Dubai's vow of silence over stalled developments seems to be working

Along the coast, hoardings display advertisements for The Waterfront, a city twice the size of Hong Kong island, designed to house 1.5m people. Inland, in the middle of the desert, the entrance is the most visible presence of Dubailand, a collection of theme parks twice as big as Disney World that, for the most part, exists on websites only.

The Tiger Woods golf course, to be irrigated by 4m gallons of water a day and surrounded by multi-million dollar mansions, has just three holes completed.

But perhaps even more remarkable than Dubai's ambitions, is the approach the city has taken to the crisis that has brought these latest projects shuddering to a stop. Weighed down by debts officially put at $80bn (£49.1bn), both the Dubai authorities and the companies responsible have taken a vow of silence.

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