dubai and hamburg close trade, cultural gap
Dubai Chamber’s Business Forum concludes on a successful note
The first ever Dubai-Hamburg Business Forum concluded yesterday with a gala dinner at Madinat Jumeirah where over 60 CEOs from Hamburg and Dubai exchanged notes about the success of the event and their future plans about working collectively in realising the economic integration of the two traditional business centers of the world. The two-day event was dubbed as the most successful ever business forum between UAE and Germany by HE Eng Hamad Buamim, Director-General of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Dubai Chamber also honoured the speakers of the Forum for their participation during the dinner reception which was attended by HE Hisham Al Shirawi, Vice-Treasurer and Board Member of Dubai Chamber.
Eng Hamad Buamim said: "We are extremely happy with the outcome of the Forum as it helped us achieve our purpose of intensifying bilateral relationship through an open dialogue and helped us deepen the business relations and establish stronger contacts with our German counterparts. The participants had the golden opportunity of jointly identifying areas of cooperation and working on future strategies that will benefit both the sides. We look forward to many more such conferences in the future as we immensely enjoyed hosting the Hamburgers who too enjoyed our hospitality in return."
Calling the Forum a benchmark event, Prof Dr. Hans-Jorge Schmidt-Trenz, CEO, Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, paid tribute to Dubai by dubbing it the modern Hansiatic city of the UAE comparing it to Hamburg which he said is the Hansiatic city of Germany that has led the trading activities of the country since the beginning of the last century. Both the vibrant cities that act as an important trading and logistics hubs for their respective regions have a lot in common and can work jointly in many mutual areas of interest and learn from each others' expertise, he said in his concluding remarks at the close of the Forum.
Dr Trenz put on record his appreciation of Dubai's hospitality in hosting the event which he said was of the highest standard and the Forum was organised in the most professional manner expected from a modern city like Dubai. The visiting delegate made no bones about setting a goal for a constructive follow-up to the Forum by calling upon both the sides to start work in that direction right away.
On a lighter note, Dr Trenz said that Dubai has little oil but lot of sun while Hamburg has no oil and little sun and that's where the two sides can work together on seeking energy efficiency. He said that 73% of electricity in Dubai is absorbed by air-conditioners as that was the case with heaters in Hamburg as the city has a lot to learn from Dubai's use of solar energy system which he said has a potential of working together for the day oil has run out. Dubai's example can be a model to the rest of the world as he also highlighted the importance of the creation of a health-care network including e-health, telemedicine and medical tourism between the two countries.
Representing Dubai Chamber, Dr Belaid Rettab, Director of Data Management and Business Research Department, said that Dubai has to study Hamburg's 90-year history of banking and finance as the emirate's mega projects require much liquid and there is more room for foreign direct investment. Dubai, which has an open border system, can immensely benefit from this trend if it capitalises on wealth investment and know-how. Merger of banks is a very positive sign and augurs well for the finance sector.
Dubai is making giant strides in the area of general education but the need of the hour is to go in for specialty education which will be beneficial to the economy in the long run while on the logistics front there was a need to identify challenges faced by the shortage of skilled labour, growing population and population movement between borders for tourism and trade for both the countries was the conclusion from the logistics session that also identified the areas of automation of supply chain and logistics vis-à-vis cargo flights, larger container vans and vessels as the logistics sector faced a challenge of absorbing new demands of 7.6 annual growth in that sector.
Dr Rettab informed that though Dubai has the ability to handle large volumes of cargo and a new port coming up in three to four years time still Dubai has a lot to learn from Hamburg as far as access to maritime clusters including ship ownership, management and finance was concerned.
Both the sides unanimously agreed to a number of areas of cooperation including job-oriented dual system of training of skilled workers under work apprenticeship and exchange programmes; the development of rules and regulations concerning human rights and human resource safety; research and development in the medical field; adoption of complete transportation solutions/innovative solutions to support trade and commerce; marketing services for technical products and the establishment of intermediate distribution centers and availability of aviation services and aircraft maintenance.
