Flying into Dubai feels like a leap forward in time. Rising from the desert is a futurescape of hotels, business towers, apartment buildings and resorts across a skyline that seems to change almost by the day. Golf courses emerge from the sand. New islands appear in the Persian Gulf. There is nothing else like it in the world today, and it is emblematic of the accelerating development across the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Not all of the countries in the region have courted international business and foreign investment as energetically as Dubai, and doing business in the GCC countries is not without its challenges, but all are making significant progress in liberalising their economic and investment policies and creating an environment that encourages business and trade.