The Dubai Family Business Centre

In December 2022, in his capacity as Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister, issued a Decree, establishing the Family Businesses Centre in the emirate of Dubai’ (Dubai Family Business Centre).

 
The Dubai Family Business Centre aims to support family businesses in achieving their potential of becoming sustainable over the long-term, thereby ensuring smooth generational transfers and associated succession planning. The mandate of the Dubai Family Business Centre is to provide technical and administrative support to Family Businesses located in Dubai, together with ‘creative solutions’, i.e., preparing them for the future economy. The details of the mandate will be captured in a forthcoming strategy document.

In recognition of the key contributions Family Businesses make to the domestic economy, the UAE leadership also recently launched a program entitled ‘Thabat Venture Builder’, aimed at doubling family-owned businesses’ contributions to the UAE’s GDP, with a goal of reaching a contribution of US$320 billion by 2032. The first stage of the program’s mandate is to assist 200 family businesses to grow into large scale enterprises with an aggregate market value exceeding US$40.84 billion and to help them adopt new technologies. It is expected that this program will be directly linked to the mandate of the Dubai Family Business Centre.

Authored by: Sunita Singh-Dalal