The University of Dubai (UD) in collaboration with Dubai Chamber hosted the ìWorld Finance and Banking Symposiumî on December 14th ñ 15th 2016 at its campus in Dubai Academic City where more than 180 international researchers, scholars, entrepreneurs, businessmen, professionals, faculty members and student were present. This conference provides a unique educational platform for knowledge seekers who aim to share the objectives, methodologies, findings, and results of their research papers, get feedback on their work, and enrich their knowledge. Interestingly, this yearsí conference, which showcased around 300 financial research papers, witnessed the contribution of more than 15 research papers conducted by UD faculty members and PhD students related to UAE, GCC and MEA. Some of the notable institutions which attended the conference and presented their research papers included Imperial College of London, Stern Business School-NYU, University of Melbourne, IMF, University of Warwick, Lund University, Durham University of New South Wales, McGill University, University of Lausanne, Warsaw School of Economics-Poland, University of Boston, Business School, European Central Bank, Stockholm School of Economics, NTU, City University, LBS, LSE and Dubai Chamber. On the first day of the conference, the Chairman of Board of Trustees of UD and Vice Chairman of Dubai Chamber H.E. Mr. Majid Al Shamsi, UD President Dr. Eesa Al Bastaki, and the Chairman of the World Finance and Banking Symposium Dr. Joao Paulo Vieto delivered three opening speeches in which they welcomed the audience and expressed tier warmest appreciation and thanks for the organizers and participants. H.E. Majid Al Shamsi hoped that developments in UAE will inspire many of the delegates to add value for ongoing research and foster more research collaborations with UD and Dubai Chamber. He stated that initiatives such as encouraging youth in building capacity, knowledge creation, entrepreneurship, innovation, free zone development, FDI, infrastructure development, financial reforms through enacting Bankruptcy Law, ease of doing business and Islamic Finance & Economics are the drivers for making Dubai and UAE the emerging knowledge hub of Middle East-South Asian (MESA) region. He was particularly happy that todayís research papers covered portfolio management, performance evaluation, financial data analytics, M&A, among other key topics relevant to MESA. During his speech, Dr. Al Bastaki noted that ìthe UAE has been leaping higher and higher in many global indices in the level that it is now competing with world economic leaders in this very competitive international arena.î He also discussed how the UAE has been developing ìa process to achieve the goal of being an economic leader through a solid plan in terms of infrastructure, innovation, leadership, economic diversity, quality assurance, credibility building, capacity building, multi-cultural environment, sustainability, global competitiveness, technology adoption, and knowledge creation.î Furthermore, Dr. Vieito emphasized on the fact that the event is an academic conference at which each researcher presents a paper and gets feedback from discussants, professors, scholars and researchers to improve his/her work. In each session, researchers discuss 3 or 4 papers from the same topic. ìThe objective of this event is to discuss the most advanced research topics and recent innovations,î he concluded. On the last day of the symposium, tokens of appreciation were awarded and all participants enjoyed a unique Desert Safari experience.