The Region faces some daunting challenges and the demand for advanced thinking and smart ideas has never been greater. Thanks to the commitment and the commercial confidence of our lawyers and their teams we have managed to implement our strategic initiatives to meet these testing times.
The UAE and in particular Dubai, has dealt with the recession well and many believe it is in a class of its own in terms of infrastructure. Its position as a premier financial service base for the region is unchallenged; it has an underlying set of real assets which will ensure that it remains the services base for a long time to come.
Two thirds of the world’s population is within an eight-hour flight of the UAE; one-third within four and total population figures continue to grow exponentially despite the negative prediction estimates set by external agencies. And so Dubai in particular has been able to return to its’ fundamentals to sustain the growth, return to being the hub for the region, a hub for re-exports, the industrial zone of the wider region, the tourism destination for the GCC and the logistics centre for the Middle East.
At the start of the econimic downturn, we set ourselves a target of coming out of it in a stronger more competitive position and closer to our strategic goals. And although not yet clear of the recession the Firm has fared well and overall the financial performance has been gratifying. The key has been to keep the vision of the region in mind and seize opportunities even though times are tough, rather than to let them pass.
This year we will welcome the international legal community to Dubai when the IBA Annual Conference is held here in October. This is the first time the conference will be held in the Middle East and despite the un-rest the region has witnessed in the first half of 2011 the emirates vision, resources, can-do attitude and world-class infrastructure continue to create a compelling commercial environment – which we as lawyers work hard to secure.
Ziad Abdulla Galadari