Tallest Tower Planned in Dubai

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, head of Dubai World, discusses a tower that would be two-thirds of a mile high. (By Kamran Jebreili -- Associated Press)

Enlarge Photo

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

By Ellen Knickmeyer

Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 6, 2008; Page A11

CAIRO, Oct. 5 -- Defying the world credit crunch, one of the Persian Gulf's leading developers pledged Sunday to keep taking the boom city of Dubai up and up -- announcing plans for a skyscraper that would be the world's tallest, at two-thirds of a mile high.

But Dubai's stock market and others in the region, reopening Sunday after an extended break for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr last week, went down and down.

Traders in the United Arab Emirates, a kingdom that includes Dubai, are absorbing increasingly pessimistic assessments of the region's liquidity problems and concerns about how soon, and how sharply, demand in the building boom will drop.

The Dubai Financial Market's General Index fell 6.9 percent Sunday, its biggest drop since 2006. Markets in Abu Dhabi, another UAE state, and in Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait posted smaller losses.

In recent years, developers in Dubai have rushed to complete mega-projects such as the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest skyscraper at more than half a mile high.

Developer Nakheel PJSC said Sunday that it would build a complex that will include housing for 55,000 people, offices for 45,000 and the world's tallest tower.

Economists estimate that property prices in the United Arab Emirates will fall 10 to 20 percent over the next two years.