umm hussain
Junior Member
THE announcement on Monday that the US oil services giant Halliburton Corporation was moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai from Houston, Texas, caught many people by surprise. Some politicians in the US, notably Sen. Hillary Clinton, fumed openly about how unpatriotic and possibly tax-evasive Halliburton was being by moving to the low-income tax and pro-business environment of the Gulf emirate.
Halliburton insisted that it would remain a US-incorporated company and that it would continue to pay US taxes.
Nonetheless, the more people thought about it, the more it made sense for Halliburton to move to a part of the world which accounts for nearly 40 percent of its income. Not only is the oil sector booming, but Dubai is right next door to the huge oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and the soon-to-be flung open oil industry in Iraq. The move to Dubai is also a testament to the fact that the city has managed to become a world-class business and financial center that is managing to attract blue-chip multinationals and the talent that comes with them. Dubai is rapidly transforming itself into a regional hub for transportation, finance and communications. And the rulers of Dubai must be enjoying the irony of a top US corporation relocating there after US politicians last year forced Dubai Ports to sell its US ports operations because xenophobic Americans feared they could not trust the security of US ports to an Arab-owned company.
Halliburton has been viewed with much mistrust the world over since 2003 when its KBR subsidiary won a highly lucrative contract to supply the US military in Iraq and its overbilling the US government by millions of dollars was widely publicized. The fact that US Vice President Dick Cheney led Halliburton from 1995 to 2000 and is still receiving deferred income from the company gave many observers the impression that Halliburton was just a tool of the Bush administration in its Middle East adventures. Moving to Dubai should help dispel those rumors.
But Halliburton will have to work much harder to change its image of being a cold-hearted, greedy corporation that managed to make record profits of $2.3 billion last year on revenues of $13 billion. Whether true or not, the public believes that a large share of that profit came from its Iraq contract and this appalls many Arabs, Muslims and Americans who regard the US invasion and continued occupation of Iraq as unjust, brutal and illegal.
Halliburton plans to spin off its KBR subsidiary — which handled the now canceled Iraq contract — in order to focus on the oil industry. That should help improve the company’s image, though it is doubtful that it will ever be able to completely shake off its perceived close ties to Cheney and the US military. Dubai is the clear winner in all of this. Halliburton will create more jobs locally, pump money into the local economy and bring the kind of corporate knowledge that has allowed it to remain one of the biggest and most successful corporations in America.
Halliburton insisted that it would remain a US-incorporated company and that it would continue to pay US taxes.
Nonetheless, the more people thought about it, the more it made sense for Halliburton to move to a part of the world which accounts for nearly 40 percent of its income. Not only is the oil sector booming, but Dubai is right next door to the huge oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and the soon-to-be flung open oil industry in Iraq. The move to Dubai is also a testament to the fact that the city has managed to become a world-class business and financial center that is managing to attract blue-chip multinationals and the talent that comes with them. Dubai is rapidly transforming itself into a regional hub for transportation, finance and communications. And the rulers of Dubai must be enjoying the irony of a top US corporation relocating there after US politicians last year forced Dubai Ports to sell its US ports operations because xenophobic Americans feared they could not trust the security of US ports to an Arab-owned company.
Halliburton has been viewed with much mistrust the world over since 2003 when its KBR subsidiary won a highly lucrative contract to supply the US military in Iraq and its overbilling the US government by millions of dollars was widely publicized. The fact that US Vice President Dick Cheney led Halliburton from 1995 to 2000 and is still receiving deferred income from the company gave many observers the impression that Halliburton was just a tool of the Bush administration in its Middle East adventures. Moving to Dubai should help dispel those rumors.
But Halliburton will have to work much harder to change its image of being a cold-hearted, greedy corporation that managed to make record profits of $2.3 billion last year on revenues of $13 billion. Whether true or not, the public believes that a large share of that profit came from its Iraq contract and this appalls many Arabs, Muslims and Americans who regard the US invasion and continued occupation of Iraq as unjust, brutal and illegal.
Halliburton plans to spin off its KBR subsidiary — which handled the now canceled Iraq contract — in order to focus on the oil industry. That should help improve the company’s image, though it is doubtful that it will ever be able to completely shake off its perceived close ties to Cheney and the US military. Dubai is the clear winner in all of this. Halliburton will create more jobs locally, pump money into the local economy and bring the kind of corporate knowledge that has allowed it to remain one of the biggest and most successful corporations in America.