The Committee, comprising leading members of the banking, warehousing and commodity trade sectors in Dubai, will play a key role in the development of the DCR system leading up to its implementation.

DMCC recently announced the DCR, a system of commodity warehouse receipts to facilitate the storage, trading and financing of commodities, scheduled for implementation early next year.

Welcoming members to the first Advisory Committee meeting, DMCC’s executive director, commodities, Dr David Rutledge, emphasised the committee’s role in providing feedback, from a user’s perspective, on the design and operation of the DCR System.

Dr Rutledge, who will chair the committee’s deliberations, said: “DMCC’s approach to the development of DCRs is to ensure that the system meets the needs of the marketplace. This can be achieved if there is an active dialogue between the designers of the system and those who will use it commercially. The advisory committee will play a key role in facilitating this dialogue.”

Members of the Advisory Committee include Mohammed Shamim Anwar, managing director, Peninsula Shipping Company; Faisal Galadari, assistant general manager - retail & commercial, Commercial Bank of Dubai; Haseeb Haroon, head of structured inventory products, ABN AMRO Bank; Ravi Kashyap, manager, Steinweg-Sharaf Fze; Simon Maddocks, managing director, B. Pacorini; Jonathan Morris, head of corporate and institutional banking-UAE, Standard Chartered Bank; Wasim Saifi, head of corporate banking, Dubai Islamic Bank; Ed De Kwant, director of systems & special projects Henry Bath Group; Rohan Shetty, managing director, Scan-Trans Chartering; Saeid Shokravi, managing director, Arveen General Trading; Rohit Walia, division manager, commercial banking group, Mashreqbank; Vikram B. Venkataraman, head of corporate & institutional banking, Dubai Bank; Ali Amer Al-Hashimi, assistant manager - Islamic finance & funds management, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank; and Ramdas K., manager - credit administration, Emirates Bank International.   DMCC, which was launched last year as a strategic goal of the Dubai government to establish a commodity market place in the emirate, will serve the needs of participants in the Dubai gold, diamonds and commodities market, offering a secure regulated environment, special freight rates, a 50-year tax holiday and the benefit of ownership of business premises.

The centre offers a unique opportunity for participants in a wide range of metals and commodities industries, providing facilities that bring together the gold and diamond trade (housing a recently launched Diamond Exchange), and trading in other selected commodities. With facilities, including a commercial tower, refineries and a manufacturing complex, DMCC is the only UAE centre, which offers the ownership of business premises in addition to all other free zone services.