Dubai Chamber hosts business groups
First business breakfast seen as a means to reaching out to the business community, to network and to look into issues faced by businesses
HE Eng Hamad Buamim, Director General, Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry, welcomed heads of Dubai Chamber-affiliated business groups and councils for the inaugural business breakfast meeting hosted by Dubai Chamber at the Raffles Dubai on Monday. The networking meeting, which is seen as a platform for interaction with the business community on a regular basis, will be followed up with many more in the future and will have prominent speakers from the Government and private sectors sharing their expertise on various business issues.
The meeting had heads of the representative committees of Building Materials Trading, Printing and Publishing, Insurance, Foodstuffs Trading, Pharmaceutical and Health Equipment Trading, Supply Chain and Logistics, and Travel and Tour Agents’ groups attending and putting across the challenges their particular groups faced.
During his welcome speech, Buamim spoke in length about the business environment of Dubai, “Dubai Chamber has been part of the commercial scene in Dubai for decades and has been witness to its elevation as a regional powerhouse as the emirate takes its place on the world commercial and financial stage. This evolution is not confined to towers rising or numbers of businesses that are expanding but also in the way that the Governments of Dubai and the UAE are developing systems and protocols on how to do business.”
Said Buamim, “The level of commercial sophistication required to conduct a business in Dubai has changed. The recent changes relating to immigration laws, health insurance requirements, the proposed VAT are just some of the
examples of the myriad of the developments that are altering the commercial landscape of Dubai. It’s here that our role of a conduit comes into play as we put across the voice of the business fraternity in front of the Government. Consultation and lobbying to ensure that the members of the business community are heard as a whole is one of our strongest objectives. We may not be able to change proposed legislation but we can certainly ensure that the traders’ concerns are heard and that their point of view is known.”
Added Buamim, “Being the best chamber is what is demanded of us if we are to be operating in one of the most ambitious cities in the world. This can be achieved only if we can anticipate and meet your needs as our members. However, Dubai Chamber is contributing to the growing knowledge of its commercial sector through a range of services and studies. We are currently designing a MRM Best Practices seminar series in order to share the experiences of the MRM award winners with the rest of the business community.”
The director general also spoke about the Chamber’s role in dispute resolution as he said the increasingly vital role that alternative dispute resolution plays in settling disputes has been spearheaded in Dubai through International Arbitration Center and he also updated the gathering about the forthcoming economic seminar and events organized by the Chamber.
