MEFMA conference

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Bradley Robbins, director of services, Khidmah, discusses how Abu Dhabi can learn lessons from Dubai with the impending Strata Law.

MEFMA has joined Global FM, the worldwide alliance of facility management organisations to further strengthen its ties with professionals in the industry.

The announcement was made by Sinéad Bridgett, event and membership director, MEFMA, at its conference on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi last month.

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“Global FM is the governing association for facility management associations worldwide. MEFMA is very proud to announce its membership of this organisation, further strengthening our communication and network with IFMA, BIFM and FMA, to name but three of its members,” she said.

“We see this as a step in the right direction, confirming MEFMA’s progression as being the Middle East’s leading FM association. The benefits from this partnership will bring knowledge sharing and FM education to a new level.”

Jamal Lootah, president, MEFMA, said the Middle East association was now one year old and urged more professionals to show their support by becoming members.

He said ‘now the time is coming’ and the market needs stronger FM companies.

“The time has gone when FM was known as just a maintenance provider. It is about the integration of different services to give back to the client.

Most people want to understand what FM is and this year we will try to cover as much of the GCC as we can where we need more FM awareness.”

Key topics at the conference included Bradley Robbins, director services, Khidmah, discussing the Strata Law and Peter Nasrallah, senior operations manager, Musanada about the challenges of FM in Abu Dhabi. Musanada is the latest company to become a member of MEFMA.

According to Khidmah’s Robbins, a lot of FM companies will have to change their current business model to accommodate the new Strata Law.

He said the law, otherwise known as the Jointly Owned Property (JOP) Law, continues to receive a lot of publicity as it gains momentum but facilities managers need to be involved with developers from day one, six months prior to handover so they can take an integrated approach.

“Dubai has already introduced the Strata Law and Abu Dhabi is on the verge of introducing it. We need to ensure its success because it has a lot of benefit to owners, associations and FM providers,” he said.

“Times are changing and it’s now more of a ‘customer comes first’ attitude whereas before it was the developer. Going are the FMs that engage a contractors to sub contract work. Abu Dhabi is a whole new ball game. We have to get rid of this reactive mentality, the fix it when it’s broke strategy and move into a more proactive era.”