About
A company built to hold a long obligation
Global Cities Development structures city-scale programmes in emerging markets. Our work sits upstream of construction and upstream of capital — on the mandate, the legal framework, the governance architecture and the partnerships that make a programme financeable in the first place. In the language of development finance this is project preparation: the work that decides whether a programme is bankable before anyone is asked to finance it.
Who we are
Global Cities Development Limited was incorporated on 31 July 2026 in the Ras Al Khaimah International Corporate Centre in the United Arab Emirates. Its sole shareholder is the Future Cities Charter Foundation, a foundation registered in the Dubai International Financial Centre. The company is young by design: it was established to hold a specific kind of work, and its structure was settled before that work began rather than retrofitted to it.
What we do is structure and develop programmes that create cities and infrastructure in emerging markets. A new city is not primarily an engineering problem. Before a design exists there has to be a decision by the host government that the city should exist, rights over the land, a legal status for the zone, and a chain of entities through which the programme can be governed, delivered and financed without those three functions collapsing into one another. That is the work we do, and it is largely finished before the first contractor is appointed.
One principle runs through everything below. Governance, delivery and capital are separated across different levels of the structure, each level accountable for its own scope and financed on its own terms. It is a slower way to begin a programme. It is also the reason a development finance institution can examine one layer without taking on the whole, and the reason a host government deals with one accountable counterparty instead of a field of contractors.
Structure
Foundation, company, programmes
Three tiers, each with a different job. Control sits above the operating company; the programmes sit below it and are structured separately from each other.
Custodial tier
Future Cities Charter Foundation
A foundation registered in the Dubai International Financial Centre and the sole shareholder of Global Cities Development Limited. It holds long-term control; it has no shareholders of its own to distribute to.
Development tier
Global Cities Development Limited
The operating company. It originates programmes, establishes the mandate and the legal framework, designs the delivery structure and would act as the single counterparty to governments and institutions.
Programme tier
Programmes
Each programme is structured separately, with its own stewardship entity, its own master developer and a separate company for each infrastructure sector — under a concession, a public-private partnership (PPP) or a licence, as the host jurisdiction provides — so that each level can be financed and governed on its own terms.
Illustrative. The diagram shows the tiers of the group, not shareholdings, and names no counterparties. Programme-level entities are established as each programme is structured.
Programme
Clear City
Eastern Seaboard, South Africa
In preparation
A planned Free Economic and Innovation Zone and greenfield urban development on the Eastern Seaboard of South Africa. It is the company's flagship programme and is in preparation.
Corporate particulars
- Registered name
- Global Cities Development Limited
- Jurisdiction
- Ras Al Khaimah International Corporate Centre (RAK ICC), United Arab Emirates
- Registration no.
- ICC20260589
- Incorporated
- 31 July 2026
- Registered office
- Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Registered agent
- GIDEX-FZCO
- Shareholder
- Future Cities Charter Foundation (DIFC, no. 13637)
Registry details are maintained by the Ras Al Khaimah International Corporate Centre. Counterparties who need certified copies for their own due diligence should write to us.
Contact
Enquiries
General enquiries and due diligence requests go to the addresses published on the Contact page, or through the enquiry form there. Either way the message reaches the company by e-mail; how such correspondence is handled is set out in the privacy policy. The site sets no cookies and runs no analytics.