Figures from fDiMarkets showed that the city received close to 200 investment projects in 2010, a decline from 275 the previous year.

However the figure put Dubai well ahead of the region, with its closest competition coming from Abu Dhabi, which received 62 projects.

The top five recipient cities of FDI in the region remained the same over the last two years, with Johannesburg, Cairo and Doha all again recording the best project numbers.