HCT Financial Services Conference opens today at Dubai Men's College

The conference, which has attracted widespread industry support particularly from Dubai Islamic Bank (conference partner), DIFC (key supporter), Emirates - National Bank of Dubai (gold sponsor), Commercial Bank of Dubai (pearl sponsor) and Teletrader /Budacash (software sponsor) as well as from Mashreq Bank, Al Masraf Bank, Barclays, Union National Bank and ABN-AMRO Bank, was held on the campus of Dubai Men's College in Academic City, Dubai.

During the conference, which was attended by over 1,000 delegates consisting of HCT students, faculty and industry professionals from the UAE and abroad, major new developments, issues and trends in the financial services industry were examined. In addition to this, via panel discussions involving HCT graduates from the financial services sector and roundtable sessions with other industry professionals, UAE nationals were given the opportunity to inform themselves about and explore the wide range of career options available to them in the field of financial services.

"The DMC Financial Services Conference clearly served an educational purpose for our HCT students thanks to the stimulating presentations given by such distinguished speakers from the financial services industry - it also provided an ideal forum for them to talk to experts and receive valuable career advice. We hope that by attending this conference an increasing number of HCT graduates will choose to enter this sector in the future."

Following on from the opening remarks made by H.E. Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, keynote speaker Stephane Garelli, professor at both the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and Director of IMD's World Competitiveness Centre gave a presentation on the theme of "Assessing the Global Economy and Future Developments that will affect Financial Markets."

This was followed by a talk by Ahmad Al Qaizi, CIO of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, which was entitled: "The Evolving Role of Dubai as a Centre for Price Discovery and Transparency for Middle East Crude Oil". Simon Gray, Director of Supervisions, Dubai Financial Services Authority, then spoke about: "The Growth of the Financial Services Sector to aid Growth in the Real Estate Industry," and Farhan Al Bastaki, CEO WAQF, gave a presentation on "Sharia Compliant Investment Trust Services: The Development of Trust Services in the UAE."

Final speakers of the day were Sami Baliki, Senior Manager, Market Development and Sara Kamal, Manager, DIFX who spoke about: "Investing on the DIFX - overview, different types of securities."

"It is honour for us to welcome to DMC such renowned professionals from the world of finance," said Dr. Philip Hicks, Director of Dubai Men's College. "Without a doubt, our UAE graduates of the future will have derived great benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience that they have shared with us today."

A number of experiential workshops were held at the conference ranging from such topics as: "A Debate on Islamic Finance" to "A Motivational Presentation on Life Choices" and, for the first time ever, an HCT Student Research Poster Session was organised during which around 60 - 80 posters relating to such themes as: "Economic and Social Development and Global Practices" were on display.