UAE banking community gets Dubai Logistics City update

The briefing, conducted by Khalifa Al Zaffin, Director Engineering & Projects, Department of Civil Aviation, Government of Dubai, had a two-fold objective.

"Primarily we wanted the banking industry to know of the facilities and services which would be available to them at Dubai Logistics City and Jebel Ali Airport City so we can factor their physical requirements into the developments," explained Al Zaffin.

"As logistics is one of the key drivers of economic development within the UAE, and most particularly Dubai, the banking community will need to service their clients in this particular sector in the most convenient manner and by staying physically close to them.

"We also want the industry to be aware of the full scale of these huge projects so that they can participate in future financing requirements we may have. This is all part of our business ethos of partnering clients and customers every step of the way throughout these developments."

Meanwhile ground impacting work continues on the 25 square kilometre Dubai Logistics City site. The facility, which will also be a freighter airport, is to be operational in 2007 and is designed to eventually handle more than 12 million tons of air cargo annually in up to 16 air cargo terminals capable of handling the new generation Airbus A380-800F freighter version of the giant airliner.

DLC is to be the preferred location for businesses which require, or offer, logistics and multi-modal transport services to the GCC, the wider Middle East, India, Africa and the CIS - a market of more than two billion consumers. A recent industry report has valued the GCC logistics market alone at over US $11 billion.