Arab News, Thursday, Sep 9, 2021 | Safar 2, 1443
Dubai International Financial Centre achieves 2024 targets ahead of schedule
Emirates:
The Dubai International
Financial Centre on Wednesday reported strong growth in the first half of 2021
achieving its 2024 strategy growth targets three years ahead of schedule.
The number of active registered companies at the
international financial hub in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (MEASA)
region has reached 3,292, an increase of 27 percent year-on-year in the first
half of 2021. New companies registered during H1 totaled 492, up 59 percent
year-on-year.
This growth represents a tripling in size since
2014 when the 2024 Strategy was initiated and reflects DIFC’s significant
efforts to build on its market-leading status in MEASA by continually enhancing
its operating environment, legal and regulatory frameworks, innovation offering,
and depth of its ecosystem.
Overall, DIFC is now home to 1,025 financial and
innovation-related companies, up 25 percent as compared to H1 2020.
“DIFC will continue to build on our success to
date to play a key role in accelerating not only our growth but also the
economic diversification of Dubai,” DIFC Gov. Essa Kazim said.
The recently launched Innovation Hub has already
reached full capacity, with over 140 new startups and fintechs joining this
ecosystem during the first six months of this year. These include companies at
all stages of development, from early-stage startups such as Rentd Technology
Ltd., Crayfish Labs Technologies Ltd., PALFusion Technology Holdings and
StashAway Management (DIFC) Ltd., growth stage ventures including Ebury and
Adyen, unicorns including as SoFi (UAE) Ltd. and established big tech players
like Amazon and Huawei.