Dubai has held the top position among 233 cities worldwide for new foreign direct investment projects in cultural and creative industries for the fourth consecutive year, according to the Financial Times’s fDi Markets data.
The emirate attracted 754 new projects in the sector during 2025, well ahead of London’s 227, Singapore’s 197, Riyadh’s 157 and Bengaluru’s 132. Those projects brought in $3.756 billion in FDI capital flows and created 19,304 jobs. Dubai also held second place globally in the capital flows sub-ranking.
Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chair of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, said the result showed the emirate had built the conditions to turn creativity into investable activity. “Dubai has continued to convert creativity into an economy, talents into projects, and ideas into investment opportunities,” she said, adding that flexible legislation, advanced infrastructure and an innovation-friendly business environment had strengthened investor confidence in the city’s capacity to keep pace with global shifts.
Helal Saeed Almarri, Director General of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, said the ranking reflected a “dynamic ecosystem” where creativity, advanced technology and entrepreneurship reinforce each other. He pointed to the public-private partnerships now opening new opportunities in digital content, gaming, AI and specialised creative services as particularly important to sustaining that momentum, and said the results advance the targets of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33.
Hala Badri, Director General of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, said the emirate had grown its creative sector into a viable economic engine. “Dubai has succeeded in nurturing its creative sector and transforming it into a vital economic contributor,” she said, citing the city’s support environment for talent and entrepreneurs as central to the sector’s ability to scale.
The leading sub-sectors for new FDI projects included advertising and public relations, computer programming services, data processing and digital services, film, media and gaming, AI-enabled creative technology, and design and architecture. By source country, the UK accounted for 21.5% of project numbers, followed by India at 21% and the United States at 14%. On a capital-flows basis, India led at 19%, ahead of the US at 17.5%, China at 13%, Malaysia at 12% and the UK at 9%.
Officials attributed the performance to a combination of full foreign ownership rules, specialist creative and technology free zones, long-term residency pathways, advanced digital infrastructure, and the broader D33 agenda and Dubai Creative Economy Strategy.
