Xinhua, Dubai :The Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) posted in 2013 its strongest growth in the post- financial crisis era, said its CEO Jeff H. Singer Tuesday, whereas the banking free zone plans to double in size amid local and regional economic backwind.The number of financial companies within the 110 acre larges DIFC district in the heart of Dubai increased last year by 55 companies or 20 percent to 327, said Singer. Together with all-non financial firms, 1,039 firms are based in the DIFC, representing an increase of 14 percent year-on-year.”The growth that DIFC has experienced in 2013 has been the highest achieved since the beginning of the Great Financial Crisis, ” said Singer, CEO of the DIFC Authority, at a media roundtable when he presented the center’s development for 2013.Twenty-two of the world’s largest 30 banks run branches in the DIFC, as wells as six of the top ten insurance firms and seven of the global top ten law firms.Essa Kazim, chairman of the DIFC Authority, said the fact that in 2013 the UAE was upgraded to “emerging market” status by global index provider MSCI and that Dubai won the bid to host the World Expo 2020 would function like a magnet for companies and would help the center.Four of the five biggest banks of China run branches in the DIFC. Singer praised Chinese banks ICBC and Agricultural Bank of China for expanding their scope of business within the DIFC last year. “We encourage all existing firms in the center and those which join to make use of the whole range of products and services they can launch here based on our internationally accepted regulation within the DIFC and to use all possible means to market their financial products,” said Singer.Singer plans to visit China this year in order to attract more Chinese financial companies to the Gulf Arab state where today around 270,000 Chinese nationals live.In recent years, Dubai emerged as a leading hub for Chinese companies across all sectors which use the emirate as a launch pad for the Middle East and Africa.
