2 November 2008

Stuart Pearce was the guest speaker at the lunch hosted by the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman David Lewis, in the Egyptian Room of the Mansion House in London on 31 October. In his speech, the text of which is below, Stuart set out the reasons for long term optimism in the GCC economies despite the current turmoil in global financial markets.

The GCC: The Place To Be Right Now

Lord Mayor, My Lords, Baroness, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen. It is an honour to be able to speak to you today. The QFC may be an invited guest at this lunch, but with our growing relationship with the City, we do not feel that we are strangers here.

Far from it. We have developed relationships not only with many of your institutions, some of whom have been granted licenses by the QFC, but with such bodies as UKTI and its Financial Services Sector Advisory Board, the Middle East Association, the City of London Corporation, the FSA, Chatham House and increasingly with some of the educational and training institutes based in London.

It would – however - be wrong of me not to say something at the outset about the extraordinary situation that financial centres around the world are currently facing.

Without wishing to oversimplify what is clearly a very complex and difficult situation, I would say that the global financial crisis has not hit the Gulf States with anything like the force you that have seen here. My own view is that it is not likely to either.

Click here to read the full speech.