In an article in today's edition, I explore concerns that the momentum behind capital-market reform will flag as liquidity returns to the UAE. A similar fate befell Asia after the financial crisis of 1997 and 1998. Free-market policies deemed a threat to the political status quo fell by the wayside when economic recovery no longer depended on adopting them.

Now that global credit markets have re-opened to Gulf issuers in a big way and even Dubai can sell billions of dollars in bonds, it may be tempting to ease off the push to develop better governance and deeper, more liquid capital markets. Those reforms that threaten vested interests may face accusations that they are anathema to local cultural values. And to some extent, that may be true. The free-market gospel once known as the Anglo-American model is under attack these days, boxed into a corner by the global economic crisis, which demonstated the fallacy of self-moderating markets and the benevolence of unrestrained capitalism. It will become necessary to determine which elements of the free-market model are truly beneficial to social development in the long run, and which are truly by-products of a Western viewpoint masquerading as international best practice.

It would be a mistake, obviously, to veer toward either extreme. But finding the balance best suited for the UAE is guaranteed to prove interesting. We can only hope that it becomes a vigourous debate one in which all stakeholders are given voice.