Family Business Forum 2006

In attendance was Dr. Ahmed Saif Belhasa, Member of the Executive Office of DCCI, Dr. Ali Lutfi, Ex-Prime Minister of Egypt, as well as a number of specialized legal experts and an elite of economists and businesspersons from the UAE and abroad.

They all gathered to discuss a number of topics dealing with the reality of family businesses in the region in general and the UAE in particular, ways of fostering them, laying down necessary strategies and presenting ideas that aim at enhancing and developing these businesses.

The opening remarks session was presided over by Dr. Hussam Al-Talhuni, Director of Dubai International Arbitration Center and he delivered a welcoming speech to thank the attendees and wish them all the best.

Dr. Ahmed Saif Belhasa, Member of the Executive Office of DCCI, said: "This forum comes within the Chamber's strategy to service the business community in Dubai efficiently. The subject of family businesses is considered one of the most pertaining matters to the our national economy and the most sensitive one due to its social and economic dimensions, particularly as these businesses have always played a key role in building the UAE's economy."

He added that family businesses of different legal entities are huge economic institutions influencing the national economy. These businesses play a vital role in different sectors including services, contracting, trade, industry and others. Consequently, their keeping them solid is a national duty and any abrupt change occurs to them will negatively affect the general move of the economy and their employees and consumers.

Regarding the topics of the forum, Al-Talhuni said: "The forum is based on three key segments. These segments are acquainting with the globalization and international agreements' risks and how they might affect the future of family companies. Highlighting the importance of modernizing the organizational and administrative fundamentals in the family companies to ensure the continuity over generations, evaluating the incorporation and conveyance into PLCs and entering stock markets, as well as the recommendations the participants in the forum would come up with."

Through these segments, the forum will handle topics of interest to the family companies' owners, researchers and specialists in this aspect, like the challenges the family companies encounter, the dominance of the capitalist companies, the legal and administrative obstacles that stand against these companies, how they negatively affect the possibility of these companies' development and continuity, and the importance of women's contribution to developing these companies, as well as the difficulties surrounding the decision make to incorporate and convey the family companies into PSCs, and the factors that play a key role to do so.

Dr. Ali Lutfi, Ex-prime Minister of Egypt, highly rated the efforts exerted by DCCI in cooperation with DIAC, to shed light on family businesses, because they have found a solid background to expand and spread all over the region in general and the UAE in particular.

It is worth noting that around 92% of the total privately-held companies fall within the family businesses in the UAE.