How can Masdar in the UAE be built from scratch?

Published December 7, 2010 | By Bman

Question by Thomas Waters: How can Masdar in the UAE be built from scratch?
I just dont understand how an entire city can be built from scratch? Where does all the money come from, investors? How will they profit? Who will live there, how do they know that anyone will move in? Where is the incentive for investors to invest and for people to move there? Are they creating jobs? Are they designing homes just to sell them or are they selling lots to build on? I have heard there will be only about 50,000 people living there, will there be a lower class area for the people that work at grocery stores, etc? How does this work? I just dont understand, please help me! Thanks!

Post Script: Any links or books on this would also be appreciated.
* By scratch, I mean that it is being built on a piece of vacant desert within a very short duration and not being built up gradually over several decades or even centuries of improvements and gradual population growth.
** Thank you for the examples you provided. What really puzzles me is not that it can be done, but how it is accomplished; the actual process. Do they outsource architects to design the entire thing and then look for investors to contract with them (For example, so-and-so has contracted to build a grocery store or bank, etc. inside our new city?) Do they already have bids coming in to buy residential units before they are built? That kind of thing and the process that they go through is what most interests me. Thank you OAG, you have been most obliging.

Best answer:

Answer by OAG
What do you mean by Scratch??

The Money comes from Mubadala Development Company a state owned company.