Chairman Al Habtoor was the keynote speaker at the FT Family Business Summit on 21 March 2017. The title of his address was ‘Investing sustainability – the key to long term development based success’. The two-day summit was held at The St. Regis Dubai, Al Habtoor City.
The Summit discussed the challenges and opportunities facing family businesses today. It connected wealthy Gulf based families and financial institutions to a global network of peers, while introducing private foreign investors to opportunities in markets served by Dubai’s hub status.
In his keynote speech Al Habtoor said the UAE is the land of opportunity for investors. “The United Arab Emirates is the place to invest. The return in this country is much higher than anywhere in the world. I have done it myself, I have invested overseas and I saw that in this country we have better returns than anywhere in the world.”
He concluded his speech reminding the ultra-high-net-worth audience about the widening gap between the rich and poor. “Poverty alleviation in my opinion is of priority to the world. We can tackle poverty alleviation by putting our heads together and talking about it. It doesn’t matter if we fail once or twice, but we should not give up. We should continue knocking on the door of others to meet and discuss ways to help.”
The summit featured a series of keynote addresses, interactive debates and educational workshops.