One of the richest cities in the world, if not the richest thanks to its oil exports, is to invest in film productions over the next five years. The Abu Dhabi Meida Company announced to the London Financial Times that it plans to become one of the world’s largest film producers. It also aims to compete with bustling nearby media centre Dubai.

The new film company will be called imagenation abu dhabi (all lower case) and is expected to be avidly targeted by Hollywood studios, despite the fact that there are strict content controls on Hollywood movies shown in the Emirates region.