Bayer MaterialScience establishes innovation center in the United Arab Emirates

This facility is the first development center for high-quality polymer materials in the region to have access to a wide range of options for technical service, the development of new applications, and training for customers and employees. The new center will supplement and aid the company's existing Regional Head Office in Dubai with regional customer support.

"The new facility will also supplement the existing Innovation Centers of Bayer MaterialScience in Leverkusen, Barcelona, Amagasaki/Japan, Pittsburgh and São Paulo as well as the recently expanded Polymer Research and Development Center in Shanghai and will cooperate with them intensively,"

says Ian Paterson, member of the Bayer MaterialScience Board of Management responsible for marketing and innovation.

"This shall enable an efficient exchange of information and know-how to benefit customers in the Middle East."

"The foundation of the new innovation center is a clear signal that we are investing in the development of future markets. This step brings us even closer to our customers and allows us to strengthen our focus on their requirements, in line with our company slogan 'VisionWorks'," comments Dr. Raul Pires, project manager for the Dubai Innovation Center. The Center is currently being set up in the existing offices of Bayer MaterialScience in Dubai and is scheduled to open at the start of 2007. In 2008, it will relocate, together with the newly-founded polyurethane systems house joint venture BaySystems Pearl, to a new, integrated Bayer MaterialScience site in Dubai. The new center will include a high-quality showroom and an office complex for technically trained employees from all the Bayer MaterialScience Business Units in the region; that is, Polyurethanes, Polycarbonates, Coatings, Adhesives, Sealants, and Thermoplastic Polyurethanes.

"Dubai is the ideal location for our new innovation center," confirms Stephan Rosenthal, Senior Country Representative for Bayer MaterialScience in the Middle East. "As the region's hub, Dubai offers the best conditions for offering optimum support to customers, consultants and other decision-makers in the Middle East. A further aim is to strengthen the excellent customer relationships that Bayer MaterialScience has built up since its first regional office was set up in the United Arab Emirates 25 years ago."

With sales of EUR 10.7 billion in 2005, Bayer MaterialScience AG is one of the world's largest polymer manufacturers. Its main fields of activity are the production of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of everyday life. The main consumer sectors are the automotive, electrical/electronics, construction, sports and leisure industries. Bayer MaterialScience has production facilities at 40 sites around the world and a workforce of approx. 18,800. Bayer MaterialScience is part of the Bayer Group.