Fall/Winter 2002, Vol 27, Nos 3&4

Abstract: Singapore is often quoted as an exemplary city to have successfully embedded its development strategy within the global economic circuit while the main United Arab Emirates cities are among many urban regions in the developing countries that hope to emulate Singapore as an emerging global city. The following study delves into the very path that each of the subject cities has employed and is an attempt to evaluate both the past development and the present and future capacity of their milieu, through an institutional study approach, to accomplish their respective “development visions” and emerge as economic centres of the global supply chain. This particular study is the first of its kind to include these cities as part of a comparative study with an established regional global city.