Dubai Centre for Family Businesses launched

The Dubai Centre for Family Businesses was launched on Tuesday to attract more family-owned businesses from across the globe, as well as help local family businesses in terms of succession planning and guiding them to go public if required.

Family-owned businesses account for nearly 70 per cent of Dubai’s GDP, reflecting the importance of the sector. The emirate’s GDP stood at Dh307.5 billion in the first nine months of 2022.

Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE, attended the launch of the Centre at the Dubai Chambers head office on Tuesday.

Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, chairman of Dubai Chambers, pointed out that as the number of family businesses has grown over the decades, so have the number of inter-family disputes.

“In coordination with the government of Dubai, we are in the process of setting up an independent family dispute centre so all family business disputes will go to that centre with experts sitting there to sort out the issues, so family business disputes will no longer go to courts,” he said.

He added that female members of the family businesses also need to be educated as they will be running the business someday and they will be asked to vote.

The Centre also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Dubai International Financial Centre to attract family-owned businesses from abroad and also help in setting regulations for them.

Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, President and CEO of Dubai Chambers, said the Centre will enhance the governance system, sustainability and continuity of family-owned businesses.