City Mayors: Dubai - Hussain Nasser Lootah

Known as the Burj Dubai during construction, Burj Khalifa, the world's highest building, has been renamed after the leader of Dubai's oil-rich neighbour, Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi gave Dubai $10bn to help it pay off its debts.

FRONT PAGE
Site Search
About us | Quiénes somos |
A propos de nous | Über uns |
Mayor Monitor
Directories
Events
Debate

Mayors from The Americas, Europe. Asia, Australia and Africa are competing for the annual World Mayor Award. More

City Mayors ranks the world’s largest as well as richest cities and urban areas. It also ranks the cities in individual countries, and provides a list of the capital cities of some 200 sovereign countries. More

City Mayors reports political events, analyses the issues and depicts the main players. More

City Mayors describes and explains the structures and workings of local government in Europe, The Americas, Asia, Australia and Africa. More

City Mayors profiles city leaders from around the world and questions them about their achievements, policies and aims. More

City Mayors deals with economic and investment issues affecting towns and cities. More

City Mayors reports on how business developments impact on cities and examines cooperation between cities and the private sector. More

City Mayors describes and explains financial issues affecting local government. More

City Mayors lists and features urban events, conferences and conventions aimed at urban decision makers and those with an interst in cities worldwide. More

City Mayors reports urban environmental developments and examines the challenges faced by cities worldwide. More

City Mayors reports on and discusses urban development issues in developed and developing countries. More

City Mayors reports on developments in urban society and behaviour and reviews relevant research. More

City Mayors deals with urban transport issues in developed and developing countries and features the world’s greatest metro systems. More

City Mayors examines education issues and policies affecting children and adults in urban areas. More

City Mayors investigates health issues affecting urban areas with an emphasis on health in cities in developing countries. More

City Mayors examines the importance of urban tourism to city economies. More

City Mayors examines the contributions history and culture make to urban society and environment. More

City Mayors describes the history, architecture and politics of the greatest city halls in the world. More

City Mayors invites readers to write short stories about people in cities around the world. More

City Mayors questions those who govern the world’s cities and talks to men and women who contribute to urban society and environment. More

City Mayors profiles national and international organisations representing cities as well as those dealing with urban issues. More

City Mayors reports on major national and international sporting events and their impact on cities. More

City Mayors lists cities and city organisations, profiles individual mayors and provides information on hundreds of urban events. More

Dubai’s local government adjusts
priorities following the global crisis
By Brian Baker, Senior Correspondent

18 April 2010: Following the international downturn in 2008 and the subsequent difficulties at Dubai World, the Dubai government and the municipality under its Director General Hussain Nasser Lootah are adjusting their ambitious programmes and slow the hitherto rapid pace of development. The municipality is reviewing its approach whilst aiming to maintain as much activity as possible.

Until 2012 the priorities of the Director General include rationalising expenditures, proposing new revenue trails, deferring pay increases and implementing a revised marketing approach for projects and properties which will generate cash returns for the municipality.

The approach to the current circumstances, which is being implemented by Hussain Nasser Lootah includes rationalisations or cancellation of planned phases of some of the development projects and a search for lower cost alternatives. This work takes place in the context of efforts by the government to ensure banks continue to fund activity in both private and public sector enterprise.

However, the municipality has, so far, followed the same policy as the Government in excluding compulsory redundancies from its responses to the crisis.

The structural relationship between the Dubai government and the municipality of Dubai is complex but allows Lootah and his senior colleagues considerable flexibility over priorities within the approved frameworks. The municipality is also responsible for the delivery of a range of services to citizens.

By the end of 2011 the municipal strategic plan will be updated to address the period until 2015. The medium term vision of the municipality is to give a high emphasis to improvements in the environment and quality of life of citizens in the city. For example, by 2015 the municipality intends to complete the major sewage treatment plant at Jebel Ali which is budgeted at AED 560 million.

Dubai municipality intends to launch a green roofs programme and to further extend parks and gardens provision across its territory. It is already committed to increase planted areas in the urban parts of the city to 3.15% by the end of 2011.

Hussain Nasser Lootah has been the Director General of the municipality of Dubai since January 2009. He had served as Acting Director since 2006 and previously as Deputy Director.

Lootah graduated in civil engineering in the USA before returning to UAE to take up a post in the Federal Ministry for Electricity and Water.

In 1985 he moved to the municipality where he has held several senior positions including that of Assistant Director General of Environment and Public Health and Assistant Director General for Planning and Building Affairs.

The municipality employs 12,000 people, which makes it one of the largest employers in the gulf region.

The Director General manages the 34 department civic body. In its focus on maintaining as much of the development programme as possible in the short term the municipality has done all it can to retain expatriate skilled workers whilst being unable to prevent private companies from making redundancies. Its objective is to retain the skills base within the city in readiness for the global economic upturn.

In his earlier posts the Director General was instrumental in implementing the e-government programme which is likely to be completed by 2012 and in strategic plan making. He chaired the UAE Engineers Society form 1992-1996 after playing a leading role in establishing it.

Comment on this article
Read comments

Dubai City's Director General Hussain Nasser Lootah

On other pages
Dubai and Shanghai: Examples of wasteful urban development
The danger of treating climate change only as a man-made phenomenon that impacts nature’s systems is that it posits the problem in some distant remoteness and absolves all of us of immediate responsibility. The facts tell us that three-quarters of the carbon dioxide in the world, which is the biggest greenhouse gas, is emitted by cities. Dubai and Shanghai are models that ought to be avoided, as they are examples of environmentally wasteful urban development.

One has only to remember that half the population of the globe is urban today. Half this carbon dioxide is contributed by buildings, which need to heat or cool their interiors; the rest is generated by motorised transport, which is growing exponentially in this country. This puts quite a different spin on climate change: it locates the problem squarely in our midst, as urban-dwellers. More

Dubai’s local government adjusts priorities following the global crisis By Brian Baker, Senior Correspondent

Dubai’s local government adjusts
priorities following the global crisis
By Brian Baker, Senior Correspondent