MEDFA 2009 kicks off in Dubai

Bill Lumley

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The 2009 edition of the annual conference has attracted around 380 delegates

The Middle East Duty Free Association (MEDFA) annual conference in Dubai has attracted at least 378 delegates, down slightly on last year’s total of 390. The event began with an opening cocktail at the All Bustan Rotana Hotel, where the conference will take place, on Sunday evening.

The start of the event coincided with news that the Dubai Duty Free Foundation has donated $1.5m to The Smile Train, the world’s largest charity dedicated to repairing cleft lip and cleft palate deformities in children. This sum will boost the amount raised by participants in the Miles for Smiles 10k fun run in Dubai on Saturday, which collected $50,000 for the charity. The US$1.5 million donation is to be used over a three-year period at two Smile Train partner centres in the Philippines.