A region with the largest untapped emerging market for financial services

Between the international financial centres of Europe and South East Asia lies a region of 2.1 billion people and a combined economy worth $1.8 trillion in terms of GDP, growing at an annual rate in excess of 5 per cent. Yet, this great region, stretching from the western tip of North Africa to the eastern part of South Asia (comprising North and Eastern Africa, the Levant, the Caspian, the Indian Subcontinent and the GCC States), has to date not had a world-class financial centre.

The Dubai International Financial Centre has been designed to:

• Attract liquidity back into investment opportunities within the region and contribute to its economic growth
• facilitate planned privatisations in the region and enable initial public offerings by privately owned companies, giving impetus to the programme of deregulation and market liberalisation throughout the region
• create added insurance and reinsurance capacity - 65 per cent of annual premiums are reinsured outside the region
• develop a global centre for Islamic Finance - this is now an over $260 billion international market serving large Islamic communities stretching from Malaysia and Indonesia to the United States

The DIFC will act as a catalyst to the region's economic development - just as Wall Street, the City of London and Hong Kong have contributed to the growth of the US, European and Asian economies.