Abu Dhabi today kicks off a week that will seek to cement the UAE capital’s increasingly central role in finance and geopolitics.
A laundry list of big names in banking and investing are attending the city-wide Abu Dhabi Finance Week. The event follows the finale to the Formula 1 season in Abu Dhabi, and recent talks between the US and Russia, highlighting the breadth of its ambitions.
Yet it is also facing criticism: Skeptics argue that its heavy reliance on state capital — its sovereign wealth funds have more than $2 trillion in assets — crowds out private investment, and there is growing international opprobrium over its alleged role supporting paramilitaries in Sudan’s civil war, charges it denies.