Dubai Industrial City

With the industrial sector in Dubai being the second largest contributor to the GDP, the Dubai Industrial City aims to provide the complete package for medium and large manufacturers in the country and the region.

Driving along Emirates Road, not far from the Dubai-Abu Dhabi border, one can easily forget about the traffic in the nearby cities. But not for long. This road is about to get busy. Dubai World Central airport is coming up along it, with Dubai Logistics City adjacent to the east and Dubai Industrial City (DIC) to the west. While DLC and DWC can be distracting, DIC, which links both Emirates Road to Dubai By-pass Road is soon to catch your eye.
                                                                           Rasheed Al Ansari, CEO, DIC

With 560 million sq feet and over 450 planned factories, DIC is Dubai’s third largest non-real estate project, according to Chief Executive Officer, Rashed Al Ansari.

“The industrial sector is currently the second largest contributor to the GDP in Dubai,” he explains. “Not many people know that.”

In fact, Al Ansari says industry is necessary to support the emirate’s biggest chunk of the economy – real estate. “You need quite a lot of materials to support the real estate coming up in Dubai. You need quite a bit of furniture. You need quite a bit of chemical products.”

The goal of DIC, according to Al Ansari, is to provide the complete package for medium and large manufacturers in the UAE and GCC. Companies operating in six sectors – machinery and mechanical equipment, transport equipment and parts, base metal, chemicals, food and beverage and mineral products – will have everything they need, from land, to warehouses, to transport services.

“I lock my staff in a meeting room and say ‘Put yourself in the shoes of the investor and don’t come out until you have a solution that will make their life easier’,” says Al Ansari proudly. “Our aim here is to take away the pain of people who want to set up their facilities here so they can focus on their core business.”

One of these solutions includes Dubai Industrial Academy, focusing on training and placement for workers in DIC factories, “to ensure that there is a continuous pipeline of technically skilled labourers for these factories,” says Ansari.

The UAE native says he can even see other Emiratis attending the academy. “There is a layer of UAE nationals who did not graduate from high school or only have a high school degree,” he says. “The majority of them are not working, they are not active members of society.”

“That portion of society is neglected. There is not enough training for them, there is not enough opportunity for them.”

The city has also planned seven accommodation complexes throughout the development, each holding 12,500 tenants.

“DIC recently inaugurated its first 10 kilometre arterial road, a dual carriageway with four lanes each. The main roads of Phase 1 are expected to be completed by end 2008 and the collector roads and local roads are scheduled for completion by the end of December 2008. The roads for Phase 1, designed for heavy traffic, will cost approximately US$28 million, plus US$6.3 million for street lighting.”

The entire infrastructure for Phase 1 is underway and expected to be completed by 2009. The design for Phase 2 of the infrastructure works is on going and the works are expected to start by the end of the year.

DIC, according to Al Ansari, is currently developing 12 million sq feet of storage facilities, 1.5 million of these which it has already handed over to clients such as Siemens. The warehouses are adjacent to the food and beverage, base metals and labour accommodation zones. Each cluster is located on the main internal road, linked by traffic routes designed specifically to reduce travel distance within the city.

These warehouses are modular based with a minimum area of 5,000 sq feet, and can be replicated up to 170,000 sq feet (see Info Pack). They come in three styles – showroom front, dry storage and cold storage.

Info Pack

Warehouses of 5,000 sq feet and 10,000 sq feet and retail showrooms with adjoining warehouse and AC provision are available for lease in multiples of 5,000 sq feet in Phases 1, 2 and 3 of Dubai Industrial City. Specifications include:

• A pre-cast frame 8.5 metres high, including pre-cast footing columns, rafters and walls
• A grade slab floor designed to carry truck movements with axial load of up to 8 tons
• Manually operated 6 x 6 metres sliding main door
• Internal light fittings
• Four hours fire rating
• Independent fire fighting systems with equipment such as alarm panels, sprinkler system and fire exit door
• Provision to be converted into an air conditioned and cold store facility
• A 1.5 tonne capacity for internal listing hock cranes
• Parking and loading and unloading areas
• Provision for warehouse’s offices available (drainage and electrical)
• Fully secured phases with external boundary walls and control gates
• Public services buildings are available for each phase (toilets, mosque, administration building and parking areas)

DIC will also feature a 20 million sq foot logistics park operated by Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN), which will use its subsidiary companies DHL Express, DHL Exel Supply Chain and Danzas to serve DIC customers. (see page 55) Services will include inbound transportation of machinery by sea, air, or road, customs clearance, delivery of machinery to factories, and storage of equipment, raw and packaging materials and finished goods.

Al Ansari says he stands firm in his decision to avoid qualifying DIC for free zone status. “One of the main reasons for this is to benefit from the free trade agreements we have here in the UAE.” To qualify to trade freely with countries under the GCC free trade agreement and GAFTA, for example, a business must be located outside a free zone, he explains. “Our target for trade will be within the UAE, as well as the region.”

Staying safe Businesses looking to set up in DIC will face a strict set of health, safety and environment qualifications. The development’s division Maqayees, which means ‘standards’ in Arabic has developed the Dubai Quality Mark (DQM), an integrated framework based on the requirements of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, ISO/TS 16949, ISO 22000 and other international best practices. DQS – the German certification body for management systems – has validated DQM to be on par with international standards.

But are such standards a deterrent to companies looking to cut costs?

“Initially when we put the measures of the Dubai Quality Mark in place, some of the senior members of this organisation were a bit hesitant – one of them was me,” says Al Ansari. “But we have seen that companies took this model very nicely. They loved the concept of having this type of responsibility. I think us being leased out of land is a testimony that this has been successful. When you are sure your neighbour is going to have safe practices within their facilities and you’re not going to be harmed by them.”

He points to the recent fire in Al Quoz Industrial Area which started in a fireworks warehouse. “One warehouse affected more than 80 warehouses around it, and that is a disaster. This is what we really don’t want to replicate in Dubai Industrial City.”