(MENAFN - Khaleej Times) Industry experts said Jafza and Dubai's competitiveness is very strong and highlighted Dubai's uniqueness in logistics, finance and ease of doing business compared to other countries in the region.
This was discussed at Jafza's annual Business Associates Forum 2012. The forum attracted experts in their fields, including key business consultants, trade and investment specialists, and government representatives.
Senior officials from Economic Zones World (EZW), Jafza's parent company, attended the event including Salma Ali Saif bin Hareb, CEO of Economic Zones World (EZW), Talal Al Hashimi, managing director Economic Zones World (EZW) - UAE Region and Ibrahim Mohamed Al Janahi, deputy CEO of Jafza.
The conversation's themed "Competitiveness of a Location", was designed to answer and discuss how Dubai and Jafza are positioned to play in the new world economy, whether they have the necessary environment to support future businesses and how Jafza and Dubai are competing in the global landscape.
The topic was addressed by a panel of industry experts including Serdar Fuat Kumbaraci, Commercial Attach of Turkey; Dr Ibrahim Elbadawi, director of Economic Policy and Research Center, the Dubai Economic Council; Farooq Siddiqi, regional head of Transaction Banking for the MENA Region of Standard Chartered Bank; Samer Al Kaissi, country manager of DHL; and Mago Singh, managing partner of Baker Tilly JFC and Baker Tilly MKM.
In his welcome address, Al Hashimi said: "While success makes us proud, we are not resting one bit. To the contrary we are working harder to innovate better, execute faster, develop bigger, and deliver quicker. This is our challenge, this is our dilemma; yet this is what excites us and make us wake up every morning with the feeling of tremendous energy."
Adil Al Zarooni, senior vice-president Global Sales of Jafza, presented new Jafza developments and plans for how to attract leading industrial players to the region and Jafza in his key note speech. He discussed Jafza's competitive location, business model and logistics infrastructure and commented on Jafza's environment that allows access to top decision makers and Global Fortune 500 companies.
The panelists covered various sectors and industries with Serdar Fuat Kumbaraci covering the trend of Dubai-Turkey growth and potential opportunities that are ready to be realised. Dr Elbadawi spoke on the macroeconomic view of Dubai's growth, highlighting the success of Dubai in comparison to other economies. He also recommended the need to continue its growth through leveraging current strength and developing new ones.
Farooq Siddiqi highlighted the fact that Dubai's uniqueness is driven by its combined strength in logistics and growing role in finance, while Al Kaissi discussed the potential growth of multimodal logistics and the pivotal role that Dubai is playing now and can continue to play in the future. Mago Singh detailed regulations and comparison of process and cost to setting up a business in Dubai compared to local providers and other competitions in the region.
