Dubai: Twenty years after fleeing his native Afghanistan with $700, Mirwais Azizi now lives in the UAE, presiding over his company, Azizi Investments, which aims to have a landbank of 165 million square feet within the next two years.
He spoke to Gulf News before the launch of his first development project.
Azizi left Afghanistan with $700 in his pocket when Russian soldiers invaded in 1988 and like a rags-to-riches Hollywood movie, he made his first million dollars within about six months.
With his beginnings rooted in the petroleum business in the Central Asian countries and Bulgaria, Azizi came to Dubai in 1993 because of its famed business environment. Being a tax haven and with the politically secure nature of the emirate, Dubai seemed the perfect location to set up the real estate branch of his company.
"The idea came to me in the last quarter of 2007 to make a development company in Dubai. So Azizi Investment was officially launched on February 18 this year," Azizi said.
In the pipeline
Azizi Investments already has 20 projects in the pipeline in Dubai and one hotel project in Ajman. Azizi Investments is set to develop the only five-star hotel in Ajman as part of R Holdings' Dh15 billion Emirates City. This year the company has ambitious plans to have 55 projects in Dubai over a built-up area of 15 million square feet, including Al Furjan, where they have obtained 12 plots.
The 12 plots of the Dh1 billion Al Furjan development have already been designed with a built-up area of 1,750,000 square feet. Ten of these plots will be residential and two will be commercial.
The residential plots will consist of 1,200 to 1,300 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, along with swimming pools, gyms and saunas. Construction will begin in August and will be launched later this month.
Azizi Investments has also acquired land for development on Crest A and Crest E of Palm Jebel Ali.
Azizi said the company will make itself known in Dubai before launching into the other emirates and has no immediate plans for international expansion.
"In 2009, about 10 per cent or 15 per cent of our projects will be in Abu Dhabi and the rest in Dubai. We want to have everything organised in Dubai and don't want to spread ourselves too thin. We want a stronghold here and then we'll go abroad," Azizi said.
Starting this year, each project from the day construction starts to the handover will take an average period of 18 months to complete, according to Azizi. He said the company's policy is to opt for a strong construction company to get good quality and achieve on-time delivery for customers, a concept fabled in Dubai.
"Challenges can be resolved if developers have a focus. In Dubai, everything is so easy, and there are already a lot of construction companies - more than 500 here. So it all depends on how serious the developers are on the projects they have taken on," Azizi said.
Having said the company has no urgent plans to go abroad, Azizi has in fact, already started investing heavily in his home town, Kabul. In the businesses he sets up, he provides employment for his fellow Afghans, especially women, who lacked such opportunities under the rule of the Taliban.
He started to develop the American university in Kabul and is currently building a new campus and new dormitories for the university. There will be four or five buildings available for student housing.
He has also opened a local bank in Kabul, Azizi Bank, which has 1,000 employees, 30 per cent of them women. The bank has made profits of $25 million in two years.
Ploughing back
All the profit made from the Azizi Group is ploughed back into the development of Afghanistan.
Today, he returns every one or two weeks to Afghanistan. "I am developing one five-star hotel and we've already purchased the land.
His petroleum business Azizi Hotak Group, operates in 10 countries with Azizi pouring in the initial $80 million to start the company. He is currently investing another $400 million to set up 350 petrol stations throughout Afghanistan.
"Because in Afghanistan, the government has decided to build a new Kabul, I want to build a lot of residential areas for the people," he told Gulf News. This housing will be in the inner city of Kabul and due to start in around a year.
On top of the 15 million square feet of land in Dubai, Azizi Investments aims to have a further 50 million square feet by 2009 and another 100 million square feet by 2010, creating a potentially impressive landbank of 165 million square feet.
