Members of Dubai’s financial elite were in Washington on Thursday trying to show they were on top of Dubai’s problems and had a strategy for digging themselves out of their financial mess. Among the stops on their tour: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, International Finance Corp. chief executive Lars Thunell and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think tank.
(The IFC is part of the World Bank, whose president Robert Zoellick was flying back from the climate conference in Copenhagen.)
At the Peterson Institute, a crowd of two dozen or so academics and financial experts peppered the delegation with questions, says those who attended. Mohammed al Shaibani, chief executive the Investment Corporation Dubai, which oversees the government’s investment portfolio, handled many of the questions, say attendees.
He explained that the $10 billion would be placed in a fund — not given directly to the troubled companies—and used to pay off various debts. Bills by contractors would be verified and then paid off in a process aimed at reducing the chance of corruption. Dubai is being advised by banker Michael Klein, a former Citigroup executive, who is accompanying the Dubai group on its rounds.
The group is led by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai’s Supreme Fiscal Committee and the uncle of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.END
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