Dubai and What Comes Next? Why the World's Centre of Gravity Is Shifting to Asia

A few days ago I returned from Dubai, where we continue to grow our activities, and once again one fundamental thing struck me. Despite the tense situation in the region, everything there works and the pace doesn't slow down. The state invests massively into infrastructure, the speed of development is brutal, and you can see the changes there literally from one month to the next. The roads are full, business is running, and people are working hard. But you only feel the real contrast the moment you come back to Europe. One week in that dynamic was enough for me to fully realise, upon arrival, just how slowed down Europe is compared to Asia. Suddenly you get the feeling that everything here is running at half power. I'm not claiming this applies one hundred percent to every single industry, but in Europe we are simply set to a completely different, far slower mode. This gap in dynamics made me think about where our world and global business are heading overall. Because Europe is evidently running out of breath.

The End of Western Dominance?

If we look at history, the 19th century belonged to Europe and the 20th to the USA. From what we see today not only in Dubai, but certainly across a significant part of Asia, it is clear that the 21st century is irreversibly becoming the century of Asia. You can feel there exactly that "hunger" we once had ourselves — that enormous hunger for change, for moving forward, and for constant progress. Europe has found itself in a situation where it no longer lies in the immediate vicinity of the main global centre of power and trade, but sits far outside this central axis. The new global centre of gravity has become the Indo-Pacific region. Just to give you an idea: it is expected that by 2050 as much as 52% of global GDP could come from Asia, which would give this continent back the dominant position it held 300 years ago.

Connectivity That Changes the Rules of the Game

Let's lean on one fascinating fact. From Dubai, within a six-hour flight, you can reach roughly 6 billion people. When you compare this reach with our Central European space — for example with Vienna — the difference in global business potential is vast.

The data and statistics only confirm this trend: Dubai is today a strategic crossroads. Within four hours of flight you reach roughly 2 billion people, and within an eight-hour flight you have access to the overwhelming majority of the world's population, thanks to which it has become the main nerve centre for global investment between East and West. That is a reach traditional European centres simply cannot compete with.

A Tangible Difference in Speed: Why Asia Sprints and Europe Walks

After returning from Asia, the contrast is truly palpable. You can genuinely feel the enormous difference in how fast people act, what they dedicate themselves to, and how promptly the entire economy reacts. Economists today attribute this phenomenon of Asian growth to the concept of the so-called "4 Ms" (Millennial, Middle-class, Metropolitan, Mobile-enabled):

• Millennial: Asia is home to 800 million millennials full of appetite and ambition, compared to 60 million in the EU and 66 million in the USA. These young people drive innovation and unprecedented consumption.
• Middle-class: Asia is home to 56% of the world's middle-class households. It is expected that by 2025 the consumer spending of the Asian middle class will surpass the spending of the entire rest of the world combined.
• Metropolitan: While the EU has only 18 cities with a population over one million and the USA has 10, in Asia there are more than 300. This enormous density of urban population creates ideal conditions for the rapid scaling of companies, which leads to more innovative and cheaper products.
• Mobile-enabled: With more than 4 billion mobile subscriptions and massive use of super-apps, Asia has long overtaken the West in technological adoption.

These numbers are not just some interesting statistics. For global business they carry one fundamental meaning: when such extreme population density, such enormous capital and purchasing power are concentrated in one place, and on top of that you have hundreds of millions of driven young people there, it creates absolutely unimaginable potential. Here in Europe we can try as hard as we want and we can do literally anything, but the weight of global business will simply, mathematically and inevitably, tip over there.

In practice and in results this means that, thanks to this enormous domestic market, Asian companies are able to test innovations, scale their business, and cut costs at a speed we can hardly compete with anymore. It means that the rules of the game, new global trends, and prices will no longer be dictated from the West, but from the East.

The new Asian system today connects more than five billion people from Saudi Arabia all the way to Japan and represents 40% of global GDP. Across this entire continent a massive wave of privatisation and growth is under way, and Asian assertiveness is changing trade and culture all around the world.

For us at BizPartner Group, a clear message follows from this: the world is adapting to a new Asian standard of speed and ambition. That is also the reason why we are actively developing our activities precisely in Dubai, while opening further markets alongside.

Anyone who wants to grow in business over the long term must perceive this shift in global dynamics, draw inspiration from it, and understand things in a broader context.