When Riad Kamal, a Palestinian engineer, arrived in Dubai in 1974 the first project he worked on was the Pearl Building, a 17-storey tower that was then the tallest building in the commercially minded but still unknown trading hub.
More than three decades later, Arabtec, the company that Mr Kamal founded and has nurtured into one of the leading construction businesses in the United Arab Emirates, is due to complete the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building. In the first nine months of last year, Arabtec’s profits more than doubled to Dh761m ($207.3m) compared with the same period the previous year.
However, the completion of the Burj Dubai will come at one of the most trying periods not just for the UAE, but also for Dubai and Mr Kamal’s construction company. The credit crunch has undermined the previously booming property market and caused developers to cancel several projects and review all future plans.
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