ADX showcases Abu Dhabi’s economic performance in Berlin

abu dhabi — Rashid Al Baloushi, CEO of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, ADX, participated in the ‘Annual Conference on Cultural Diplomacy 2017’, held in Berlin on 19-22 December 2017, under the title, ‘Promoting Global Collaboration, Unity and Peace through Cultural Diplomacy’.

More than 500 political and economic experts, as well as scholars, participated in the conference.

Al Baloushi highlighted the ADX’s major role in achieving the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 while adding that the ADX not only showcased the economic performance of Abu Dhabi but also its key role in facilitating the process of local development, by attracting foreign savings and investments to its financial markets.

Al Baloushi said that the country’s wise leadership has an ambitious social and economic vision, which aims to empower the financial markets as a key sponsor of economic projects and sectors while noting that developing Abu Dhabi’s financial markets is crucial in funding its expansion projects and economic growth, as well as implementing the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030.

Abu Dhabi occupies the 25th position out of 92 international financial centres in the Global Financial Centres Index, GFCI, 2017, ahead of other major international financial centres such as Paris and Washington in the 26th and 28th positions, respectively, he added.

Abu Dhabi also occupies the second position globally as the best city for work, residence and business, beating London, Paris and other cities, according to the Ipsos Top Cities Index 2017, he continued.

Al Baloushi affirmed that promoting institutional investments is the cornerstone of increasing the level of trading in the financial markets while noting that the largest 25 international asset management companies are present in Abu Dhabi and are already efficiently investing. The ADX has prioritised attracting local and foreign institutional liquidity, by encouraging more institutions to invest in the local market, he stated while further stressing that the ADX provides one of the highest rates of cash dividends in the world at 5.3 per cent, and its level of institutional investments recorded a net value of around Dh5 billion in 2016.

The total number of institutional investors in the market has reached 7,643, including 5,672 foreign institutional investors, or around 75 per cent of the total institutional investors in the market, while the market capitalisation of foreign investors has increased from Dh41.5 billion at the end of 2016 to around Dh43 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2017, recording a surge of 3.5 per cent, he concluded. — Wam

Developing Abu Dhabi’s financial markets is crucial in funding its expansion projects and economic growth, as well as implementing the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 Rashid Al Baloushi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange