As the financial crisis infected economies across the globe in 2009, the Dubai International Financial Centre — with its office towers buttressed by ground floor restaurants — became so sleepy that the offshore district’s denizens jokingly dubbed the Gulf’s banking hub the “Dubai International Food Court”.

Back then, it took a $20bn bailout to pull Dubai out of its debt crisis. No such rescue was needed after the next great economic contagion. When Covid-19 hit, the autocratic emirate bet that a rapid reopening would lure hordes locked down elsewhere. While bankers in London, Hong Kong and Singapore endured isolation, those in Dubai got to work.

Today, the Dubai International Financial Centre is heaving. In four and a half years, the DIFC’s number of active registered companies has more than doubled to 7,700; the first half of 2025 was its best for new company registrations. It now counts 47,900 workers — 21,000 more than in 2020 — from gilet-wearing Canary Wharf transplants to traders from Mumbai.