Dear FBC Members and Stakeholders,
Ramadan Mubarak!
As the new elected Chairman of the Board I want to wish you on behalf of the FBC Board and myself a peaceful and good Holy Month of Ramadan.
New FBC Board in place
The Annual General Meeting of the Finnish Business Council was held on the 23.4.2017 in Ibis Al Barsha and the new Administrative Committee (FBC Board) was elected. I personally am very excited about the fact that we have an extremely experienced and skilled team to continue the work the previous board has started. One of the main tasks and goals we have is to still provide more value to all Finnish companies in the UAE and for those who are planning to start their business in the Middle East, as well as strengthen even more the collaboration between FBC, Embassy of Finland and Finpro.
The introduction of the new FBC Board you can find in our homepage
I also want to warmly thank Mr. Juha Kuurne who did not stand for re-election, for his contribution as the Chairman of the Board 2016. Kiitos-Tack-Thank you!
Finland 100 centenary event in UAE
The year 2017 is very special for us Finns whether as an expat abroad or living in Finland since it is our nation’s 100th birthday year. The preparations and planning together with the Finnish Embassy for a common celebration in December have already started so stay tuned and save the date 7th of December in your calendars.
Upcoming FBC events
Just as we all are waiting for schools to end and summer vacations to start, we still would like to remind you about the new VAT initiative in the UAE. What does it mean? What should we do? How does it affect our company? and many other question shall be answered in Business Breakfast arranged together with Re/think ME Ltd on the 19th of June in Radisson Blu Media City.
The first Nordic Sundowner in autumn as soon as we all have returned from our summer holidays will be hosted by the FBC so I am looking forward to meeting you all there at the latest if not sooner.
Finland and UAE
We have all read in the social media (Read here) very lately that our home country Finland and our second home the United Arab Emirates are the two safest countries in the world according to the World Economic Forums list. Isn’t that just great? And we are the lucky ones who have every opportunity to enhance the experience of peaceful dealings in business as well as in every day meetings around us and in between our countries.
Wishing you all a beautiful summer!
Best Regards,
Anita Kalergis
FBC Chairman
We thank Curt Lindström and Anna Vänskä who did not stand for re-election, and warm welcome to new board members Erika Lindholm, Jaana Tapanainen-Thiess ja Maria Sillanpää.