Dubai Internet City Grows Apace

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-news.com, Cyprus

14 September 2001

Five new buildings have been completed under the second phase of expansion of Dubai Internet City (DIC), adding total office space of 40,000 square feet. About 120 companies have already booked space in the new buildings, and the first tenants are set to move in by the end of October.

"The completion of the second phase of expansion will help DIC grow into an even richer and more diverse community of knowledge economy companies," said Ahmed bin Byat, DIC CEO. The first phase, completed last October, provided total office space of 32,000 square feet. More than 200 companies have moved into the four buildings constructed during that phase.

DIC, a free trade zone which provides extensive tax and legal privileges to its occupant companies, is set to complete a year of operations in the coming month, and has developed into a vibrant community of knowledge economy companies.

The $250 million project is the brainchild of Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, a businessman who, to make up for the city's dwindling oil reserves, has already transformed it into a prime trade and tourism destination for the region. IT giants such as Microsoft, chip-maker Intel and Compaq have said they see great promise in Middle East. These companies and others are moving their regional headquarters and projects to the Dubai's DIC.

It took the Dubai government less than a year to build the DIC, a cluster of modern, glass and concrete buildings along one of the emirate's main highways. The DIC has also managed to attract big IT names such as Oracle, IBM and Cisco.

Ahmed bin Bayat says one of the project's main aims is to turn Dubai into a magnet for creative minds and IT firms in the area: "We hope to create a base, a cluster of these companies here where many of our people in the region, instead of migrating westwards, can come in here and get jobs and settle in this country and produce something innovative."

DIC tenants are mostly satisfied, although some say they had hoped for faster and smoother telecoms. DIC officials admit to some teething problems, the result of speedy construction, but they brush aside detractors and maintain a positive outlook for the future. Alongside the rapidly-completed office buildings the DIC has also spent lavishly to create a pastoral environment with gardens, lakes and trees springing up overnight. "I think it has a very nice feel. It feels like a campus environment," said Cisco's regional director Rowland Griffiths. "When you look out the window and see green grass and lakes it gives you a nice feel to just come into work."

However, Compaq, which is not based at the DIC but in the nearby Jebel Ali free zone, says the DIC will only become a real success if it provides software specific to the Middle East: "Obviously the real test is that the DIC should be able to produce from the talent and the manpower it uses the kind of applications and solutions that would benefit the region."

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