The Gulf is becoming one of the powerhouses of the global economy, using its oil riches to build a financial services industry at home and buy up global businesses.

The power of the petrodollar has, in recent months, been felt in Britain. The Qatar Investment Authority is looking to buy Sainsbury’s. The Qataris and the United Arab Emirates’ Borse Dubai own a controlling stake in the LSE. And it is investors from the Gulf who, among others, stand behind Virgin’s current attempt to buy up troubled Northern Rock.

Yet the Gulf has only just begun to project its financial power. As oil prices continued to rise yesterday above $92 a barrel, it is easy to understand why the oil-rich states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will be an economic force to be reckoned with. The region can count on as much as $3 trillion in oil revenues over the next decade. Its mammoth effort to build a world financial centre has started to attract international business: foreign direct investment has grown tenfold in five years. And its domestic stock markets have grown in value from $135 billion in 2001 to $694 billion at the end of last year. When oil prices surged in the 1970s and 1980s, the Gulf states had neither the institutions nor the ambitions to put the wealth to work. Now its leaders aim to turn the region into a linchpin of the world economy. Next week, The Times will set out to examine the petrodollar powers.

The Times Gulf Business Forum will look at the figures shaping what is a new global financial centre. Throughout next week, the business commentary will be written out of the Gulf and two of the foreign pages in the news run will be devoted to understanding business developments in the region.

The Times will consider the competitive advantages of the region, as well as the rivalries within it. It will ask how global economic integration will mesh with domestic political reform. It will explore how economic liberalisation sits with social and cultural traditions. It will look at the emerging investment funds across the Gulf and seek to identify where the money will be spent. It will seek to get a handle on the infrastructure and property projects under way. And it will name the best places to play golf.

The Gulf’’s emerging economic importance is inevitable, but strangely underreported. The Times Gulf Business Forum hopes to improve our understanding of a new force in world business.

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