Dubai, February 3, 2010: Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC), the subsidiary of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) organized on Tuesday, 2nd February, a lecture under the title "Towards a new golden age: benefiting from a rapidly ageing and healthier population." It was presented by Mr. Gabriel Aractingi, Executive Vice President, Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie (LODH), the Swiss private bankers.

The lecture was attended by Mrs. Raja Easa Al-Gurg, DBWC President, Mrs. Faiza Al-Sayed, DBWC Vice-President, the Board Members of the Council and more than 50 businesswomen. At the beginning of the lecture, Mrs. Al-Gurg welcomed Mr. Gabriel Aractingi and the attendees. She thanked them for their interest in participating in the lecture which highlighted an important issue that revolved around a topic which was the subject of many studies and research, and engaged a lot of attention in various countries of the world.

Mrs. Raja stated that organizing this lecture by the DBWC was mandated by the Council's interest in updating businesswomen and women in general on the latest studies in healthcare and public health in old age. The lecture also educated on how to plan well for this stage of life during the period of youth, especially since it has been proved that reliance on drugs would grow drastically as a person grew in age, she said.

She pointed out that male and female investors, and even international investment companies, have begun to take serious steps to invest in healthcare for the aged. They are looking into areas that dealt with the subject of maintaining good health and guaranteeing a peaceful life. She said that studies demonstrated that the percentage of people who would reach old age would be high during the coming years, since the age of about 20 per cent of the global population would go over 60 years. This trend would continue till 2050, she said.

Mrs. Al-Gurg called on businesswomen to seize available opportunities and to invest in the new promising areas that would be channels for attracting investments in high volumes, especially since the region was in desperate need of such investments, and because there was considerable interest by governments and also individuals for attending to the field of healthcare and to further develop its levels.

Mr. Gabriel Aractingi highlighted the issue of ageing populations and gave suggestions on how to benefit from it. He stated that the rapid ageing of the population was a concern for all and was the result of a combination of longer life expectancy and lower fertility rate. By 2050, the age of two billion people will be more than 60 years, representing about 20 per cent of the world's population, and most baby boomers would turn 60 in 2010, he said.

He also pointed out that these people would want to maintain good standards in their lives and live healthy lives. They would also have enough funds to secure the costs of treatment and to maintain a high standard of living. In addition, he noted, it was a common fact that we all use more drugs as we get older. In this sense, the healthcare sector will play a greater role in the coming years, he said.

Confirming that Lombard Odier Bank, which has a branch in Dubai, was seriously considering investing in this sector, he said that it had chosen the best specialists in the world to take the initiative forward. "The idea is to take advantage of the issue of ageing population (i.e. longer life expectancy and lower fertility rate), which indicates that investing in healthcare will continue to rise globally, accelerated by the fact that the trend of ageing population is global," he concluded.

-Ends-

About the Dubai Business Women Council (DBWC):
Its mission is to proactively encourage business and professional women in Dubai to participate in a variety of business segments in order to enhance the contribution, productivity and activity of business and professional women locally and internationally.

Its objectives are the following:

1. To represent the DBWC at Arab and international conferences and forums related to business and professional women.

2. To cooperate with local and international institutions to increase awareness about the council and to share and contribute business ideas between the business women and different organizations.

3. To negotiate problems that women face at the workplace and find solutions and recommendations to solve these problems.

4. Providing facilities and introducing business women to the Dubai Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), its services and activities.

5. Organizing networking opportunities by inviting business women to participate in a variety of events organized by the Dubai Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

For more details, log on to DCCI website at: http://www.dbwc.ae

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© Press Release 2010