Dubai: Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has emerged as the region’s leading financial hub and a business and lifestyle destination over the past few years. The centre is in the process of developing additional infrastructure to add capacity on both front, said Arif Amiri, Chief Executive Officer of DIFC Authority.
In April last year, DIFC announced a major addition to its infrastructure with the launch of Gate Avenue at DIFC, an urban living development in the region.
With the first phase set for completion by the end of 2017, the much anticipated project will offer over 200 dining, boutique, cultural and entertainment options, as well as an iconic new mosque and will be across 660,000 square feet and span 880 meters in total length.
The centre has allocated a total investment of more Dh1 billion towards ongoing infrastructure development. While the Gate Avenue at DIFC has an investment outlay of Dh800 million, the Gate Village 11 project is being developed with a total investment of Dh200 million.
“Operationally, 2016 was an exceptionally good year for us. Financially, we have been doing well in recent years and we are funding the new infrastructure developments fully from our internal resources,” said Amiri.
Additional enhancements to infrastructure made in 2016, include measures to make the DIFC an energy saving financial centre by 2022, receiving the ISO/IEC 27001 accreditation for information security, and was awarded the Management & Operations Stamp from Uptime Institute for DIFC’s Data Centre.
The DIFC-owned office and retail space achieved 98 per cent occupancy at the close of 2016 with privately owned developments exceeding occupancy levels above 60 per cent.
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“Last few years we have been running near full occupancy levels. As new developments come on stream, we expect to see new demand growth,” said Amiri.
Looking Ahead
Guided by its 2024 Strategy, and exceeding projected targets for the year, the centre is making strong headway into delivering against its goals and demonstrating double-digit growth across all metrics.
The centre targets the number of financial services firms operating from DIFC to exceed 1000 by 2024 against 447 at the close of last year. Currently it has 3.5 million square feet of occupied space with a target of 5.5 million square feet by 2024.
In terms of workforce, the centre plans to more than double from the current level of 21,611 to 50,000 by 2024. The overall balance sheet size is expected to expand from $144 billion (Dh in 2016 to $400 million in 2014.
“We have concluded 2016 with a strong performance, and remain on track with our 2024 targets. Looking ahead to 2017, we will continue to embrace and harness change and innovate for growth, which will be fuelled by our FinTech initiatives, new infrastructure development and a sustained focus on the South-South corridor. Our growing community remains our priority as we look to deepen core synergies and build global relevance in key sectors which will further substantiate our position as a leading global financial hub,” said Amiri.
