Hazar Raporu - Issue 02 - Winter 2012

Strategic Assessment of Euro-Asian
Trade and Transportation
Azerbaijan as a Regional Hub in Central Eurasia *
Executive Summary
December 2012
Taleh Ziyadov
* The special report is prepared in association with the Caspian Forum 2012 (Istanbul,
5-6 December 2012) organized in partnership by the Caspian Strategy Institute (CSI), the
Brookings Institute, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Cambridge
(UK). It is a succinct version of the recently published book by Azerbaijan Diplomatic
Academy (ADA) in Baku titled: “Azerbaijan as a Regional Hub in Central Eurasia” (Baku:
ADA, 2012).
The Need for a Common Vision
for the Future
In 1965, the late Sheikh Rashid bin Said
Al-Maktum, the visionary ruler of Dubai,
asked his British advisers to draw up a
plan for the construction of a port. It
took a British engineering firm two years
to complete a comprehensive master
planning study for the proposed port site,
adjacent to the centuries-old Al Shindagah
neighborhood in downtown Dubai. Based
on the market assessment and future
traffic forecasts, the advisers concluded
that the new port would need only four
berths. Having carefully considered the
proposal, Sheikh Rashid demanded that
the plan be altered to include sixteen
berths instead of four. The British advisers
reluctantly complied. The port was finally
opened in 1971, and all sixteen berths
were oversubscribed by the end of the
first year of operation. Further expansions
followed, and more berths were built in
subsequent years. 1 Sheikh Rashid was
convinced that Dubai was bound to
become the most important transport
hub in the Middle East, and even beyond.
Today, the Rashid Port, the Jabal Ali
Port and Free Zone, Dubai International
Airport, and many other state-of-the-art
projects in the Dubai emirate stand as
testaments to Sheikh Rashid’s foresight
and vision.
1 Christopher M. Davidson, Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2008), pp. 92–93.
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