London's Lord Mayor Lauds Dubai's Development

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

20 February 2003

After meeting Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Deputy Ruler and UAE Minister of Finance and Industry, London's Lord Mayor, Alderman Gavyn Arthur, said he was impressed by UAE's remarkable progress.

"Since I last visited the UAE a decade ago, tremendous progress had been made in terms of developmental projects, modern infrastructure and economic prosperity", he said.

Gavyn Arthur is leading an economic delegation to explore the prospects of cooperation between Greater London and the UAE. He told journalists that the City of London is winning increased investment from financiers in Gulf states angered at moves by New York authorities to freeze their funds in Wall Street, and said he had been warmly received in Dubai after reassuring investors that their London holdings were safe.

"Fishing expeditions" against Gulf assets in New York had led to names being muddled up, innocent investors having their assets frozen and a lot of money being removed by investors, said Mr Arthur.

"I've certainly been able to reassure on many occasions that London is not in the business of freezing good friends' money," said the Mayor, adding that the UK's legal system would not tolerate confiscation of innocent people's money. "We would cease to be the greatest financial centre in the world overnight if we tried such a ridiculous thing," he said.

The Lord Mayor told the British Business group in Dubai that the UAE was the UK's largest market place in the Middle East, creating a two-way trade balance of £2bn for the first 11 months of 2002. Britain has 100,000 residents in the UAE and the British Business group alone represents 400 companies.

"The links between the UAE and the UK are close and long standing," he said. "There are so many firms for the UK represented here and there are many citizens here. Similarly, many people from here regard the UK to be their second home."

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