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Monday 15 December 2008

Dubai Maritime City not affected by credit crunch

The industrial district of Dubai Maritime City (DMC), a maritime industry cluster, is in its final phase of development and is not affected by the credit crunch, top officials told Gulf News. At Seatrade Middle East Maritime exhibition, John Ewing, chief commercial officer of DMC said that the progress of the project is going as planned. The industrial district is close to 70 to 80 per cent complete and would be fully operational in 2009, he said. The commercial district is in the final stage of setting up the infrastructure and finalising the road works.

"We are already starting now to do some piling on our own buildings. We are progressing as per our schedule and going full speed ahead," Ewing said. The first purpose-built maritime centre, the largest in the world, covers a land area of 2.27 million square metres. The city is split up into the Maritime Centre, the Industrial Precinct, the Academic Quarter, the Marina District, the Harbour Residence, and the Harbour offices.

The full project is set to be complete by the end of 2012, Ewing said. There will be certain aspects of the project, which will finish earlier such as the academy. The regulatory side is already operating and the officials are working with other relative authorities for leisure industry and starting training courses.

Speaking on the impact of the current economic situation, Ewing said that, "obviously there has been an effect on the whole industry." He said that the maritime industry very closely reflects global economy as a whole, "being a prime
mover of goods and services." "For that reason, within the industry there is more cautious approach to new ventures," he said.

On the other hand, he said that they continue to see interest from international companies. "People are looking for alternatives. DMC is fulfilling a gap that exists in the global maritime infrastructure. "There are centres in Asia, Europe and US but there is no major centre in the Middle East," he said.

Ewing said that the shipping industry has always been a cyclical business. "It is used to going through highs and lows. Everyone right now is suffering because of the global economy but they are still looking ahead for the next growth period," he said, adding that the growth could come back in the next one to three years.

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