Dubai - MENA Herald: Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has intensified its efforts for the launch of the 5th Dubai-Hamburg Business Forum, which will be held in Dubai on March 22. The forum, organised in cooperation with the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, will be held at the Chamber's headquarters, following its great success in previous sessions in the promotion of trade relations and economic ties between the two strategic cities of Dubai and Hamburg. Coming under the theme, "Internet of Things: Innovation to Connect", the forum in its 5th session will open up new horizons for fruitful cooperation and joint ventures in four important sectors including Public Sector Solutions for Smart Urban Living, Logistics, Health and Energy and is followed by field visits to emirate’s strategic economic and trade centres for the Hamburg delegation. Today, the Internet of Things (IoT) has inspired visions of a very different future as it has enormously expanded the reach of information technology by simply digitising the physical world. Entering the era of IoT has brought about changes on how companies manage physical assets, how consumers attend to their health and fitness, and how cities operate. IoT technology is expected to have substantial economic impact which urgently requires quantification and further definition as it will not only affect productivity and workspace concepts but deeply impact our daily lives. In its previous sessions, the forum has been exploring synergies and opportunities between Dubai and Hamburg in the areas of green cities, maritime transport and financial services, logistics, and tourism, as well as the IT sector. H.E. Hamad Buamim, President and CEO, Dubai Chamber, said the forum is part of the unlimited support the Chamber offers to the business community, as this particular event serves as a platform for the promotion and consolidation of trade and economic relations between Dubai and Hamburg. “It also encourages the participants to explore joint investment opportunities, signing of strategic partnerships besides strengthening the channels of communication between the two cities’ companies,” said H.E. Buamim adding that the city of Hamburg is well-known as one of the most innovative and smart cities in Germany, especially in the area of maritime industries and innovative and smart services. Expressing his happiness about Dubai’s steady rise as a global smart city, the President and CEO of Dubai Chamber stated that since the launch of the Government initiative of turning Dubai into a smart city globally, the emirate is making giant strides in the area of adopting and offering smart services at various levels as he also accredited the successful public-private sector partnership for the phenomenal growth of Dubai’s business environment. He added that since its inception 50 years ago, Dubai Chamber has always been looking for closer economic ties between the emirate’s business community and their global counterparts with the aim to discover and explore lucrative markets, especially in these times of global challenges affecting the world at large. Since its launch in 2007, the Dubai Hamburg Business Forum has become an ideal platform for joint cooperation and partnership for the business communities of Dubai and Hamburg and has led to a number of successful economic cooperation in various sectors by investors of both the strategic cities. The Hamburg Metropolitan Region is one of Germany’s strongest economic regions and a central trading hub for Northern Europe. The port of Hamburg is one of the world’s largest container ports and is an important growth engine for the region. It takes the leading role in Germany in such industries as aviation, logistics, IT, renewable energies and media, while also playing a major global role. Hamburg is the third largest site for the aviation industry worldwide, with major players Airbus and Lufthansa Technik operating large facilities, and more than 30,000 employees in the industry.
