DCCI hosts a business networking lunch for trade offices and business councils in Dubai

The Business Networking Lunch ceremony held under the theme 'Back to Business' at Jumairah Beach Hotel was attended by His Excellency Obeid Humaid Al Tayer, Chairman of DCCI, Mr. Abdul Rahman Ghanem Al Mutaiwee, Director General of DCCI, heads of a number of DCCI's departments, directors of some government establishments in Dubai and heads of the trade government trade offices in the emirate.

The ceremony started with a speech conducted by Al Mutaiwee in which he underlined the importance of holding such a gathering which brought together a number of top businessmen in Dubai and the directors of government trade offices with the aim to be introduced to each other, exchange views and ideas and discuss issues that help enhance trade cooperation and economic ties between the Dubai based business community and their counterparts in other countries.

The speech of the DCCI's director general was followed by a presentation of the Credit Rating Unit which was recently established in the DCCI in cooperation with the Compagnie Francaise d' Assurance pour Le Commerce Exteriors (Coface) responding to the DCCI's policy and goals with the aim to help the local and international trade institutions assist their members by introducing products and value added services which they can use to ensure competitiveness in the increasing challenges of the world markets.

Mr. David Venediger and Mr. Jean-Marc Pons from Coface conducted a presentation about their company which has offices in 52 countries and provide direct local services to over 92 countries from which more than 85,000 customers can benefit through accessing into the corporate risk system which is considered as a high performance database which helps employees and clients get information about more than 45 million companies all over the world on a correct time basis.

"The credit rating is an evaluation criterion that explains the credit records of any company and how this company is able to meet its financial commitments. It also helps provide information about the debtor's shortage in meeting his commitments and his ability to meet his full debt in time," said Venediger.

Mr. Pons also pointed out that the effective process of credit rating has been proven based on the fact that it is an estimation means of risk in the countries which enjoy advanced economy. It helps discover the transparency and decency of these companies and it reflects the credit position of the financial, operative, legal and organizational aspects of the companies, in addition to defining the capabilities and readiness of these companies to pay back its full financial commitments.

Coface representatives also talked about the aspects of credit rating service which is represented in the ability to build trusts with commercial partners through ensuring their credits, and the ability to convince the supply companies to extend the credit period through their grades of quality classification, in addition to the possibility of having all the parties concerned to exchange trusted information about their credits.

"The services offered by the Credit Rating Unit in the DCCI are available for all members of the Dubai Chamber and members of the whole UAE business community as these services help enable them to instill trust with the firms they are dealing with and evaluating the quality level of commodities they are purchasing and whether they meet the stipulations of sales and other related commercial or financial information," said Venediger.

Another presentation was also conducted during the Business Networking Lunch about the aspects of the Jebel Ali Airport City, mainly the Dubai Logistics City. Mr. Michael Proffitt, a representative of the Jebel Ali Airport City, spoke about the aspects of Dubai Logistics City which is expected to be operational by 2007 to be the best of breed integrated logistics platform provider serving the world class supply chain and logistics community while positioning Dubai as the logistics hub of choice.

"Dubai Logistics City will serve more than 2 million consumers thanks to its solid growth rates, enjoying the most liberal business environment and the most professional location for distribution business," said Proffitt.

He pointed out that the Dubai Logistics City will be built to be the world's first truly integrated logistics platform, with all transport modes, logistics and valued added services, including manufacturing and assembly, in a single bonded and free zone environment.

"Those who would benefit from the services of Dubai Logistics City are the distributors, industrial and trade businessmen who will be in need for all kinds of logistics services such as merge in transit, localization of products, warehousing, distribution, after sales services and multimodal transportation," Proffitt added.

Dubai Logistics City is one of a few projects planned for the Jebel Ali Airport City which will also include a commercial city, an aviation city, a technology park, a golf resort and a full passenger airport.

The airport is expected to handle more than 120 million passengers a year and handle about 12 million tones of cargo commodities a year. The Jebel Ai Airport, located close to a seaport and the Jebel Ali Free Zone would help enhance the city's competitiveness and the logistics networking chain of the Free Zone.