Entries Tagged 'Issue 20 July/August 2009' ↓

Queues and paperwork may soon be a thing of the past for shippers in Dubai.

If Mahmood Al Bastaki’s wish comes true, all trade transactions in Dubai will one day occur online. As Director of Dubai Trade, Al Bastaki oversees the portal described as a single sign on, single window channel to the online services of DP World, Dubai Customs, Economic Zones World, and Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority. Users can register documents and activitiessuch as free zone licenses, manifest and cargo handling services, cargo clearance and haulage, invoicing and payments, and electronic warehouse receipts. “Our main goal is to provide a single window for trade,” he says.

His team has made major headway with the portal since he joined the organisation in December 2006. “For DP World, all the containerised cargo services are now on the Dubai Trade portal,” he says. “For bulk cargo, everything is still off-line, but the exact services that are offered for containerised cargo will soon be added for bulk cargo. We are trying to complete the cycle.”

Last year, Dubai Trade added a highly- popular e-payment gateway to the cycle. The site called ‘Rosoom’ allows DP World and Jafza clients to pay for charges such as customs duties, handling charges and administrative services through the web. Customers can pay with credit card, direct debit, or through online banking with a selection of banks. The programme has already proved a success, with DP World-based transactions alone totalling more than more than 97 million dirhams (US$26.4 million) between April 2008 and April 2009. “Meanwhile, we are adding more services to be paid online,” says Al Bastaki.

Continue reading →

Just when you thought Jebel Ali Free Zone couldn’t get any bigger, Economic Zones World announces a slew of new real estate projects for its flagship operation.

Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) may soon become a bit more hospitable. Its management, Economic Zones World (EZW), is looking beyond standard warehouses to providing services such as showrooms, food courts, labour accommodation, a hotel and convention centre, and office towers. At least five new projects are slated for release in the coming
year. Here are some to watch out for:

Light industrial units
Six blocks of light industrial units cum warehouses will be available in the North Zone of Jebel Ali near roundabout 7, around 300 metres from the port, in September 2009. These 43 warehouse will provide 126 sq metres of front-office space on ground and mezzanine floors, as well as 513 sq metres for light industrial or warehouse use. These buildings stand 10 metres high to allow for storage.

Warehouse showrooms
Jafza is developing 68 units for product display, as well as storage and distribution in its South Zone. “It is not only a showroom,” says Talal Al Hashemi, Managing Director, EZW UAE Region. “It is a showroom, storage, office and light industrial unit all in one.”

Continue reading →

Tenants will soon take hold of their promised plots in the Bahrain Logistics Zone.

Everyone knows the typical story of Gulf real estate: buy your home, office or warehouse while the only tangible evidence of the property is a pile of sand; believe the developer’s promise that the entire area will be fully operational in X number of months; wait X plus 12 months to take hold of the property while the developer finishes surrounding roads and sets up water and electricity; move into the property
as soon as you can; and, having completelyforgotten what the original artists impression looked like, tell yourself, “At least I have a home/office/warehouse.”

This is why I’m a bit surprised when Hamad Fakhro, Assistant General Director for the Bahrain Logistics Zone (BLZ), tells me that his team waited until infrastructure such as roads and electricity on the one sq metre plot of reclaimed land adjacent to the new Khalifa Bin Sulman port was 100 per cent complete before asking customers to sign contracts. “We have handed the contracts over to the potential tenants, and we expect the signed contracts back within the next one or two weeks,” he says. “We made sure that everything was finished, and only then did we bring the contracts and the design codes to the customers.”

Over the past year, his organisation has signed memorandums of understanding
with large companies such as Landmark, CEVA, Danzas and Marina Furniture; and Fakhro expects all the contracts sent out to return signed. “Customers were very eager to join the BLZ in recent times, even with the economic crisis. Also, upon meeting each single company when we handed them the contracts, they were quite excited,” he says. “There are no signs that anyone will change their mind.”

Hamad Fakhro

Continue reading →