Techno Park, a rambling complex in Dubai planned for facilities involved in research, incubation, technology transfer and manufacturing, will concentrate on the region’s main issues, which also draw the most investment.

The park, a project of the emirate’s Ports Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCFC), has received from the Dubai government an allocation of 3,000 hectares of land in Jebel Ali near the ninth interchange. Within its confines will be manufacturing and technology companies falling within three main clusters - oil and gas; desalination and biotechnology; environmental resources and management.

Companies expected to operate in the complex will include pharmaceutical, agrotech, material sciences and eco-related establishments as well as business accelerators, design and consultancy firms focusing on industrial technology and venture capital groups.

The broad sweep of strategic and supporting companies will help create a regional platform to launch international and local technology businesses across the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa while supporting a number of Dubai’s other initiatives.

Techno Park will operate as a mixed facility where companies can enjoy 100 per cent foreign ownership as in a free zone or operate under a regular UAE trade licence with a local partner.

Work on the Techno Park’s first phase began in October and will be completed before the end of 2004. Nakheel, the project development partner, floated a tender for the phase, attracting about 45 companies. Consultant to the project is Research Triangle Institute.

“Techno Park will enhance the development of the knowledge-based economy and provide a wide range of opportunities for technology companies by leveraging the commercial infrastructure of Dubai,” said PCFC executive chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.

“By employing the resources and image of Techno Park, companies within the various clusters will benefit from vertical and horizontal linkages amongst themselves and with companies located in the region,” Bin Sulayem said.

Techno Park is a member of the International Association of Science Parks and is managed by specialised professionals whose main aim, he said, was to increase the community’s wealth by promoting the culture of innovation and competitiveness of its associated business and knowledge-based institutions. It will provide value-added services along with high-quality space and facilities.

“The prime purpose of the Techno Park is to promote world-class activity in the areas of innovation, research, laboratories, training, incubation, engineering, technology transfer, prototypes and manufacturing,” a park text said.

Its vision is to promote wealth creation and better productivity for the local economy by stimulating and supporting knowledge-based industries. The transfer of knowledge and expertise to the UAE and other Gulf countries is one of the important objectives.

The targeted sectors appear to have received well the vision behind Techno Park. By September about 135 companies active in the region’s oil and gas sector expressed keenness in relocating to the park, said Abdulla Ahmed L Quraishi, the chief executive of the park. The official revealed that even while tenders had gone out for the construction, park authorities were already in close negotiations with 13 companies, nine of which were in the desalination sector and four in oil and gas.

The significance of the oil and gas industry in the region can hardly be exaggerated. The Middle East and North Africa region is known to represent 70 per cent of the world’s crude oil reserves and 35 per cent of its crude oil production. Some 40 per cent of the world’s natural gas reserves and 13 per cent of natural gas production are linked to the region. So huge is the hydrocarbons potential that the Gulf is expected to oversee investments of $40 billion in the next six years in natural gas projects alone.

Another park cluster - desalination and biotechnology - is also crucial to the Gulf region considering that more than half the world’s desalination projects are being set up there. In the UAE alone, desalinated water will double by 2010, calling for large-scale investments. The Arab world will likely invest more than $30 billion in desalination projects by the year 2025.

The environmental resources and management cluster will promote initiatives including research to prevent and reverse desertification and provide clean and unconventional energy as well as marine research and conservation