[Anderson:] At the Global Exchange here on Connect the World live from Abu Dhabi. Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson. Well, Lebanon's parliament will convene on Wednesday to start what is the process of choosing the country's new president. Now the decision comes at what is a difficult time. There are deep rifts over the current influx of Syrian refugees, as I'm sure you're well aware. And the role of the Shiite group Hezbollah, whose militant wing has been implicated in a recent spate of deadly violence. Our emerging markets editor John Defterios joining me with the details of the economic domino effect, as it were. This position of president it doesn't really hold real powers. So why is this selection proving so important, John?
[John Defterios, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, I think it's any opportunity to grasp stability, because they've been lacking stability for the better part of a year. It went almost a year without a government, then they have a cabinet of special interests that has a 100 day mandate, which is not a whole lot to get things passed as you know here. So the suggestion is that if a strong president can come in, probably with the military tilt, it will provide the stability to then go for reelections here, parliamentary elections. Now this can be very divisive, as you know, you have the March 14 camp, which is backed by the Sunnis and the March 8 camp which is backed by the Shia. So they have very different supports for the candidates that are there. The one candidate that has emerged has military backing is probably a couple of others like Michel Aoun on the sidelines that may emerge if they go to this vote tomorrow and cannot build a two-thirds consensus. That's the big question mark. But look at the result now and you know this that in Lebanon, they're usually extremely resilient. I was on the ground there a month ago and you can see it in the eyes of the Lebanese people. They don't feel comfortable. They've had the crisis on their borders for the last three years. And it shows up in the growth. Let's take a look at what I'm talking about here. Going back to 2008, 2009 and then all the way up to 2013 we had growth, Becky, of 9 percent. And even at the height of the financial crisis and then the tail end of that crisis it was still growing at 7 percent. And look what happened the following three years of the civil war, growth of 1.5 percent. For an emerging market, a market that has a lot of capital coming in, it's very poor growth. Now can it bounce back is the big question not only after presidential elections, if there's any since of stability. And then it's all complicated by the elections that are going to be taking place in neighboring Syria going forward. Obviously this is going to have a ripple effect on what's taking place in Lebanon.
[Anderson:] Yeah. And those, of course, are on June 30, go back to 2006. As I was looking at that graph I was thinking I was there covering the war there in 2006 when things went pear-shaped for the economy again. And this this sort of [inaudible] opportunity and then this reverse. Knowing what is happening in neighboring Syria, could the situation be any worse at this point?
[Defterios:] It could be a lot worse. That's a very good point that you bring up here. We talked about 1.5 percent growth. When I was on the ground, which is just about 30 days ago, all the business leaders I spoke to, and even ministers within the cabinet think, if this happened in any other country in the world we would have been in recession. And what's the magic or the silver bullet here that kept them above water. Take a look at this big number that we accumulated here. This is capital inflows for the last six years coming in to Lebanon. Look at the number here as we tally it up. Nearly $100 billion. So this is the Lebanese diaspora, Lebanese expat community funneling money back into the homeland. Obviously because they want to support their country, but they have a lot of trust in the banking sector. They know it's a very stable banking sector. And they have a lot of confidence in their central bank governor. I talked to him just a month ago. Let's get his analysis on why it didn't slip into recession.
[Riad Salame, Governor, Bank Of Lebanon:] Lebanon has retained the potential to rebound, because of the large inflows that are still coming to the country, to its banking sector. So we hope that political solutions will happen in Syria and in the Middle East in general and Lebanon will rebound quickly.
[Defterios:] That's the hope of the central bank governor. As you know, he's got a lot of trust around the world, has been voted the best central bank governor around the world by both Euro Money and of course others, including The Banker magazine. That $100 billion, very interesting figure, $50 billion this is a population of only 4 million people $50 billion has been funneled into the real estate sector. All those abroad want to own a piece of Lebanon even with all that chaos, Becky.
[Anderson:] Many of those, of course, are Syrian refugees at the moment.
[Defterios:] Yes.
[Anderson:] All right, John, we're at the Global Exchange.
[Defterios:] Well, we know during this tumult in the region that Dubai and the UAE overall have benefited from the rush of capital coming in because of what we've seen with the Arab Spring countries. Projects abound, particularly in Dubai right now, but one is circled around racing, horse racing. And the developer is making a big bet this could pay off as a winner in the years to come. For one day a year Dubai is the center of the horse racing universe. The Dubai World Cup, hosted here at Meydan, is the richest on the planet. The first Dubai World Cup was held in 1996 at a venue, which could be described as a track in the desert, certainly not this green oasis. Meydan opened in 2010 to put the emirate on the sporting map. Now it's at the heart of a much bigger master plan leading up to the World Expo in 2020. That plan is to build a high end mini-city, a short [inaudible] from Dubai's financial district with Meydan its physical and philosophical heart. Stage one meant turning the race course into a year-round destination.
[Frank Gabriel, Frm. Ceo, Dubai Racing Club:] 2005 I came here, it was just horse racing. And all of a sudden within six months we were building a master plan of a race track in a city and then next thing you know we're just we never stopped moving.
[Defterios:] First came the grandstand, a statement construction stretching over a kilometer. The five star Meydan Hotel was completed the same year, 2010. Then came an IMAX cinema, art gallery, tennis center and golf course. With each addition, Meydan's reach extended beyond its equestrian origins. Stage two is by far the most ambitious.
[Unidentified Male:] The horse racing and the equestrian industry is the heart and soul of Meydan. And that will always be in our pedigree. But developing a city just put us on the global map.
[Defterios:] That city is named after the rule, Mohammed bin Rashad al Maktoum City. It's an $8 billion, 1,500 villa development spanning over 16 million square meters.
[Unidentified Female:] So between one row of villas and another you have a certain amount of space.
[Defterios:] The development takes a thoroughbred lifestyle Meydan seeks to embody back at the race track and recreates it on a massive scale. Four to eight bedroom villas cost $6,200 per square meter, that's over 40 percent more than the average cost of villas in Dubai, according to the real estate consultancy CBRE. From a simple race course in the desert to the heart of a luxury new mini city. Meydan is a premiere sports venue that now extends way beyond its equine beginnings. John Defterios, CNN, Dubai.