Abu Dhabi Ports signs $300m Chinese investment deal
Jointly-established company to develop 23m sq ft at Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone for companies from Jiangsu province, generating 1,400 jobs
Abu Dhabi Ports has signed an investment cooperation agreement with China’s Jiangsu Province, which will see an initial investment of $300 million coming in from five companies in the province to the Khalifa Port Free Trade Zone (KPFTZ), creating more than 1,400 jobs.
Under the terms of the agreement – signed by Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, minister of state and chairman of Abu Dhabi Ports, and Huang Lixin, executive vice governor of Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government – the Jiangsu Provincial Overseas Cooperation and Investment Company Limited (JOCIC) has established a new company in the UAE, known as the China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation Construction Management Co., Ltd. It will occupy and develop approximately 23.7m sq ft of the free trade zone for companies from Jiangsu province. This represents 2.2% of the available free zone space in the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi’s (KIZAD) newly-allotted KPFTZ area.
A statement from Abu Dhabi added that the two entities also signed a 50-year Musataha Agreement, a lease agreement signed by Abu Dhabi Ports with JOCIC in KPFTZ. Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, Peng Xiangfeng, president of China Jiangsu International E.T.C.G and Luo Hua, general manager of JOCIC, were the signatories of the lease agreement.
Representatives from five Chinese tenant companies announced their plans to invest in the leased space. These companies are Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, Jiangsu Fantai Mining Development (Group) Co. Ltd., Xuzhou Jianghe Wood Co. Ltd., Jiangsu Jinzi Environmental Technology Co. Ltd., and Guangzheng Group.
According to the statement from Abu Dhabi Ports, the five companies signed with JOCIC as the frontrunners in taking advantage of the agreement’s competitive trade benefits and will inject over $300m combined into KPFTZ, creating over 1,400 jobs and broadening the financial and physical scope of the zone.
“We have worked hard to make KIZAD not only the largest free zone in the region, but also one of the most sophisticated and high-potential free zone areas in the world, particularly for the industrial and manufacturing sectors,” said Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber. The signing of the agreement “reaffirms the longstanding partnership between our two countries, and signals to the world that Abu Dhabi and the UAE are vital to the future of global trade”, he added.
“The Musataha Agreement between Abu Dhabi Ports and JOCIC will attract foreign investment into Abu Dhabi – an ideal environment for investment opportunities due to the competitive advantages KPFTZ enjoys, including its strategic location, world-class infrastructure and logistics solutions. Khalifa Industrial Zone and Khalifa Port are both expected to see a surge in global investments,” Al Jaber added.
“Jiangsu and Abu Dhabi are highly complementary to each other in terms of natural endowment, economic structure and industrial systems, bearing the common wishes to speed up industrial structural adjustment and promote economic transformation and upgrading,” said Huang Lixin, vice governor of Jiangsu. “It is a good timing for us to jointly deepen industrial capacity cooperation. We will work together with Abu Dhabi to build the UAE-China Industrial Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Zone into a landmark programme.”
Abu Dhabi Ports said the lease promises to start a long-term, beneficial relationship and also includes the option for China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation (Jiangsu) Construction Management Co., Ltd. to establish and develop a further 107,639,100 square feet of free zone at KIZAD Area B to meet additional demand from Jiangsu-based businesses.
