Dubai driven to be a financial power

Dubai demonstrated at the MENASA Forum in the city that it still has the self-confidence and ambition to be the leading financial centre in the region. The timing of the forum, held at the weekend, was good. Dubai World's deal with bankers last week gives the emirate and the Dubai International Financial Centre, which hosted the event, an opportunity to exploit the wave of positive sentiment the deal generated.

But as speaker after speaker underlined, there is still work to be done. In the areas of governance, regulation, bankruptcy provisions, property reform and market consolidation, Dubai has to seize this opportunity to push through substantive and lasting reform. There is one other area in which the emirate needs to show it still has what it takes, post-crisis, to be the paramount financial marketplace in the MENASA region: an equities market that can shake off the challenges of rival centres and become the focus of MENASA financial activity.

All the great financial centres of the world, from New York to London, through to Shanghai and Tokyo, have at their heart an equities exchange that provides investors with an efficient and cost-effective way of raising capital for investment. There was some debate at the forum as to whether Dubai's long-term future lay with equities, debt or bank borrowing, but the consensus was that a lively equity culture was essential.

In this context, the revelation from Sameer al Ansari, the head of the investment bank Shuaa Capital, that he was close to bringing a long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) to market was a welcome development. Mr al Ansari is of the opinion that the emirate should consider selling assets, when values make it worthwhile, which would give a further boost to the emirate's claims to be the financial mainstay of the MENASA region.

Really, the IPOs cannot come quickly enough. [e-mail]