Dubai Future Finance Week concluded its inaugural edition with more than 80 partnerships and over 100 strategic announcements covering artificial intelligence, digital assets, FinTech, Islamic finance and cross-border technology cooperation.

Led by Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the week-long event brought together global financial institutions, regulators, technology companies and innovators, with 1,000 speakers taking part across 85 side events, 13 signature forums and 16 stages.

The partnerships aim to accelerate innovation and the adoption of emerging technologies, and to strengthen Dubai's position as a leading international financial centre, in line with the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 goal of making the emirate one of the world's top four financial centres.

Held under the theme 'Finance Reimagined: Where Innovation Meets Policy and Purpose', the event took place under the patronage of Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE, and President of DIFC.

"Dubai Future Finance Week brought the full value chain of global finance together in one place, from FinTech, banking, insurance and private markets to tokenisation, Islamic finance and family wealth," said Arif Amiri, CEO of DIFC Authority.

Among the major agreements was a strategic partnership between DIFC and Japan's Mizuho Financial Group to help up to 6,000 Japanese start-ups expand across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region through the DIFC Innovation Hub.

The DIFC Innovation Hub also announced plans for an Islamic Finance Innovation Centre, in collaboration with CRDB Bank, Emirates Islamic Bank, Principal Investors Group and Standard Chartered Saadiq, and agreed with the Arab Federation for Digital Economy (China) to strengthen technology exchanges between Chinese and Arab innovators, with a focus on AI.

(Source: Khaleej Times)