1 October 2005
DUBAI -- Broclad International Group, a global major player in the oil, gas and petrochemicals industry, has entered into an agreement with Techno Park to set up a Dh400 million industrial facility at the park.
The industrial centre will be developed on an area of 500 square feet and will attract more than high caliber scientists, consultants, engineers and technicians.
The centre will house a plant for making equipment used by the oil and gas industry, an academy for training human resources and research and development unit which will be associated to Broclad's facilities in Scotland and Singapore.
Broclad's Executive Manager, Yassin Jafar, said that his company's business development strategy seeks to expand its operations in the Middle East region where it is currently executing multi-million dirham projects.
"The new facility will take care of a series of advanced project which will constitute the basic foundation of our future projects in the region," he said.
He added the Broclad had selected Techno Park as a regional base for its operations because it offers an encouraging business environment, enjoys strategic location and modern infrastructure.
Established as the Mohammed bin Rashid Technology Park in May of 2002, the facility aims to tap the regional oil, gas, chemical, environmental and scientific research market.
Techno Park is a member of the International Association of Science Parks and works closely with the International Desalination Association, located in the park.
The focus of Techno Park is in three key areas -- hi-tech, oil and gas and desalination and water technologies. While these three sectors form the primary focus, Techno Park also welcomes companies oriented towards other advanced technologies.
In just over a year and a half, the park had generated interest from 135 countries in the oil and gas and water desalination industries.
Metito, a water, waste-water and desalination treatment projects and technology company, was the first major international company to start construction at Techno Park in January of 2004.
The project and investments began to flow in from that point with agreements being signed with the Euro Institute for Information and Technology Transfer in Environmental Protection (EITEP), Services and Trade Group (Dh30 million investment), Bin Sari Specialised Metal Casting, Mattex International Group (Dh400 million investment), Pacific Control Systems LLC (Dh50 million investment), Mammut Group (Dh500 million investment for the world's largest concrete panel factory) and others worth millions of dirhams.
Techno Park also hosted the first meeting of the Arab Water Council's Fundamental Committee in January 2005 emphasising its role in the field of water treatment, desalination and research and development.
BY A STAFF REPORTER
© Khaleej Times 2005
