In a speech to delegates at the Hedge Funds World Middle East, Dr. Habib Al Mulla, Chairman of the Dubai Financial Services Authority, outlined his vision of the future for Dubai’s capital markets. He singled out good regulation as being the key to the success of the DIFC project and to wider financial reform in the Middle East.
Welcoming delegates to ‘the new Middle East’ Dr Al Mulla said: “The very fact that this conference is taking place, on such a financially sophisticated topic, with such distinguished speakers, and to such a notable audience, with CNBC as official broadcaster, is proof that, in the Middle East things are changing for the better.”
Dr Al Mulla highlighted the importance of creating a regulatory environment at the DIFC that meets international standards synonymous with Wall Street and London.
“Our new financial reforms are our most ambitious undertaking yet. Our most ambitious because London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Wall Street have all proved down the years that a vibrant capital market is a nation's best engine of economic growth. We intend to do the same.
“Historically, wealth has flowed out of the Middle East rather than into it, because we have lacked a financial centre comparable in quality to the capital markets of East and West. This is the gap that the Dubai International Financial Centre has been created to close.
“What we have now is a regulatory infrastructure customized to be familiar to the international financial community as they go about their business; firm but fair, with no surprises waiting around the corner.”
