Mideast attracting investors despite global credit crunch

Dubai: Despite problems like the global credit crunch, the Middle East's stable economies are attracting investors looking for liquidity and portfolio diversification, finance industry executives said.

"This region has proved its resilience to uncertainty and volatility in the credit and financial markets of the US and Europe. We have been relatively unaffected by the recent crisis in America's subprime mortgage market," Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Governor Omar Bin Sulaiman said at the Middle Eastern and North African (Mena) bank chief executives meeting.

More than 70 heads of Middle Eastern financial institutions, senior public sector officials and, leaders of financial services firms from Europe and the US attended the conference, hosted by the DIFC in association with the Washington-based Institute of International Finance (IIF).

Bin Sulaiman said the Mena region's sound macroeconomic conditions have encouraged institutional investors "to turn to our region for greater liquidity and portfolio diversification."

Josef Ackermann, chairman of the IIF board of dir-ectors, stressed the Gulf Co-operation Council region is in the midst of a boom, fuelled by sustained high oil prices and high investor confidence.

Equities: Significant presence

Deutsche Bank said it will establish a significant research presence at the DIFC in support of its global equities business.

The bank will develop a team of research analysts based in Dubai focusing on company and technical analysis.

The team will cover both Middle Eastern and international stocks and will be fully integrated into the bank's global equity research group.

Ackermann's announcement came during a meeting with Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai.