Examining the role and implications of free zones, tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council

最近的研究表明，多达40%的全球企业利润通过世界上的自由区、避税天堂和保密司法管辖区获得。虽然调查记者和巴拿马文件等泄密事件揭示了这些结构的运作，但关于海湾合作委员会(GCC)、阿联酋、沙特阿拉伯、巴林、卡塔尔、科威特和阿曼等国自由贸易区的作用和影响的学术研究有限，这些国家往往在全球金融研究中处于次要地位。GCC开发的自由区并不例外，但它们的用途是重要的。它们既构成了政府国内经济议程的关键部分，也被作为发展模式输出，旨在提高GCC在国外的经济和政治实力。它们也是企业保密的中心，允许投资者掩盖他们在中东和其他地区企业的利益，并将其置于公众监督之外。因此，我的研究项目旨在解决这一差距，并探索GCC自由贸易区在当地、地区和国际范围内的影响。这些区域对当地和地区的政治经济有什么影响，它们是如何被用来储存和转移资本的，以及企业保密和匿名的影响是什么？通过这样做，我希望有助于重新评估海湾地区作为日益重要和有影响力的全球化离岸金融中心的地位。

Recent studies indicate that as much as 40% of global corporate profits pass through the world's free zones, tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions. While investigative journalists and leaks such as the Panama Papers have shed light on the workings of these structures, there is limited academic research on the role and implications of free zones within the counties of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC); the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, which are often side-lined within studies of global finance. The GCC's development of free zones is not exceptional, but their uses are significant. They form both a key part of the governments' domestic economic agendas and are being exported as development models, designed to increase the GCC states' economic and political power abroad. They are also centres of corporate secrecy, allowing investors to obscure their interests in businesses in the Middle East and beyond and lie outside public scrutiny. My research project therefore aims to address this gap and explore the impact of the GCC's free zones on local, regional and international scales. What effect do these zones have on the local and regional political economy, how are they used to store and move capital, and what is the effect of corporate secrecy and anonymity? In doing so, I hope to contribute to a reassessment of the Gulf as an increasingly significant, and influential, centre of globalised offshore finance.