Jan Willem van den Bosch

He admits that his feet have barely touched the ground since landing in the country. In fact, Mr. Van den Bosch first came across the UAE during his last posting in Kazakhstan.

'Kazakhstan is an oil rich country, and when we were preparing our recommendation to the government on how to diversify an oil economy, we studied the UAE model in detail. Many of my clients also worked through Dubai, which is a hub for the CIS states as well as the Middle East, and this drew my attention even more.

'So much of what the UAE had got right also seemed to apply to Kazakhstan, and we used to try to encourage the Kazakh Government to move in the same direction. I was very impressed by what the UAE had achieved, and expressed my interest in the country to the bank, and ended up with this position rather more quickly than I expected.

'But I am very happy to be in the UAE at a time like this. A great deal of exciting and interesting things are happening here, and we feel ABN Amro should be very much a part of all this and add value wherever we can'.

Mr. Van den Bosch explains that the bank will continue to focus on its three core areas: wholesale clients, retail banking and private clients.

'Our main business is the top-end corporate client, especially to facilitate trade and trade development,' he explains. 'We have been in the UAE for 30 years and bring all our international expertise in treasury, derivatives and capital market products.

'On the retail side we are much more visible than we used to be and we see this as a profitable, growth business, although highly competitive. But we will concentrate on achieving the right mix of products and an appropriate level of risk for this market.

'For private clients we have our Private Banking Unit covering the entire Middle East, and we can draw on the expertise of our colleagues in Geneva and Singapore to offer a first class service.

'Finally, I should also mention our diamond finance business, as we are the only bank in this segment in Dubai. This is a business that Dubai plans to develop with its Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre, and as the largest diamond bank in the world we want to be a part of this'.

Mr. Van den Bosch also says that ABN Amro is studying the Dubai International Financial Centre as a platform for the bank, but no decision has been made yet on the bank's involvement. Indeed, he hopes the visit by board members for the IMF and World Bank meetings will provide an opportunity for them to review the DIFC.

ABN Amro is certainly clear in its commitment to the Middle East. Mr. Van den Bosch points out that the bank made its own separate bid to run the new Trade Bank of Iraq. He also feels that the UAE is one of the best placed countries to benefit from trade with Iraq once the security situation is more settled.

'Interestingly I met a Dutch trade mission last week that had been touring the region last week,' he says. 'They had been in Jordan and Kuwait, but were absolutely convinced that Dubai would benefit most from trade with Iraq.'

ABN Amro's new top man in the UAE is obviously relishing the challenge of growing the bank's interests in this country. He says his other commitment is to emiratisation, and expresses a strong belief in the training of the local population to world-class standards.