RIYADH, 3 November 2004 — The United Arab Emirates has chosen its first female minister in the latest Cabinet reshuffle on Monday.
Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi, CEO of Tejari.com, the Middle East’s premier electronic business-to-business marketplace, has been named the minister for economy and planning.
A graduate of Computer Science from the University of California, Lubna — the niece of the ruler of Sharjah Sheikh Sultan ibn Muhammad Al-Qasimi — returned to the UAE after her graduation to join a software company as a programmer.
Instead of using her father’s influence to land a job in the ministry, she wanted to fulfill her dreams in techno world and joined Datamation, working from 8 to 6 as everybody else.
She was the only Emirati in her company. And that made her all the more determined in pursuing her dreams.
Six years later, she joined the Dubai Ports Authority (DPA). Her determination and decision-making skill saw her become the senior manager of the Information System department at the DPA. The port itself is ranked No. 11 in the world today and is listed as the No. 1 port in the region with a sophisticated e-system in place that connects the ports and customs authority with the cargo community.
After a decade with the DPA, a better offer came her way; the sort of offer that comes with responsibility, but also with trust in leadership.
With 16 years of experience in the IT sector, and having proven herself in a mostly male-dominated field, the Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Ports and Customs Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum chose Lubna to head Tejari.com, the most current in a line of e-ideas that the Dubai government has embarked upon to globalize trade and offer public services on the Internet. She soon became the head of UAE’s e-government team.
Derived from the Arabic word tejarah, which means trade, tejari.com is a business-to-business online marketplace that targets businesses that intend to buy and sell products online. Suppliers and buyers from any part of the world can register online and create their own profiles, showcase their products, or request product quotas to purchase from the exchange community.
Sheikha Lubna, despite her frequent travels to the US and UK to attend and take part in seminars, has always turned to home for comfort and recognition. Among the very few Gulf female citizens who have majored and achieved a lot in the IT sector, Lubna has always believed that her position contradicts the prevailing norm but things are changing quickly.
“Let them admire you for what you represent and what you deliver and then it’s a different story,” she said in a recent interview.
The UAE’s appointment of its first female minister comes months after its Gulf neighbor Bahrain appointed Nada Abbas Haffadh as its first female minister of health as part of the landmark, political and economic reforms initiated in the Gulf state by King Hamad Al-Khalifa. On March 2, Sultan Qaboos of Oman appointed Sheikha Aisha bint Khalfan Al-Sayabiyah as minister in charge for the National Authority for Industrial Craftsmanship.
Sheikha Al-Mahmoud in Qatar was the first woman in the Gulf to win the title of “Her Excellency the minister”.