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"Heineken has always been a
very creative company and
committed to growing the
entire beer sectorit's a
good strategy."
THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN
meet you there
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no camera
Heineken has been active across the Middle East and northern
Africa for the better part of 70 years, and its brand presence is
strong across the board in a region whose wealth has increased
exponentially on the coattails of the current oil boom. The
ongoing war in Iraq and last year's political unrest in Lebanon
might dominate the front pages, but the growing economies of
the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Jordan, just to name a few,
are solid fixtures in the financial sections of international dailies.
As the citizens of Dubai, Amman and other regional capitals become
increasingly more cosmopolitan and affluent, their governments are facili
tating their aspirations by converting petrol dollars into culture building
infrastructure. Dubai's showy affluence and dazzling glitz and glamour is
perhaps the most obvious example, but it is hardly the only one.
The UAE's capital city of Abu Dhabi, for example, expects to open up a
Guggenheim Museum by 2011, showcasing both modern and contemporary
art. Doha, the capital of the natural gas-rich country of Qatar, is soon to
unveil its Qatar Campus, a joint venture with Cornell University that will
bring Ivy League academics to the country's best and brightest. And
Jordan's capital city Amman, bolstered by its reputation for stability and
calm, has become a magnet for foreign investment of late. The city's his
toric centre, for example, is currently undergoing an extravagant $1.5 bil
lion upgrade with luxury apartments, high-rise towers, hotels, luxury retail
outlets and a sister campus to a new private American university (with its
own Ivy League connections, this time Columbia) down the road in Aqaba.
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