Dubai has continued to meet its targets in becoming the global capital of Islamic finance, nearly doubling the number of sukuk (Islamic bonds) listings on its exchanges since 2017. Furthermore, eased policy restrictions to encourage foreign investment and the 2019 budget’s continued commitment to infrastructure development ahead of Expo 2020 are expected to continue driving economic activity. As
With one of the most diversified economies in the Middle East, Dubai’s attractive investment environment and broad-based economy – which in 2016 contributed 37.2% to the UAE’s total non-oil GDP – continues to attract major international investors. Growth is being underpinned by the authorities’ vision as laid out in the Dubai 2021 strategy, with various sectors including wholesale and re
The UAE’s television industry has undergone an important shift in the way it conducts business, not to mention a sea change for the regional advertising market, following years growing viewership. “Electronic audience measurement is the default system in more than 60 countries around the world,” Christopher O’Hearn, general manager of the Emirates Media Measurement Company (EMMC), a firm responsible…
Over the past 15 years, Dubai has come into its own as one of the Middle East’s key centres for print, broadcast and digital media. The emirate’s media-focused free zone, Dubai Media City, has attracted a range of global media brands, including news organisations like Reuters, The Economist and CNN; publishing firms, such as McGraw Hill and Forbes; media production companies, including Sony and…
Over the past 15 years, Dubai has come into its own as one of the Middle East’s key centres for print, broadcast and digital media. The emirate’s media-focused free zone, Dubai Media City, has attracted a range of global media brands, including news organisations like Reuters, The Economist and CNN; publishing firms, such as McGraw Hill and Forbes; media production companies, including Sony and…
Financial services in particular is one non-oil area where the emirate is starting to pull ahead, with recent growth in the Islamic financial services segment fuelling the emirate’s ambition of becoming the knowledge-based capital of the Islamic economy in the future. Meanwhile, Dubai’s real estate and construction sectors, which were badly affected by the 2008 financial meltdown, are once aga
A major growth segment in the regional media industry in recent years has been pay-TV, which has made significant inroads into territory once dominated by free-to-air (FTA). Dubai has been a centre for this, with its highly media-savvy and international population a major market. The official encouragement given to the media sector – via free zones such as Dubai Media City (DMC), Dubai Studio City…
With many of the region’s top agencies, publications, broadcasters, online outfits, and film and TV production companies based in the emirate, Dubai has a reputation as a lynchpin of the Arab and Middle Eastern media and advertising industry. Increasingly international in outlook and reach, the sector also benefits from a sophisticated local market, familiar with the latest digital platforms and…
Already a regional and global centre for business and finance, Dubai’s reputation has been bolstered by the MSCI’s decision to upgrade the UAE from frontier to emerging market status in 2014, while the emirate’s successful Expo 2020 bid is expected to generate myriad opportunities for private investors across a range of sectors. Construction is thriving once again, driven in large part by st
Dubai plays host to more than 2000 major media companies, including 120 TV channels and broadcasters, and 180 production houses. While the effects of the global financial crisis have resulted in some residual caution among market players, there is plenty of upside for Dubai’s media and advertising outfits to tap into. In first-quarter 2014 newspapers had the highest advertising expenditure, pulling…
