Come Dec. 5 and 6, Ritz Carlton DIFC, Dubai will host the 1st mega congregation of stakeholders in the retail business — the Middle East Retail Forum (MRF) - organized by IMAGES RetailME, the business magazine of the Middle East Retail industry and supported by some of the leading names in the retail fraternity.

The evening of Dec. 5 will host the annual IMAGES RetailME Awards 2012 felicitating outstanding achievers in retail and the gala dinner filled with celebrations and glittering entertainment.

Mohammad I. B. Alawi, CEO, Red Sea Markets Co., owner of Red Sea Mall, Jeddah, strongly advocated the need for nurturing demands with value-added products and services. He said: “There has already been a considerable investment in modern retailing due to new generation consumer demands. The chore here is to nurture these demands with value added products and services.”

Yusuffali M.A., group MD of UAE-based Emke Group which operates more than 100 hypermarkets, supermarkets and shopping malls, said: “Retail is instrumental to the economic growth in the Middle Eastern region and having a knowledge platform like the MRF only motivates the industry to do better.” Line Investment, a subsidiary of Emke Group, is supporting the Middle East Retail Forum and Images RetailME Awards 2012 from the forefront.

Amitabh Taneja, chairman of the IMAGES Group, said: “While retailing in the Middle East has been the catalyst of growth for home grown retailers as also for some 140 global retailers and 1000+ brands, past few years have been rather tough for most and only a handful could reap profits.”

Nilesh Ved, chairman of the Apparel Group, who has been strongly advocating the need to create more shopping days to drive the next consumption wave in the Middle East, will chair the session on new opportunities for expansion and growth.