There are some astounding similarities between Dubai and Malta.

Both have around the same number of citizens. Both are heavily dependent on the construction industry. Both have an inordinate amount of untenanted properties.

And now they are going to become even more alike: with SmartCity Malta, we will also get the Dubai template injected into our bloodstream. The template was encapsulated by Mohammed el Mulla, one of the directors of Dubai Internet City, who told the visiting Maltese delegation headed by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi last Tuesday how Dubai had transformed an economy based on oil to one based on technology and hi-tech.

“There is no ceiling for us,” he said. “The key factor is a willingness to change and to adapt. Attitude is all-important. We are undeterred by challenge and by change. We are willing to take risks and each time we face a challenge, we go out of our way to meet it and succeed.”

Indeed, all over Dubai, but especially in Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City, one could feel this go-getter factor, this rising to face up to challenges, and this no limits approach.

Of course one can object, but then they have oil, and their democracy is nothing like ours.

Yes, and no, for their production of oil does not equal, for instance, the production of Kuwait, Abu Dhabi or Saudi Arabia. And they have started from far back, certainly further back than where we stand: their work force was uneducated; they do not have a background of culture and history we have.

There is all around in Dubai, from Emirates to SmartCity, a culture of excellence, of doing things well, of attention to small details, of leaving nothing untoward, or exposed or untackled.

As to the political systems here and there, it might seem that our political system makes for indecisiveness (especially in pre-election times), passing the buck and intellectual sloth, whereas the absence of a political system, as we understand it, there, seems to make for fast and structural and strategic decisions.

I have expressed some doubts elsewhere regarding how the Dubai SmartCity experience can be transplanted to Malta, doubts which only the cut and thrust of experience will solve.

As it is, I doubt whether our constructors need to learn anything from the Dubai template, although there are Maltese construction firms operating there (though not all who go there return with contracts in their pockets).

The buildings they put up there are of very high standards, and there is also a Maltese architect who has been responsible for the building of a high-rise.

But there is a lot that this country as a whole can learn from the Dubai template: the no ceiling mentality, the attention to the smallest detail, the search for excellence, and the appetite for new challenges.

Here are, for instance, some upcoming creations in the Dubai Studio City:

• Dubailand – an amusement park twice the size of the world’s largest theme park

• Bawadi – the largest development of hotels in the world with 31 hotels adding up to an impressive 29,000 hotel rooms

• Dubai Sports City – a world class venue for sports events

• Autodrome – a fully integrated motor sports facility designed to accommodate large crowds for world class motor sports events

• New Airport City – a project that features the world’s largest airport

And further on:

• Restless Planet – a dinosaur park with simulated earthquakes

• Dubai Bazaar – a traditional Islamic marketplace with a souk-like ambience

• Burj Dubai – the world’s tallest tower

• Ski Dome – an indoor ski resort with a Penguinarium

• The Palm – a luxurious palm-tree-shaped resort island.

And all this thousands of miles away from anybody, where connections are long and tiring, with heat well into the late 40s and with a workforce that has to be imported and not all of good quality.