The Business Excellence Department at the Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) and the Sharjah Islamic Bank Academy under the Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) have signed an agreement to jointly launch a series of conferences, seminars and workshops related to regional and international business issues.

The agreement reflects a growing belief that closer co-operation between all stakeholders in economic development is essential to support businesses in the region overcome current and future global economic challenges.

The partnership will see Sharjah Islamic Bank Academy, which is the Training Department of SIB, working closely with the Business Excellence Department to leverage DED’s capabilities in initiating and nurturing businesses to promote best practices and capacity-building within the business community.

The first of the partnership initiatives will be a conference titled ‘Vision2Reality,’ to be held on the 2nd of May 2012 at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai. The conference will feature key note speakers in the financial domain and presentations from frontline financial organisations on the various aspects and best practices of business excellence. Prominent attendees will include leaders from the financial and related industries in the UAE.

Khalid Al Kassim, Deputy Director General for Executive Affairs, DED, remarked that the agreement reflects a new phase of cooperation between the various emirates in the UAE, which involves different departments supporting each other to help the business community and encouraging new enterprise.

“DED has a wealth of experience and an extensive database of clients while Sharjah Islamic Bank has a solid reputation in Islamic banking. Co-operation between the two entities will be beneficial for the economic sector and the business community in the region. Creating more such partnerships is essential to counter any adverse impact from global economic trends,” added Al Kassim.

Mr. Mohammed Abdulla, CEO of SIB, said: “We are very excited to collaborate with the Dubai Department of Economic Development as they have a strong track record in pursuing innovations, initiating and promoting successful businesses, and contributing to make Dubai a regional business hub. Together, we will work towards implementing a series of business-related conferences and workshops, sharing and exchanging our experiences, information and databases in order to pursue better business practices and help the business community to excel.”

The programmes following from the partnership will focus on encouraging successful business practices. A joint committee comprising members from the Business Excellence Department and the Sharjah Islamic Bank Academy will be formed to develop, design and implement the programmes and provide mutual assistance on organising them.

DED and SIB will also share information and databases at their disposal to design and develop the knowledge-sharing and networking programmes as well as to mobilise support and drive participation in such events.

Sharjah Islamic Bank is an internationally reputed Islamic financial institution and a previous winner of the Dubai Quality Award and Dubai Human Development Award, which is organised by DED. The partnership will effectively make SIB part of a knowledge network providing critical information and talent for the strategic business sectors in the UAE.