Hamriyah Free Zone, one of the region's fast-growing warehousing, distribution and industrial hubs, continues to make progress in gaining new tenants and recently completed the first-phase work of dredging the Hamriyah inner-harbour.

The free zone now houses more than 240 companies with the latest entrant being Blue Star Limited, an Indian manufacturer of air conditioners. At the end of 2001, the number of companies had been about 200.

Blue Star's entry followed an aggressive marketing campaign launched by the free zone authority over a period of several months to bring investments from the Indian subcontinent, Iran, South Africa, Australia and Europe. Earlier in 2002 it staged road shows in Indian cities including Hyderabad and Mumbai and took part in an expo in Jeddah and other international events to promote its facilities.

By July of 2002, the free zone had attracted investments of more than Dh1 billion ($273.3 million) since 1978 and some 23 per cent of the companies there were said to be Indian. Notable Indian companies include giants like Iffco and Larsen and Toubro.

Hamriyah Zone has identified four industrial sectors in terms of growth potential and demarcated special zones for them. These are petrochemicals, food processing, textiles and wood.

Among companies in the zone are Indonesian heavy vehicles manufacturer Texmaco, which will be producing 15,000 to 20,000 vehicles per year; pre-fabricated structural steel supplier Manmut Industries; UK multinational Anmaar Resources' firm, Speciality Chemicals; Italian pipe fabricator Bellily, German firm Zosil and prominent regional company Mohideen Woodworks.

The Hamriyah Free Zone commands an area of approximately 10 million sq m of prime industrial and commercial land. The free zone authority projects it as "the ideal warehousing/distribution and industrial hub providing access to a demanding and affluent market in the region."

The authority stresses the "Sharjah link", saying investors have access to a trade bridge that creates a significant cost and time savings advantage. The link is created by Khorfakkan container port in the east, Hamriyah and Port Khalid ports on the west coast/Arabian Gulf and the Sharjah International Airport. All ports are connected by a super highway and enjoy tax exemptions for goods that are shipped to the Hamriyah Free zone. Sharjah International Airport is one of the largest cargo-handling hubs in the region with Lufthansa having selected it as a Middle East base.

Hamriyah port can accommodate Panamax-size vessels. It has a 250m-long cargo berth with room for developing other cargo berths. The harbour accommodates a dedicated petrochemical berth as well as bulk-handling berths. After the inner-harbour project is completed investors will have access to a number of waterfront plots.

Hamriyah Free Zone received recently a prestigious accolade in the form of the International Gold Quality Award from Business Initiative Directions (BID), one of the largest quality corporate image endorsers in the world and known for its analysis of corporate image and quality. The award, presented in Geneva at the International Quality Convention was granted for "customer satisfaction, leadership, strategic planning and benchmarking as established in the QC 100 TQM system." It was based on BID's international structure of business communications formed by engineers, economists' journalists, designers and architects and an on-line poll that surveyed 9,500 companies worldwide.