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%的全球企业利润是通过世界上的自由区、避税天堂和保密管辖区获得的。​阿联酋、沙特阿拉伯、巴林、卡塔尔、科威特和阿曼，这些国家在全球金融研究中经常被边缘化。海湾合作委员会自由区的发展并不例外，但它们的用途是重要的。它们既是政府国内经济议程的重要组成部分，也是作为发展模式输出的，旨在增强海湾合作委员会成员国在海外的经济和政治实力。它们也是企业保密的中心，使投资者能够掩盖自己在中东及其他地区企业中的利益，不受公众监督。因此，我的研究项目旨在解决这一差距，并探讨海湾合作委员会自由区对地方、区域和国际规模的影响。这些区域对地方和区域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？企业保密和匿名的影响是什么？在此过程中，我希望有助于重新评估海湾作为一个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.