Tim Askew
iN some CoUNtries,
Managing director,
sUCh As IndIa,
Atkins in the Middle East
“braIn cIrculaTIon”
one hundred years ago, the middle east
hAs loNg beeN
was sparsely populated, with smaller
communities than we see today, no oil
A feAtUre of industry, and little industrialisation or
the employmenT
Western influence. the rub al khali – the
lANdsCApe
inhospitable desert or “empty quarter”
that stretches from oman to riyadh and
the emirates to Yemen – has been crossed
by bedouin communities for centuries, but
was more or less unexplored by europeans until
the forties and fifties. today, however, with the growth of the
oil industry and the arrival of foreign investment, the region
has become a vibrant commercial hub.
Atkins has been in the United Arab emirates since the
seventies. back then, the economy was driven by people
coming in from other countries, applying for a work permit
and living here on a temporary basis – typically, europeans
signed up for two-year contracts to work in the region and
then left. it was a short-term brain gain for the region and,
given the size of the indigenous population, it was an impor-
tant part of local development.
today, we find ourselves with 2,500 staff in the middle east 37
(1,000 based in dubai alone) and ex-pat families that settled
here 25 years ago. this has major benefits to the company and
to the emirates, and is a reflection of the benefits of living here.
more and more young people are also coming to the middle
east looking for opportunity, and they have become much more
part of the fabric of the local economy. this is a major change
for the region. people used to come to work in the peninsula
largely for the money, but more and more it’s about the lifestyle.
it’s attracting a lot of professionals, particularly dubai, which is
pitching for higher end industry and commerce – banking,
finance, tourism. it creates an interesting society because people
come to dubai with a fixed idea of how long they will be stay-
ing, but they tend to stay longer than they expected.
staff in dubai generally work hard and play hard – it’s a
very work-centric environment. people are serious about work
and highly motivated. it’s brain gain at its best. it creates a
society where you can have fun, but generally speaking, work
remains at the centre of everything. this is in sharp contrast to
a developed environment where society is much more mixed
and lifestyle tends to be the centre of everyone’s environment.
places like dubai are enjoying a lot of investment from
around the peninsula, which is creating, at a reasonable cost,
the kind of high quality environment that professional people
want to move to, make some money and enjoy themselves.
it’s more than brain gain; it’s building one of the fastest grow-
ing societies in the world.
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