I’ve lived in both and while the similarities are there, it’s a bit different. Singapore still has a majority non expat population while Dubai has only about a 10% local population. Singapore also invests heavily in local education with one of the highest densities of PhDs in the world.
Dubai was always an economy built on a bubble. As much as I hate how they treat foreign laborers and as much as I hate their current leaders, I have some respect for how far they were able to get with this model.
But ultimately, they are a country with little land, little water, terrible weather, and surviving on a vast expat population that has no path to citizenship and will always just see it as a destination to milk for as much money as possible.
I don’t see how such a model could ever be seen as sustainable in the long run.
This is a great point and matches my experience as well.