The Dubai International Financial Centre has increased its contribution to the emirate's and the UAE's economy in 2022, and is set to attract more finance-related foreign direct investment to Dubai next year.
The financial centre is ending the year with an “exceptional” performance, reaffirming the city's status as a global financial centre, said DIFC Governor Essa Kazim.
The DIFC will continue to attract more FDI to Dubai in 2023, the financial free zone's Higher Board of Directors said in a meeting chaired by Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and president of the DIFC.
“During 2022, [the] DIFC successfully increased its economic contribution to the UAE and Dubai’s economies by delivering on the key objectives of its 2030 strategy,” Mr Kazim said.
“As we move towards 2023, [the] DIFC remains focused on its vision to drive the future of finance, which will attract more finance-related FDI projects to Dubai and further enhance our reputation as the region’s leading global financial centre.”
The DIFC is pursuing the main goals of its 2030 strategy, including the development of Dubai into a financial innovation and technology centre.
Other key objectives include the expansion of the DIFC Innovation Hub, the development of regulations for digital assets and future-focused approaches to resolution management.
A total of 537 companies joined the DIFC in the first half of this year, an 11 per cent increase from the same period last year, reaffirming the emirate’s status as a global financial centre, according to figures released in September.
The number of registered companies grew to 4,031 during the six-month period, from 3,297 in the same period last year. The total number of companies operating in the DIFC grew by 22 per cent on an annual basis.
“We continue to work to raise the UAE and Dubai’s stature and competitiveness as a leading international business and financial services hub,” Sheikh Maktoum said on Monday.
The Higher Board reviewed the key achievements of the centre’s three independent bodies — the DIFC Authority, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and the DIFC Courts — in 2022.
The meeting highlighted the role of senior DIFC management and their teams in making the centre the world’s best-performing free zone globally in terms of attracting FDI projects to the financial services sector over the past five years.
The meeting also urged DIFC bodies to “remain focused on the future and continue to work to consolidate Dubai’s position as one of the world’s highest-ranked financial centres”, the Dubai Media Office said.
It also discussed how DIFC can further contribute to the financial industry's global climate, environmental, social and governance goals that will be discussed during the Cop28 conference that will be hosted by Dubai next year.
With a track record of supporting trade and investment flows across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, the DIFC connects fast-growing markets in the region with the economies of Asia, Europe and the Americas.
The centre is home to an internationally recognised independent regulator and a judicial system with an English common law framework, as well as the region’s largest financial ecosystem of almost 30,000 professionals and more than 4,000 active registered companies.
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The Voice of Hind Rajab
Starring: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury, Motaz Malhees
Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
Rating: 4/5
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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AT4 Ultimate, as tested
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Sector: e-commerce
Size: 600 plus
Stage: still in talks with VCs
Principal Investors: self-financed by founder
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