Gulf investors 'could repatriate capital'

Abu Dhabi: The Gulf Arab region could see a new wave of capital repatriation from the US and Europe following the global crisis, the speaker of the UAE council that advises the government said.

"The current turmoil and apparent failure of regulators, markets and institutions in the West may cause investors from the region, whether public or private, to rethink their strategies and question how reliable they are," Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, speaker of the Federal National Council (FNC) said yesterday.

"Just as they did after 2001, regional investors may again shift more of their assets back into regional markets," Al Ghurair, who is also the chairman of Mashreq, Dubai's largest bank by market value, told a conference.

Repatriation of billions of dollars of private wealth back to the Gulf Arab region following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and subsequent stringent banking legislation helped boost regional capital markets in the early part of this decade.