Dubai announced plans for a huge tourism and retail development including the largest shopping mall in the world, a fresh sign that the glitzy emirate has recovered its commercial ambitions after a crippling corporate debt crisis three years ago.

The development, on the outskirts of Dubai's current downtown area, will include a park 30 percent bigger than Hyde Park in London, said Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, also prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

A retail complex named the "Mall of the World" will be able to host 80 million visitors a year and include over 100 hotel facilities, Sheikh Mohammed said in a statement on Saturday.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • UAE (United Arab Emirates)

1. Terry Tee wrote: Just what the world needs, another temple to Mammon.  More seriously, it is said that this behemoth will cover the same area as London’s Hyde Park.  It would take me at least half an hour to walk across Hyde Park N-S; well over an hour to walk E-W. Which raises the question for me of how people are expected to move around this vast area.  Presumably giving a new meaning to:  shop until you drop.  In a word:  unrealistic. November 25, 7:18 pm | [comment link]

2. BlueOntario wrote: Hopefully there will be a lot of exits and other lessons learned from next door. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/middleeast/fire-at-qatar-mall-kills-19-including-13-children.html I also find it interesting that financiers find the area “a politically and economically stable haven.” Their neighbor across the Strait of Hormuz has a habit of influencing oil prices to spike every time they get mentioned in the news, which is often. Or maybe that’s the plan all along… November 25, 10:05 pm | [comment link]

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