- Organised alongside the Big 5 show, networking lunch comes as part of Chamber’s objective of creating a favourable business atmosphere
Dubai
- The Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry hosted a networking luncheon in honour of its members from the Construction Business Group, the Building Materials Business Group and Dubai Property Society business group at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Tuesday. The lunch meeting that coincided with the Big 5 show was graced by a number of international delegates attending the largest construction exhibition in the region.
Presided over by HE Eng Hamad Buamim, Director General, Dubai Chamber, the lunch meeting came in line with the strategic objectives of Dubai Chamber in creating a favourable business environment and facilitating communication between key players in the construction and real estate sectors with their local, regional and global counterparts. Over 250 of the Chamber’s member, trade officials and guests attended the networking luncheon.
Buamim maintained that recently the Dubai leadership has assured that the global downturn will not deter the Emirate from playing its leading position of economic capital of the UAE and will continue to create an encouraging business environment backed by its free economy and open market policies and by developing major economic sectors that helped Dubai establish itself as an international trade and business hub.
The Director General of the Chamber further stressed that the members’ participation in events like Big 5 will provide them with an in-depth analysis of key aspects of property development in Dubai and will be an educating experience for investors, buyers, sellers, brokers and developers from among the members of the local and international business community.
He informed that the Big 5 exhibition has come at a time when the country is recovering from the effects of the global financial crisis and according to figures published by the Land Department in Dubai, the total value of sales of apartments, villas, land has risen by a remarkable 34.2%, 69.7% and 96.6% respectively in October 2009 compared to September. This was due essentially to the fact that demand has risen owing to increased expectations about job security, and ease of access to finance.
Added Buamim, “Last month we organised the ATA Carnet Conference for the promotion of the system in the region and there is good news that the Dubai Chamber has been selected a guarantor of customs tariffs in the region by the Federal Customs Authority and the UAE's chambers of commerce and industry recently,” he said adding, “The application of the ATA Carnet system will help local and international businesses, especially those from the construction and building materials sectors in participating in exhibitions, such as Big 5, and will strengthen the competitiveness of Dubai in the global markets."
Buamim explained that Dubai Chamber has not only been tirelessly working on laying the foundation for the introduction of the ATA Carnet in the UAE but has been pursuing its implementation in the whole region backed by the ICC’s World Chambers Federation in its vision to support the GCC’s initiatives aimed at enhancing the attractiveness of its member countries as destinations for business, sports, cultural and art events, trade fairs and exhibitions.
The ATA Carnet system, which is also known as the Merchandise Passport, is a single document for importation of trade goods on a temporary basis and helps save time, money and efforts while participating in trade fairs and exhibitions and includes merchandise, commercial samples, computers, cameras and video equipment, industrial machinery, automobiles, gems and jewellery, wearing apparel and display tools etc.
The panelists at the networking luncheon included Mahendra Patel, Chairman, Building Materials Business Group, HE Wahid Supriyadi, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to the UAE, Dr. Francisco Alphonse, Italian Trade Commissioner, and Nicholas Stadtmiller, Senior Executive, Dubai Chamber’s Business Support Department, who discussed the status of the construction market in Dubai and the challenges faced, solutions and plans that can contribute to the growth of the sector.
