SHARJAH AIRPORT INTERNATIONAL FREE ZONE STEPS UP DRIVE TO ATTRACT INVESTORS

SAIF-Zone plans more direct activities on Indian Sub-continent, in Far East, Middle East countries

Sharjah Airport International Free Zone (SAIF-Zone) is stepping up its drive to attract investors, with a major new awareness campaign being launched on the Indian sub-continent, in the Far East, and the Middle East.

SAIF-Zone is implementing an extended programme of direct marketing activities to promote the wide range of business advantages which have persuaded more than 560 companies to begin operations at the facility since it was established in September 1995.

“We are already the fastest-growing free zone in the region, and we are committed to ensuring that the dynamic growth of the last five-and-a-half years continues,” Taryam Mattar Mohd Taryam, director general, SAIF-Zone, told a press conference today.

“Concentrating on light and medium industry, we’re targeting the Indian sub-continent, the Far East, and Middle East countries, with an intensified programme of direct marketing activities designed to attract a great deal of additional investment.”

The SAIF-Zone initiative will include an increased number of road shows and investor conferences, and more combined efforts in conjunction with the Sharjah Tourism Board, and Sharjah Chamber of Commerce.

“Our strategy is to meet many more investors in their own countries, and confront them on a one-to-one basis with the wide range of advantages available at SAIF-Zone for manufacturers, exporters, importers, freight forwarders, and companies seeking a regional manufacturing, distribution and assembly base,” said the director general.

SAIF-Zone, the world’s first ever ISO 9001 certified Airport Free Zone, aims to capitalise on its strategically important location, which gives direct access to a market of more than 1.6 billion consumers across the Arab world, in Iran, the CIS countries, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Through sponsorship of Sharjah-based rally driver, Sheikh Abdullah Al Qassimi, motor sport will be used to increase awareness that SAIF-Zone offers a unique opportunity to customers using sea or air freight, and presents industry with many advantages over other regional free zones. “An association with one of the Middle East’s top rally drivers will help raise the profile of SAIF-Zone, and alert more investors about the wide range of business advantages we offer,” said Taryam Mattar Mohd Taryam.

The impressive directory of companies established in SAIF-Zone represents a huge cross-section of light and medium industries, including air cargo, air conditioning, aircraft dealing and leasing, building materials, car parts and accessories, chemical products, freight forwarding, pharmaceuticals, plant machinery, and textiles.

Major names include soap and deodorant manufacturer, Godrej, whose SAIF-Zone plant is aimed at opening new markets in South Asia and Africa. Indian software giant, Infosys Technologies, is among the latest arrivals in the free zone, which offers a single window solution to investor requirements, and keeps administrative procedures to a minimum.

Another recent arrival at SAIF-Zone, Nordisk Hableel, has become the only certified repair station for aircraft containers and palettes between Brussels and Singapore.

Managing director Obaid Hableel set up the joint venture company last December with Nordisk, the world’s largest manufacturer of aircraft containers. He said: “Qatar Airways and Oman Air are established customers, and we want to persuade major international carriers to concentrate on their core business, and use our specialist repair services, rather than take damaged containers and palettes back to their home base to repair themselves”

The SAIF-Zone investment drive is part of a broad plan by the Government of Sharjah to promote the emirate as an international business hub. A key to the success of this plan, Sharjah International Airport dominates the regional charter operations sector, and handles more export volumes than any other Middle East airport. Airlines operating through the airport serve 75 destinations in the CIS region alone, while Sharjah is Lufthansa’s second largest cargo hub after Frankfurt, with 360 flights and more than 14,000 tonnes of cargo movement per month.

The UAE’s six international airports, and 15 sea ports, give importers and exporters choice and healthy competition, leading to low port handling costs. A fast motorway network means trucking time between any airport and seaport is only two to three hours.

Speed, safety, reliability and cost-effectiveness are unique selling points for the UAE’s sea-air hub. Sea-air traffic through Sharjah has grown by more than 50% in the last four years, making Sharjah International Airport the leader in Asia for sea-air transport.