Dubai's Future

Dubai ranked No1 for potential
http://www.business24-7.ae/articles/...f3d617090.aspx

Dubai was one of the top destinations for the firms surveyed to establish a regional office in the next few yearsDubai ranked No1 for potential By Ryan Harrison on Friday, September 26, 2008 Dubai is the financial centre with the most potential among world cities, and the number one location for companies to open new offices, according to an influential survey. Dubai led the charge for the Middle East in the Global Financial Centres Index, which ranked the emirate ahead of Qatar and Bahrain as cities most likely to become more significant on the world stage in future.Singapore, Shanghai and Mumbai also did well on this score.Dubai beat Geneva, New York, Mumbai and London as places firms surveyed said they would establish a regional office in the next few years.In the main ranking of financial centres, London came first, followed closely by New York. Dubai was ranked as 22nd, up one place from the previous study.The bi-annual survey is commissioned by the City of London and calculated by the Z/Yen group based on surveys together with publicly available indices of financial activity, infrastructure and affordability.One New York-based asset manager, who replied to the survey, said: "Just watch out for Dubai over the next five years – it has huge amounts of capital and a real willingness to do what it takes to become a global centre." The survey added: "It seems that the rise in importance of Dubai has meant that other Middle Eastern centres, particularly Qatar and Bahrain, are also gaining a higher profile.Stuart Pearce, chief executive of the Qatar Financial Centre, said: "More and more financial services companies are looking at the Middle East and are seeing it as a place of strategic importance."Qatar rose two places in the survey to 45 and was one of the biggest gainers in terms of points."Dubai continues to generate a great deal of comment and many respondents see the recently created centre as having huge future potential," said the survey.London is still first among world financial centres but its lead over rival cities, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, was been dealt a severe blow from the fallout of the credit crunch. New York remained in second place, while Singapore climbed past Hong Kong into third place, followed by Zurich, Geneva and a resurgent Tokyo, which rose two places to seventh.The survey found that both London and New York had lost ground since February in the wake of financial crises and huge job losses in financial services.Stuart Fraser, head of policy for the City of London, said the gap between New York and the third place city is now the smallest it has ever been. "London and New York are the two global cities and they are going to remain the global cities for a while yet but [other centres] will close the gap a bit. Singapore and Dubai are recruiting people. That makes them look positive."The latest index covers 59 cities. The last surveys were taken in July, so they do not reflect the effects of the banking crises of the past month.The big losers in the overall rankings included Frankfurt, which fell three places to ninth, and Paris down six places to 20th. However, old Europe scored victories as well, particularly in Scandinavia. Copenhagen was the fastest riser, jumping six places to 38th; and Oslo came in 41st, up four places.Since last autumn, New York has performed consistently better than London on the survey part of the rankings, although London's superior ranking on the objective criteria put it on top overall. Mr Fraser said he believed New York racked up extra points on the survey consistently because its transit system made it an easier place to get around.