Power Letters 2023: Arif Amiri, CEO, DIFC Authority

For us, the year 2022 has been one of accelerated innovation.

We have seen substantial progress in terms of how we shape and regulate the financial sector in Dubai and how we infl uence our counterparts globally by providing innovative regulation and thought leadership in new and exciting spaces.

Emerging from 2021, we began to experience some acceleration as globally we started to come out of the pandemic.

However, 2022 has been a stepchange year, attracting new businesses and talent to our ecosystem at an unprecedented pace. Our success has come through spearheading fintech and innovation initiatives, evolving our laws and regulations and influencing thinking with counterparts across the world.

During last year, the total number of registered companies in DIFC grew from 3,297 to 4,031, a 22 per cent year-on-year increase. DIFC is now home to 1,252 financial and innovation-related companies.

In particular, fintech has been a huge growth area for DIFC in 2022. Between January and September, DIFC-based fintech firms secured more than $559m of funding. Our innovative thinking has opened new doors for us, and last year, we established the region’s first Open Finance Lab, which works in collaboration with banks, fintechs, regulators and the industry to unlock the next wave of growth for the sector and increase consumer protection, financial inclusion, social benefits and economic opportunities.

We committed to become a regulatory innovator in the world of finance, as we set out in our 2030 Strategy.

DIFC and FICCI LEAD, a technology and business incubator of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, signed a landmark agreement to launch the “India-UAE Start-Up Corridor”.

This partnership will help expand the startup ecosystem between India and the UAE, and will target a minimum of 50 validated startups based in both the countries over a period of fi ve years, with the vision to grow 10 of them into unicorns by 2025. This forms a large part of the UAE’s aspiration to create 20 unicorns by 2031.

Our innovations have led us to expand beyond being a financial centre into a place where people want to work, live and play. Our growth into the lifestyle space will continue into 2023, following the ground-breaking of DIFC Living and Innovation Two, which will feature 174 upscale built-to-lease residences embracing flexibility, technology and the future of living.

In 2023, we will also continue to focus on expanding our influence to become the largest ecosystem of financial services, technology and innovation in the region. In addition, we will look to expand our infrastructure virtually with our first Metaverse Accelerator programme.