Dubai isn't the only country in the region with such lofty ambitions. Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait also have growing financial districts, and Saudi Arabia, whose $327 billion market remains virtually closed to outside investors, plans to finish its own sprawling financial quarter in Riyadh next year. It will include 40,000 parking spaces, a sports arena, and giant climate-controlled skyways.  The governor of Saudi Arabia's Public Pension Authority calls it "the first major financial center of the 21st century."

But experts say none of these countries are as far along in laying the groundwork or as cunning in their approach as Dubai, whose leaders, including Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid al Maktoum, have slowly remade the 1500 square mile kingdom into a slick transit center for the world's commerce.

With dwindling oil reserves now accounting for less than 3 percent of the country's $46 billion gross domestic product, Dubai has been turned into a regional transportation and entertainment hub, boasting one of the world's busiest international airports and its largest man-made port.

Dubai and the rest of United Arab Emirates control up to $875 million in sovereign wealth, so the development plans have continued at breakneck speed. It is already deep into a $1.2 billion expansion of its port system, and recently announced that, by 2015, it would be the home of the world's largest airport, part of an $82 billion investment in airport and aerospace infrastructure. Country investment funds have also continued to purchase strategic assets around the world, most recently laying out $5 billion in capital for a stake in the hotel and casino operator MGM Mirage.

Don De Marino, chairman of the U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, says it is easy to believe Dubai will become the region's financial leader, saying "they have made very focused acquisitions and executed brilliantly in other sectors."

While it has always been a trading center and gained a somewhat dubious distinction as a crossroads for smugglers, money launderers and terrorists' financiers prior to the 2001 terror attacks on the U.S., Dubai has strengthened its oversight of the money trail and has moved quickly to plug holes in its attempt to increase the quality of its financial system and woo more risk-averse investors.