BEIJING — Ibrahim Mohamed Aljanahi, Deputy CEO of Jafza, the UAE's flagship free zone entity, reiterated the strategic importance of Dubai as the hub to access and serve the thriving market of more than 2.5 billion consumers in the wider Middle East region, at the "Invest in Dubai" seminar organized by Falcon and Associates during "Dubai Week in China" in Beijing. He was speaking at the panel discussion "Why Dubai" within the seminar. Stressing on the role of Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) as the logistics hub for serving all key markets in the wider Middle East region, which spans from West Asia, the CIS, Africa and the Indian Subcontinent, Aljanahi said: "The evolution of Dubai as the gateway and a hub for such a huge market demonstrates the power of great vision and astute planning. Dubai's visionary rulers thought ahead of time and developed world-class economic and transport infrastructure to evolve Dubai from a small trading center to an international business hub for the region. Jafza was created in 1985 and in the last thirty years, leveraging Dubai's outstanding multimodal facilities grew into one of the world's finest logistics hubs. The Free Zone attracted practically all big multinationals into the Free Zone who were interested in the wider Middle East's rapidly growing economies. Thousands of world's top multinationals today have established their regional headquarters in Jafza and serve all key markets in the entire region efficiently." Aljanahi also talked about the recently developed Dubai Logistics Corridor which allows all Jafza-based companies to transfer their cargo from one mode to another in less than an hour, the fastest turn-around in the world. Jafza is the only free zone in the world, which is located between the two largest trade enablers viz. Jebel Ali Port, the largest container terminal, and Al Maktoum International Airport, the biggest cargo and passenger airport, in the region. The Free Zone is also just 30-minutes' drive away from the Dubai International Airport. "Dubai is today considered one of the top aviation hubs in the world with Dubai International Airport ranked the busiest airport. More than 140 airlines serve Dubai and Al Maktoum International Airports providing the fastest air connection to reach any destination in the world at the shortest possible time. Jebel Ali Port, on the other hand, is today one of the top 10 container ports in the world and the largest in the region. More than 170 main shipping lines call the port providing efficient sea connections to all major trading corridors across the world," Aljanahi said. — Agencies
