Dubai: The Dh11 billion Dubai Maritime City (DMC), the ship repair unit of Dubai World is on schedule to complete, its three phases by 2013 said Khamis Juma Bu Amim, chairman of Drydocks World and Maritime World at the launch of Phase One yesterday.
"We're looking at a building strategy that has three phases. Today is the opening of phase one, the marina operation, then we will go into phase two which involves building additional infrastructure and increasing our capacity. In phase 3 we intent to finalise all the commercial side of our city. So far all phases will be on schedule because we have put a number of milestones for them to achieve," said Bu Amim.
In the first Dh3 billion phase, 50 companies will move their main operations to the site along with six companies that will build headquarters, workshops, manufacturing areas and warehouses.
The ship lift facility located within phase one in the Maritime Industrial precinct lifts ships with capacities of 6,000 and 3,000 tonnes and addresses the mid-level segment of ship owners. Large vessels are accommodated in the adjacent Drydocks World Facility.
Bu Amim said the current restructuring of the company's debt has not affected their construction targets and they did not need to raise funds for the construction of DMC.
"We are retaining self-sufficient funds at the moment and we're refinancing all our operations," said Bu Amim.
The revenues made by DMC over the next five years are expected to refund the expenditure.
The project is spread across 227 hectares of reclaimed land and is made up of various components related to the maritime and ship reparing industry including industrial, operation, services, commercial, academic, residential and lifestyle components.
Bu Amim said they are looking to enter into joint ventures in the near future "We will not have an expansion as such but what we're doing is looking into is a number of joint ventures."
