World's influential line up for DIFC Week

"Financial Opportunities for the Third Millennium" will be the topic du jour for the coming Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Week, set to kick off on Saturday with a bevy of industry insiders on hand to provide tomorrow's financial insights today.

The event, which runs from November 17-23, will feature a line-up of speakers that reads like a who's who of the world's financial elite. From a former World Bank chief economist through to company directors, renowned market strategists and best-selling authors, DIFC week will feature the business people in the know.

Making the stage on Day 1 of the event will be "Freakonomist" Steven Levitt, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

The maverick economist, who will be visiting Dubai for the very first time, gave Arabian Business' Talal Malik the scoop on what he sees as the city's major draw cards, its unique and often enviable position as the frontrunner of Middle Eastern finance and tourism and the challenges it must meet to ensure its future success.

"From a tourism perspective, it's remarkable that Dubai has managed to transform itself, but even more incredible is how Dubai has emerged as a financial centre," Levitt told Talal in an exclusive interview for this week's issue of Arabian Business.

But the real test for Boomtown Dubai, according to Levitt, will be a question of sociology; one deeply rooted in the roles of both citizens and expats and the "two-tier" system they both currently inhabit within the city itself.

Jeffery Sachs will also be on hand to deliver The Gate Lecture, a presentation aimed at explaining why wealth across the globe has diverged so much and to offer an integrated set of solutions to the problems that hold societies back.

"Our planet is crowded to an unprecedented degree," says Professor Sachs. "It is bursting at the seams in human terms, in economic terms, and in ecological terms. This is our greatest challenge: learning to live in a crowded and interconnected world that is creating unprecedented pressures on human society and on the physical environment."

Sachs will be taking the podium on Tuesday and will discuss the emergence of the Middle East, China and India as clutch players on the global economics arena.

Moving from an "oil-based" economy towards an "asset-based" economy will be crucial if the GCC is to harness its breakneck growth for future sustainability, according to yet another headline presenter.

Dr. Nasser Saidi, who will be appearing at DIFC week to expound on the importance of corporate governance and planning for family businesses, recently outlined to Arabian Business the critical nature of adequate strategy implementation.

"Family businesses need to ensure their wealth survives into the future. At the moment 80% of the businesses don't survive into the third generation," Dr. Saidi warned, stressing the importance of creating a sustainable private sector job market.

"We know that for the future, over the next 15 years or so, we need to create something like 110 million jobs. That's as many jobs as we've created in this region since 1950," he said. "Where are those jobs going to be created? Not public sector. The private sector; family businesses."

Another speaker sure to draw an inquisitive crowd will be Larry Summers, former President of Harvard, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States and Chief Economist of the World Bank. Along with Alan Greenspan and Bob Rubin, Summers was recently dubbed part of the "committee to save the world" by TIME  Magazine.

For extensive DIFC Week coverage from Arabian Business, visit our exclusive Special Report on the event .

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