subject: Positive Signs For Construction Investment In Dubai [print this page] Dubai will continue to offer ideal investment opportunities because of its infrastructure facilities and business-friendly policies, a construction industry executive has said.
Rizwan Sajan, chairman of Danube Building Materials, one of the largest building materials companies in the Middle East, argued that Dubai is still regarded as a financial hub for the surrounding region and is renowned for its lifestyle and infrastructure around the world, including state-of-the-art properties in Dubai.
Speaking to the Khaleej Times, he said: "The government has built a modern and state-of-the-art infrastructure and because of that the emirate is an ideal place for investment across the region."
As the newspaper observed, Danube has achieved a four-fold growth in turnover and revenues over the last five years and boasts a facility spanning over 1.3 million sq ft in the Jebel Ali Free Zones which includes its global headquarters and a logistics facility.
Mr Sajan claimed that in the UAE there are at least 15 to 20 "big players" in the building materials sector and that Danube is currently number one in terms of product offering, size and turnover.
At present, Danube has a total of 22 global retail facilities including 16 in the UAE, two in Oman, one in Bahrain, one in Saudi Arabia and two in India. Their positive report reflects a growing confidence in the opportunities offered by the Dubai property market.
In other news, The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) benchmark index rose yesterday (August 16th) after certain listed companies posted positive results. These included Tamweel which announced a net profit of Dh5 million for the second quarter of this year and Jeema Mineral Water which revealed a net profit of around Dh1.3 million for the same period, Emirates Business 24/7 reported.
As a result of strong trading, DFM's benchmark index recovered 8.22 points or 0.56 per cent from Sunday's level to close at 1,473.71. Emirates Business also observed that with the exception of insurance and telecoms, all other sectors ended in the green.
"The market breadth was positive with 13 advances against seven declines," it added.
DFM's strong performance was matched by the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, which also edged up by 8.36 points to close at 2,493.76.
Meanwhile, it was reported this week that Potential FZ-LLC, a leading business development company based in Dubai, is among those launching the UAE 25 contest with a view to encouraging competition among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
