MEPRA aims for official recognition

Getting official recognition as an independent industry in the UAE and ultimately the entire Middle East is one of the immediate short term goals of the fledgling Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) which boasted a $25 million turnover in the region last year and currently grows at 20 per cent per annum.

"Establishing Dubai as one of the world's most desirable cities is a shining example of a superb PR exercise and certainly the best that the Middle East has produced so far," says Sadri Barrage, chairman of the MEPRA.

"We are therefore privileged to have our headquarters in Dubai, but would like to see our profession get more official recognition from local authorities. Currently we operate under advertising agency licenses provided by the Department of Economic Development. Independent registration will ultimately facilitate our goals of setting standards of excellence for our profession."

MEPRA was established in 2001 to provide a unified voice for the public relations industry in the Middle East and set minimum standards of professionalism to become eligible for membership.

Currently their full membership consists of 20 public relations firms, which combined runs more than 50 offices in 10 Arab states. In the UAE it is registered at Dubai Media City and is also a member of the International Committee of Public Relations Consultancies Associations (ICCO), which represents PR consultancies across 28 countries.

Three categories of membership are available, namely full members, individual members and affiliate members, which include service industries to the profession such as photographers, video producers and monitoring companies.

All MEPRA member firms have to meet a standard set of criteria to become eligible for membership and have to sign up to a code of practice to ensure a high standard of ethics.

MEPRA is also addressing the growing demand for education and provides visiting lecturers for a number of UAE universities as well as the Lebanese American University in Lebanon.

It has also entered into a working partnership with Zayed University to accelerate the advancement of Public Relations as a professional field and area of academic study in the UAE and the Middle East region.

Public Relations practitioners see themselves as communication specialists that fosters understanding between different people and organisations, and influence opinions. PR consultancy firms in the Middle East are relied upon by a wide variety of business, government and non-profit organisations to provide strategic counselling on communications policy and building reputations.

"The buoyancy of our profession has been proved by the fact that the war in Iraq had a nominal effect; local business continued as usual and multinationals only froze some of their projects temporarily," says Sadri.

List of members

Full members
Asda'a PR
Bain Euro RSCG
Bates PanGulf
Face to Face PR
Gulf Hill & Knowlton
Headline PR
Impact Porter Novelli
Matrix Consultancy
MCS/Action
Manning Selvage & Lee MEMAC Ogilvy PR
Polaris Public Relations
Promoseven Weber Shandwick
Publicisgraphics PR
Spot On Public Relations
Strategic Solutions
Total Communications
TRACCS

Associate members
Barrow & Schuck
Zeidan Consultancy

Steering Committee 2003
Chairman: Sadri Barrage (Headlines)
Vice chairman: Jack Pearce (Matrix)
Treasurer: Jim Donaldson (Hill & Knowlton)
Secretary: Maha Tahlawi (Polaris)
Membership Secretary: Pat McLaren (TRACCS)
Ordinary Member: Fiona Noble (Bain Euro RSCG)
Ordinary Member: Naamat Baradhy (Bates Pan Gulf)