Media Release

Dubai, Jul 10: Kanara Entrepreneurs Ltd (KEL) conducted their fourth information and networking seminar of the year with specific emphasis on ‘Business Opportunities in the UAE’. The event was held at the India Club, Dubai.

Speakers for the evening Cecilia D’Cunha, Robert D’Sa, and Bobby Krishna were introduced by Shobha Mendonca, president of KEL.

D’Cunha is the founder and managing director of Zenesis Corporation and is a graduate in corporate law and has helped setup several companies in the region.

In a short span of 30 minutes, D’Cunha succinctly covered several areas such as reasons for setting up a new business in the UAE, the type of setup, and due diligence.

D’Cunha also covered the list of free zones in the UAE and their areas of specialization. She covered the advantages and disadvantages of setting up businesses in the free zones including some of the regulations that need to be borne in mind.

The second session was more focused on the restaurant industry in the UAE and was conducted by D’Sa who is the managing partner of Caesars Restaurants and Confectioneries.  Today, Casears UAE has 10 restaurants and 19 confectioneries with a staff strength of nearly 800, most of whom are from the Kanara region.

D’Sa started his presentation by stating that the UAE is a food lover’s paradise and an average household spends over 1,200 AED per month on dining. He said that in order to setup a restaurant one should have a concept, meet municipality and initial licensing requirements, calculate capital costs and working capital.

Krishna, who joined D’Sa, is the senior food studies and surveys officer at Dubai Municipality. He explained the basic requirements of the government in terms of food preparation, storage, and disposal in terms of kitchen requirements. He strongly advised all new investors to communicate with authorities for basic food safety advice.

The seminar was held with an audience of around 50 Dubai-based business owners and professionals from various backgrounds.

The attendees had a number of questions addressed to all the three speakers. Dorothy Fernandes proposed the vote of thanks, which was followed by dinner and networking. Charles D’Souza, director – events compered the programme.