Mohammed bin Rashid Launches Palm Jebel Ali

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, announced on Wednesday a new plan to create the artificial island of Palm Jebel Ali, which had been on hold since 2009 following a real estate collapse. This new island will be double the size of the already constructed Palm Jumeirah. Sheikh Mohammed stated that visitors to the island will enjoy more than 80 hotels and resorts, with its beaches stretching up to 110 kilometers. The developer of the islands is Nakheel Properties, a state-owned company that was taken over by the government in 2011 as part of a $16 billion bailout plan following the real estate collapse in Dubai between 2009 and 2010. The Dubai real estate market, the financial and tourism hub of the Middle East, began to recover in early 2021 as the government moved to rapidly reopen its economy and airports following the COVID-19 pandemic.