celebrating 20 years

Dear members, partners and friends,

This issue marks the 20th Anniversary of the Philippine Business Council-Dubai & the Northern Emirates! It is a significant milestone in the life of any organisation, an occasion to celebrate, to reflect on the past and lessons learned and to look forward to the future.

The PBC was established under the initiative of the then Philippine Ambassador to the UAE, Amable Aguiluz III, in April 2001 dedicated to promoting and improving the UAE-Philippines relations and the development of bilateral trade. To the founding members, who had the foresight and the willpower to create this group, your valuable legacy will go down in the annals of its history. Maraming salamat ho.

In the ensuing two decades, our council has faced many challenges – anorexic membership & funding uncertainty to name a few (still a pressing issue by the way ). It became dormant for few years and was relaunched in 2015 with only 8 members who became the torch-bearers of the council’s advocacy. Our determination to succeed while operating in the challenging environment of volunteerism would have matched that of an army! Our quest to make the PBC more relevant culminated in the revision of the constitution, rebranding of its identity, development of the website, creations of programmes that are germane to the Filipino business community and of a new mantra that encapsulates its missions. We revitalised our collaboration with the PCG, DTI and POLO in Dubai and with several UAE government agencies and, more important, we actively campaigned to re-engage and build our relationship with our community and also with the other business quarters. To this team, who had the grit, spirit and confidence to carry the torch, maraming salamat ho.

Our council is continuously evolving, this year, as part of good governance, we are reviewing again our Constitution and Bylaws to ensure that they embody the PBC’s goals, activities and operations. We are also revamping the website to give it a fresh and modern look. Likewise, we are creating more subcommittees and programmes and, as well, we have initiated process improvement to make our council more efficient.

Despite the outstanding challenges (e.g., a full-time staff, a PBC office ☹️), we have made significant progress. We will remain standing against the odds and will prevail even with the current pandemic. To my teammates – aka Team Dragon – and to you all, your support is the source of our council’s strength, maraming salamat ho.

Looking forward, we will not be complacent, nay, we will continue to review our council’s strategic objectives and will endeavour to be innovative and remain steadfast to its values. Looking forward, we will continue to strengthen and nurture our relationship with you and continue to build our council’s legitimacy by ensuring that its programmes and services have a tangible impact on you and the rest of the Filipino community we serve. And, looking forward, we will scale all our efforts to remain true to the PBC-DNE’s mantra – connecting people, bridging businesses.

It is our 20th Anniversary, and we have much to celebrate!

Mabuhay ang PBC-DNE at Mabuhay ho tayong lahat!

Maraming Salamat ho and stay safe.

Warmest regards,

Bobbie Carella

PS

We will celebrate PBC-DNE’s 20th birthday with a physical event as soon as possible!

Learn more about your council, do explore our website