March 19, 2017. Dubai, United Arab Emirates:  The Dubai Maritime City Authority (DMCA) recently brought together the high-level representatives of key Dubai maritime associations at its headquarters to engage industry leaders in insightful discussions according to the Dubai Maritime Sector Strategy’s goal (DMSS) of catapulting the emirate into the ranks of the world’s most vibrant, highly competitive, and safest maritime capitals.

The meeting chaired by DMCA Executive Director Amer Ali formed part of the periodic gatherings organized to provide leaders, stakeholders, and maritime investors with an effective platform to look into current and emerging opportunities as well as anticipate major challenges with significant impact on the maritime community’s future and the focus on the adoption of innovative solutions to achieve sustainability and competitiveness. Besides finding ways to widen the scope of the local maritime sector’s economic role and contributions, the periodic gatherings also offer a common support system and infrastructure acceptable to all concerned leading associations to achieve efficiency and higher performance within the local maritime cluster to make it more inclusive and competitive.

“The Gathering served as an ideal venue for us at the maritime sector to examine Dubai’s progress and status against the backdrop of rapidly evolving global maritime developments and trends. By doing so, we were able to analyze important data and address existing loopholes for corrective actions and proper recommendations to accelerate our initiatives to make Dubai highly competitive in the international stage and attractive to global investors in line with UAE Vision 2021. Overall, our periodic gatherings are an opportunity for us to not only enhance and improve stakeholder interaction but also integrate the intensive efforts of relevant institutions and associations for the advancement of a sustainable and safe maritime sector as well as the promotion of its competitiveness with the world's most important maritime centers, in line with the directives of our wise leadership,” Ali said.

The event saw a comprehensive presentation on local maritime trends and challenges and an introduction of the Dubai Maritime Cluster Office. The floor was then opened for discussions and brainstorming sessions to allow participants to bring out their ideas on how best to build a healthy business environment for the benefit of all stakeholders.

The periodic gatherings are in line with the DMCA’s objectives of supporting and liaising with key Dubai maritime associations to ensure their participation in important maritime events; developing and enhancing strategic rules and regulations; building an effective and efficient platform or mechanism to resolve inquiries as well as pending issues and cases; and promoting and highlighting the associations’ achievements and accomplishments.