Ajman Free Zone makes formal pitch for new land

“We have finished our internal study on land requirements and this is what has been submitted to the higher authorities,” said Mahmood Al Hashemi, general manager of the free zone. “I cannot go into the detail of how much land we have asked for; but our current utilisation of available land has gone well past the 80 per cent mark.”

However, as and when the new land is allocated it will not be contiguous to the existing free zone base. “There is little free land available in the Ajman Port area which is where the free zone is,” said Al Hashemi. “Instead, the land we have requested for expansion is a few minutes from the current base.”?

Interestingly, for the new area, the free zone authority has already factored in future UAE rail network expansion that would extend into Ajman. “If we get all the land that we have requested, it will be in close proximity to the network; even if not all of it is allocated for the free expansion, the plot is still near enough,” said Al Hashemi. “This is what tenants, especially those in logistics, would want.

“Of the undeveloped land still with us, our intention is to create warehouse assets rather than lease it to tenants to develop, which takes a longer time to generate income for us.”

“Despite the demand we will not be raising the lease rates in 2014; Ajman Free Zone is still in the process of attracting new businesses to set up here and our rates will be competitive,” the general manager added. “After that we may consider a revision to rates.”

The free zone this week opened a representative office in Dubai and its second after Mumbai, which was set up in July. There are two more non-UAE bases planned, though the locations are to be confirmed.

“We are going to present our case with some of the biggest business houses — a meeting with India’s Tata Group chairman (Cyrus Mistry) has just been confirmed for early February in Mumbai as part of a special trip, when we will also be meeting other leading businesses,” the official said. “We have in the past focused heavily on being a base for small businesses through our ‘smart office’ feature; that focus is changing slightly to rope in global businesses who can use the free zone as a key logistics hub.

“Light manufacturing is another area we could do more from its current contribution of 20 per cent (offices make up 50 per cent and warehousing/logistics the rest). Sticking to light makes sense from our power utilisation capacity as well.” 

Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.