The Gulf's appetite for foreign investment has long been a key part of its economic constitution. Until the financial crisis, it flowed like an open tap into the region, helping finance the rapid development of the non-oil sector. Dubai's massive buildings were constructed using it. So were many of Abu Dhabi's. Whenever the UAE's companies - or, for that matter, Kuwait's, Qatar's or Saudi Arabia's - went into international markets looking for cash, a ready hand was there to supply it and keep the boom booming.
Has the financial crisis brought a swift goodbye to all that? Not anymore, it seems. These past few weeks, we've seen signs that foreign investors are coming back to the Gulf, thanks to a rebound in developed-country stock markets and positive news about the length and depth of the ongoing global economic slowdown. As Sara Hamdan and I report today in The National, a series of recent regional bond issues have been oversubscribed, and even private equity firms, which have had a rough 2009 so far, are feeling the pick-up in foreign interest. It's worth a read.