Dubai launches executive shake-up after crisis

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Dubai restructured its government decision-making process on Thursday in an effort to draw a line under the financial crisis that raised questions about governance in the Gulf’s commercial hub late last year.

Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed al-Maktoum, head of the executive council, the emirate’s top decision-making body, has created five committees to be run by long-standing government officials.

The move has been seen as a further effort to replace the generation of flashy young technocrats associated with Dubai’s boom and bust – which loaded the emirate with debts of more than $100bn (€71bn, £62bn) – with more sober functionaries with close ties to the ruling family.