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French Firms Confident on Dubai’s Business Prospects

The French Business Council Dubai & Northern Emirates, or FBC, has announced the results of its latest survey on business confidence among its members in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, which showed very positive views for prospects in the region.

The majority of French companies responding expect to maintain or increase investment and recruitment in the next six months, and the recent news on Dubai’s debt was deemed to have limited or no impact on business for the vast majority of respondents.

The 2010 survey results were shared with members and guests at an FBC gala dinner held at the Hotel Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach recently, during which the latest membership directory was presented, showing that FBC members have grown from 300 in 2007 to over 400 at the end of 2009.

Also, a new special interest group was introduced, the LE Club (Leadership, Entrepreneurship), for C-level executives, which focuses on encouraging access to major project opportunities in the region, for the benefit of all members of the FBC.

“The FBC in Dubai & Northern Emirates continues to develop strongly, with an increasingly active and growing membership. Our latest membership survey shows strong and growing confidence in Dubai as a high quality city in which to live and work, and from which to do business across the region. This resilience is reflected in the successful relationships forged between Dubai and the Northern Emirates and France, and the growing commercial links,” said FBC President Henri Zoleyn.

“The launch of LE Club is an innovation by the FBC and this new group of senior executives will help facilitate access to opportunities, especially in major infrastructure projects within the region, for the potential benefit of all members including SMEs, who form the majority of our membership. It’s part of our plan to achieve a greater impact within the region,” he added.

LE Club brings together a group of top executives from leading French multinational and regional companies, active in ICT/telecoms, transport, energy, oil and gas, defence/security, and media. Its aim is to create an active network of senior executives within the FBC, who will share best practice across a broad range of strategically important industries.

“LE Club will help create new opportunities within the French Business Council for senior executives from the francophone community to network effectively, and allow us to harness the collective leadership experience, expertise and influence of these key decision makers,” said Lionel Reina, Vice-President for EEMEA of Orange Business Services and spokesperson of LE Club.

“We aim to support the FBC Executive Committee and the wider French business community represented by the FBC — from large companies to the substantial number of SMEs — through a focus on the opportunity presented by major projects in the region, where more than $1 trillion will be invested over the next 10 years,” he added.

Commercial links between France and the UAE have grown consistently over the last 30 years and around 300 French companies (affiliates & representation offices) are currently active in the UAE, with more than 50 per cent of these based in Dubai. France is currently the seventh largest exporter to the UAE, and the UAE is France’s leading partner in the Middle East, in the areas of commerce, culture and defence.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, during his state visit to the UAE in 2008, observed that the UAE is “a country which has become, in thirty years, the first partner (in the Middle East) on the economic, military and now cultural level.”

business@khaleejtimes.com