Dubai World Central is looking to attract more small and medium enterprises to its logistics district, a senior official said yesterday.
“Our objective is to bring more SMEs,” said Mohsen Ahmad, the vice president for logistics at DWC, at the opening of Total Freight International’s Dh15 million logistics facility.
He added that DWC was also targeting multinationals.
"We are looking at balancing between the two – the SMEs and the multinationals. The bigger guys are the drivers. We are working very closely to bring these two together," he said
Many multinational companies such as DHL, Aramex, Kuehne + Nagel and Hellmann-Calipar have already set-up facilities at the logistics hub, which provides close access to Jebel Ali and Al Maktoum International Airport.
DWC will also be home of the Expo 2020. With an area of 140 square kilometres, DWC is almost twice the size of Hong Kong. It comprises eight districts: logistics, aviation, residential, commercial, humanitarian, exhibition, golf and the airport.
In May, Emirates SkyCargo, the group’s air freight division, moved its fleet to a new cargo terminal at Al Maktoum Airport, which gave the area an additional lift.
“Emirates [cargo facility] certainly added this boost that was required. It allowed people like Total Freight to come here,” said Mr Ahmad.
Cargo volumes at the airport surged by 462.5 per cent in the third quarter to 243,284 tonnes of freight from 43,252 a year earlier because of the Emirates move.
Cargo growth for Middle East carriers remains positive unlike their European counterparts. In September, cargo growth in the region was up 17 per cent year-on-year, as opposed to Europe where it fell 1.6 per cent, according to data from the International Air Transport Association (Iata).
Esmail Salim, the managing director of Total Freight, said that the move to DWC was to make “a footprint at an early stage” at DWC.
“My main purpose is air freight. Many people invested in Jebel Ali Free Zone. We haven’t really done that,” said Mr Salim.
“We knew that the future is going to be here, especially for air cargo. A lot of airlines are coming here [to DWC] and a lot of cargo is coming here.”
Total Freight, which is part of World Freight Group, has a presence in 120 countries and serves about 400 seaports and airports.
The company said that it has plans to open an office in Uganda next year.
“Africa is still a virgin market and there’s a lot of demand in suppliers material,” said Mr Salim. “The African region relies heavily on the UAE for the sourcing of products and we see an immense potential in tapping into this market.”
selgazzar@thenational.ae
Follow The National's Business section on Twitter