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DUBAI / WAM
H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE, and President of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), met with Julie Sweet, the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Accenture, one of the world’s largest professional services firms.
The meeting held at DIFC discussed new avenues for Dubai and the UAE to partner with global professional services firms to advance the growth of the sector in the region. Sheikh Maktoum highlighted the opportunities emerging for the professional services sector from the ambitious projects, growth initiatives and innovation development programmes being launched in the country.
Maktoum bin Mohammed said that Dubai, with its pro-growth policies, world-leading infrastructure, and exceptional business-enabling services, offers an ideal platform for global firms to advance their reach, growth and innovation in the region. He further said that in line with the visionary growth path charted by the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, the emirate is keen to expand cooperation with global companies like Accenture not only to consolidate its status as one of the world’s top urban economies but also shape a new future for the region. Dubai has created distinctive models for public-private sector partnerships to create new growth possibilities and unlock fresh opportunities for investment and innovation, he added.
The CEO of Accenture said the company continues to be committed to growing its regional operations and partnering with Dubai and the UAE to generate solutions for solving the region’s most pressing problems.
The meeting was also attended by Helal Almarri, Director General of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism; Malek Al Malek, Director General of the Dubai Development Authority and CEO of TECOM Group; Arif Amiri, CEO of DIFC; and Jean-Marc Ollagnier, CEO of Accenture in Europe.
With leading capabilities in strategy and consulting, technology and operations services, Accenture serves clients in more than 120 countries with a 738,000-strong workforce worldwide. The firm achieved global annual revenues of $61.6 billion for the fiscal year ending August 2022. Accenture is a well-established player in the UAE’s professional services sector. The company opened an office in Dubai in 2001. In 2017, the launch of DIFC’s FinTech Hive, a regional fintech accelerator programme, was supported by Accenture. As the Digital Services Premier Partner of Expo 2020 Dubai, Accenture played a key role in designing and building the digital infrastructure needed to deliver a highly personalised visitor experience at the mega global event.