Dubai financial center posts double-digit growth for 2013

The Dubai International Financial Center, the top banking hub in the Middle East, said it grew at double-digit rates last year as it attracted more tenants from Asia and other emerging markets.

The number of active registered companies operating within the DIFC rose 14 percent to 1,039, while their combined workforce expanded 11 percent to 15,600, it said on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Singer, chief executive of the DIFC Authority, which manages the financial free zone, said the DIFC would focus this year on developing new areas such as Islamic finance, family-owned businesses and commercial links with Africa.

Occupancy rates in core office buildings owned or managed by the DIFC are now close to 100 percent, so more office space is being made available in other buildings that could accommodate as many as 15,000 more workers, the DIFC said.