Dubai’s restructuring of its business chambers to focus on commerce, the digital economy and international business will support the emirate’s economic growth and recovery as it emerges from the pandemic, according to leading industry experts.
While the appointment of local and expat business leaders to the board of directors tasked to oversee the Dubai Chambers was also seen as a positive move that would attract foreign investment and talent to the emirate.
“The recent announcement that Dubai will restructure its business chambers into three segregated departments shows that the emirate is taking both its recovery and growth seriously post-pandemic,” Scott Cairns managing director of Creation Business Consultants, told Arabian Business.
“Allowing the newly formed arms of the chamber to specialise and be more targeted on separate goals will assist in the Emirates’ ambitious goal of growing foreign trade from AED1.4 trillion to AED 2tr,” he continued.
On Saturday, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, also Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE, took to twitter to announce a new structure for the city’s business chambers aimed at leading the emirate’s “economic transformation”.
We approved the new structure of the 3 Dubai chambers: Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy, and Dubai International Chamber. A new model to lead Dubai's economic transformation and position the city as a global business hub.
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) June 26, 2021
“The announced reforms are likely to result in improved effectiveness of the support to local businesses in Dubai which is important as the emirate promotes itself as a business hub,” said Scott Livermore, ICAEW economic advisor and chief economist at Oxford Economics.
“The two-way flow of information can be channelled in a targeted way depending on whether businesses are concerned about operating in Dubai, taking advantage of Dubai’s digital infrastructure and contributing to the growth of the digital economy or seeking opportunities in markets abroad,” he continued.
Livermore added: “This structured and focused approach will improve the understanding and representation of businesses’ needs, as well as likely enhance the services provided by the chambers to businesses located in Dubai. Both facets are positive for the city’s business environment and will also increase its attractiveness as a place to do business.”
Sheikh Mohammed also revealed that a board of directors of the overarching Dubai Chambers has been approved, and will oversee and coordinate the efforts of the three new entities “under a common vision”.
Scott Cairns managing director of Creation Business Consultants
“The appointment of industry specialists as board members will be seen as a major step towards bringing the end-users of legislation into the decision-making process – a move that will greatly encourage the industry and should yield many benefits,” said Cairns.
“Having sector specific expertise entrenched into the process should mean that the end result is a business environment that does away with some of the challenges that the private sector may have faced in the past given they are involved in the consultation process. Also, the speed at which each chamber can react to the rapidly evolving business environment will improve as each is tasked with managing their own area of speciality,” he continued.
The Board of Dubai Chambers is chaired by Abdulaziz Al Ghurair and its members include Omar Al Futtaim, Khalid Jumaa Al Majid, Rajaa Al Gurg, Helal Saeed Al Marri, Patrick Chalhoub, Ghassan Al Kibsi and Amina Al Rustamani. All of these are business and political leaders with a strong track record of expertise relevant to the chambers they will chair, said Livermore.
Scott Livermore, ICAEW economic advisor and chief economist at Oxford Economics
He also hailed the move to have expat businesspeople on the board of directors and said it was a significant move that is likely to be built upon in the future.
“The Dubai and UAE governments have laid out a clear path and implemented a series of policies over the past year to attract foreign invest and the talent needed for successful enterprises to Dubai. Expats – and particularly successful expat business people – will have powerful insights into what is needed to achieve these objectives and the chambers, through their roles as representing local businesses’ interests, can feed this directly into policy discussions,” said Livermore.
“This contribution should help refine policies and regulations that govern the business environment in a direction to achieve the government’s growth and diversification objectives,” he added.
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