The magazine reveals that 19 percent of individuals work in the sector. The next highest category was Culture & Society, accounting for 18 percent of the names, with Construction and Industry contributing 15 percent. Another 14 percent came from Arts and Entertainment, 9 percent from Media, 6 percent from Retail, 6 percent from Science, 4 percent from Sports, and 4 percent from Telecoms. The list shows 3 percent from Transport, with just 2 percent working in Education.

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed topped the Arabian Business Power List for the eighth successive year.

Emirates Airline chairman Sheikh Ahmed was ranked second. The highest new entry was third placed Reem Asaad, the Saudi woman who launched a campaign to allow women to work in lingerie shops. By July, her campaign paid off when the Saudi Labour Ministry banned men from working in lingerie shops after a directive from King Abdullah – in an instant, creating 44,000 jobs for women.

Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar was fourth on the list, with the Libyan activist Mohammed Nabbous in fifth place. Nabbous was the founder of Libya Al Hurra TV in Benghazi,  the first independent broadcast news organisation since Gaddafi took power in Libya. The 28-year old was killed last year by Pro-Gaddafi forces.

“Since his death, many experts in Libya and the west have credited Nabbous for his pivotal role in bringing the world’s attention to the killings in his native country. Without him, it is debatable whether the western powers would have intervened in the conflict,” the magazine reported.

The 2012 Power 500 contains a record 127 new entries, and also features 105 women, the highest ever number. The UAE has the highest number of entries with 96 on the list, followed by Saudi Arabia with 62 and 45 from the US. In total, Arabs living in 37 different countries are featured on the list.

When it comes to countries of origin, Lebanon contributes the most with 85 entries, followed by 67 from Saudi Arabia and 58 from Egypt.

Ed Attwood, Editor of Arabian Business, said: “What we have published today is the most comprehensive guide every to Arab influence all across the world. Our researchers have looked at the work of Arabs in every continent and every country across the globe, and covered every sector from business and finance to media, sports and science. It is clear from this list that Arab success and influence across the world has never been more significant than it is today.”

The draft, which has been in the works since 2009, should enable both listed and family-owned companies in the UAE to be rescued rather than having to go through lengthy bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings.

“The ministry is studying a set of laws,” Dhaheri told a conference on financial restructuring and bankruptcy in Dubai.

“Among them is a federal law on foreign investment, another one on SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and also another law on arbitration in commercial transactions and another one on bankruptcy and restructuring,” he said.

Asked whether the government was going to clear the long-awaited bankruptcy legislation this year, Dhaheri later told reporters: “Hopefully, God willing.”

Dubai’s debt crisis in 2009-2010 put company restructuring firmly in focus for both the government and investors. However, existing federal bankruptcy laws remain untested in UAE courts as distressed companies prefer to settle creditor claims privately because the existing legislation is opaque and complex.

In 2009, Dubai, one of seven UAE members, issued a special decree to deal with a $25bn debt restructuring at its flagship conglomerate Dubai World.

Dhaheri also said another draft, on foreign investment, was still being discussed by the ministry’s legal committee but declined to give details and timing: “I can’t give a framework for it.”

The new UAE bankruptcy law may ease debt restructurings with greater provision for out-of-court negotiations and the government hopes it would help attract more foreign investors.

In addition, it contains provisions that can force a minority of creditors to accept a restructuring agreement if it is acceptable to the majority, a process known as a cramdown.

However, it will still be difficult to seize assets – even if they are pledged as collateral – since land ownership in the UAE is on the whole restricted to citizens, with some provisions for nationals of other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

So international banks involved in a state-linked corporate restructuring would not be able to take control of assets and sell them on to realise their dues, as would happen in the West.

The new law will not apply to government entities or entities operating in a financial free zone such as the Dubai International Financial Centre, which has its own insolvency laws, experts have said.

It takes just over five years to resolve insolvency in the UAE, one of the world’s top five oil exporters, with a recovery rate of only 11 cents on the dollar, which puts the country at 151st place globally, according to a World Bank survey.