The Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) has signed a memorandum of cooperation with Abu Dhabi Business Women's Council (ADBWC) at its main in Abu Dhabi, to enhance cooperation between the two sides in areas that serve the businesswomen and their various activities. The event was attended by H.E. Saeed Al Ameri, Director General of ADFCA, and H.E. Maryam Al-Rumaithi, Chairwoman of the Executive Board of ADBWC. The memorandum aims at intensifying the role of businesswomen in the private sector and helping to ensure the success and sustainability of their enterprises by providing all administrative services and facilities to them.

H.E. Saeed Al Ameri has stressed the importance of building effective partnerships between the national institutions to empower women, enhance their role in society, and provide all support to them to reach higher levels in light of the great care given by the wise leadership to Emirati women. He further added that the Emirati women have proved their ability to attain many national achievements and assume leading positions that contributed to pushing forward the country's development process.

Al Ameri noted that the memorandum has defined the main framework for cooperation between the two sides, adding the authority will provide the necessary consultations to overcome challenges facing businesswomen and female entrepreneurs when exercising their activities in terms of extracting licenses for various food products and developing their enterprises.

"ADFCA will promote the culture of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation for women in the competitive business environment, participate in all various events related to businesswomen and female entrepreneurs, and exchange services and data through joint coordination between the two sides," Al Ameri elaborated.

He noted that ADFCA will coordinate with ADBWC to develop policies and strategies to fund food-related activities, support scientific research to promote and develop the women's activities in the Emirate, cooperate to create long-term investment opportunities for women in Abu Dhabi, and organize training and awareness sessions on ADFCA's requirements regarding food-related activities.

For her side, H.E. Maryam Al-Rumaithi said: "In ADBWC, we seek to enable businesswomen and female entrepreneurs to take part in the private sector, develop their enterprises, and help them to participate effectively in the economic development process by supporting female entrepreneurs' business incubators, projects and initiatives undertaken by Emirati women in Abu Dhabi. We also adopt plans that guarantee their continuous participation in accordance with the latest developments and best practices, provide them with material and moral support, and find sponsors for them."

Al-Rumaithi expressed her appreciation to ADFCA and its role in supporting the council's efforts to enhance the role of Emirati women in the labor market and consolidate its position in the private sector in Abu Dhabi as a key partner in achieving sustainable economic development in the Emirate.

In addition to benefiting from ADFCA's expertise in overcoming all obstacles and difficulties facing the Emirati women's enterprises, particularly food-related projects, Al-Rumaithi stressed the memorandum's importance in creating new investment opportunities for women in the field of food, to help advancing this strategic sector.

It is worth mentioning that ADFCA has been able to create many investment opportunities in areas of food, agriculture and livestock in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi by hosting SIAL Middle East, the only of its kind in the Arab region, and Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture.  Furthermore, the authority is backing all national efforts aimed at strengthening the economies of food and agriculture and empowering the Emirati entrepreneurs by providing the necessary support to traders and small-scale producers.

On the other hand, ADBWC works on encouraging and supporting women to enter the labor market through micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, developing their existing projects, and providing appropriate opportunities for women to be well trained and qualified and expand the scope of their involvement in professional and commercial business. The council is also incubating the Emirati women's innovative projects and ideas, as well as facilitating the enterprises' procedures to enhance the role of businesswomen in the emirate private sector.