serious investment from the UAE which has far better opportunities for investment within its own borders.

‘Opportunity Dubai’ reached number 14 on the Amazon chart for entrepreneurship best-sellers on Day-One of publication before the online bookseller ran out of copies. You can still place orders on the link below for delivery when it becomes available again, which should not take long.
Order my book online from this link