A meeting of two business worlds

(CNN) -- While U.S. and European markets try to gauge the bottom of the sub-prime lending crisis, government-controlled funds in the Persian Gulf have been on a spending spree, investing billions of dollars in companies around the world.

With oil prices soaring, cash-rich Middle Eastern governments have been eager to diversify their economies away from energy by investing in everything from plastic to property, aviation to luxury car makers. In the past year alone, 22 deals have been made to the value of $44 billion. And the frenetic pace is set to continue as oil revenues and prices continue to climb.

One fast-moving, deal-making firm is Mubadala Development Company, the investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government, that announced this September the purchase of a 7.5 percent stake in the U.S. investment house, Carlyle Group.

In this week's CNN Market Place Middle East, CNN's John Defterios speaks to Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Mubadala's 32-year-old CEO about his aggressive investment strategy.

He also takes a look into some of the equity stakes taken by Gulf-based investment groups into western brands such as GE Plastics, J.Sainsbury, Ferrari and EADS and asks David Jackson from Istithmar, another architect of these huge deals, about the thinking behind them.

Other coverage includes an update on the Nasdaq/Borse Dubai/OMX deal, Taqa's agreement to buy Canada's PrimeWest Energy Trust and the Turkish PM's visit to the U.N. in order to update EU negotiations. E-mail to a friend

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