DIFC debates when Dubai moves into post-crisis mode

* username: rupertbu

The Dubai International Financial Centre has for a long time been the physical focus of financial business within the emirate, like the Square Mile of London or Wall Street in New York.

Despite, or maybe because of, the fall-out from the global credit crisis, DIFC these days has broader ambitions. It aims to be a centre of business knowledge within the Menasa region (Middle East, North Africa and South Asia). Given the geographical scale and diversity of that region, encompassing around two billion people and 25 countries, depending on where you draw the lines to Menasa, it is an ambitious challenge.

But DIFC is nothing if not ambitious, and last week advanced its cause as a regional intellectual powerhouse with its the latest conference in the Knowledge Series. These gatherings are a kind of low-key, one-day Davos, and aim to bring together financial practitioners from across the Menasa region to thrash out the big issues of the day.