W elcome addresses were delivered by H E Nikolai von Schoepff Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to the UAE and H E Klaus Ranner Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Dubai In his keynote speech H E Mohammed Ahmed Bin Abdul Aziz Al Shihhi Undersecretary UAE Ministry of Economy stressed the excellent bilateral business relations between Germany and the UAE In 2012 German exports to the UAE experienced significant growth and totaled 9 7 billion Euros with an increase of almost 30 compared to 2011 which reconfirmed Germany as the UAE s most important goods supplier within the EU and the fourth worldwide after China India and the USA For Germany the UAE remains the main export market in the Arab World The attending members were informed about the activities of AHK in the past year and the audit results Future plans of AHK include a growing focus on AHK Local Chapters based in the individual Emirates as well as an increased stress on the advocacy role of the Industry Committees which include Healthcare Energy Construction Infrastructure Transport Logistics Banking Finance SME Development Education Vocational Training and Tourism Hospitality The Board of Directors nominated H E Saeed Abdul Jalil Al Fahim as the new Chairman of the Board for the period 2013 2014 Saeed Mohammed Al Ghurair and Harald Kroll were elected as Vice Chairmen of AHK and Marcus Thiel was appointed as Treasurer n ThE GERmaN EmIRaTI JoINT coUNcIL FoR INdUSTRy aNd commERcE ahk hELd ITS oRdINaRy GENERaL aSSEmBLy oN 27Th may 2013 aT ThE BURJ aL aRaB hoTEL IN dUBaI ThE EVENT waS oF PaRTIcULaR ImPoRTaNcE dUE To ThE ELEcTIoN oF ThE NEw BoaRd oF dIREcToRS FoR ThE NExT Two yEaR TERm SIGNIFIcaNT NUmBER oF aTTENdEES INcLUdING REPRESENTaTIVES oF GERmaN aNd UaE INSTITUTIoNS aS wELL aS comPaNy REPRESENTaTIVES PaRTIcIPaTEd IN ThE EVENT AHK GENERaL aSSEmBLy ELEcTS NEw BoaRd oF dIREcToRS daniela Calligaro Head of Membership Corporate Development at German Emirati Joint Council for Industry and Commerce AHK Dubai AnnouncementANNOUNCEMENT 4 ISSUE 11 MAJLIs