Dubai Internet City

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Dubai Internet City

Type	Free Economic Zone
Founded	Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed
Headquarters	Dubai, United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates

The Microsoft sign at the entrance of the Dubai Microsoft campus, Dubai Internet City.

The Sony Ericsson building at Dubai Internet City

Dubai Internet City (DIC) is an information technology park created by the Government of Dubai as a free economic zone as a strategic base for companies targeting emerging markets where companies can operate without restrictions, such as a 100% foreign ownership, which prevail in other provincial economic zones in the United Arab Emirates. This freedom has led many global information technology firms to move their regional base and resources to premises in the DIC. DIC is located right next to other industry clusters such as Dubai Media City and Dubai Knowledge Village.

The economic rules of DIC allow companies to avail themselves of a number of ownership, taxation and custom related benefits which are guaranteed by law for a period of 50 years. Companies which have established operations at DIC include Microsoft, IBM, Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, HP, Nokia, Siemens, i-mate, e-dinar, Acette and many others.

DIC presently has over one and half million square feet of prime commercial office space, and there are over 850 companies with over 10,000 workers based in it.

1 History
2 Location
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Dubai Internet City opened doors in October 2000, developed by Dubai Holding, an affiliate of the Government of Dubai.

Since 2005, the allotment of newly built leasable space has been closed however; DIC became a victim of its own success and lacked enough office accommodation to house new arrivals. DIC issued temporary licenses to a number of companies enabling them to incorporate and run outside of DIC for a period of time until offices were available. However, the number of such temporary licenses that DIC are allowed to issue is also limited, meaning that there is now a waiting list to be on the waiting list. For those on the waiting list, DIC refuses to confirm how long the waiting list is, where a company is on the waiting list, or even whether it is a waiting list in the true sense (since some of DIC's communications suggest that offices that do become available are not necessarily allocated to those who have been in the waiting list the longest). The DIC web site is still advertising as 'open for business' however and makes no mention of the fact that the project is effectively on hold.

While a number of new buildings are under construction as of early 2007, DIC is still unable to give any estimates as to when these might be completed, or give any information as to whether these are intended to house those companies who have been waiting months or years for office allocations. The construction of some towers appears to have progressed little over the last 18 months once the external building work is complete. It is rumored that the lack of building progress may be due to financial or management problems at DIC.

Another explanation for the apparent lack of progress of largely-completed blocks is the heavy reliance on the local economy on real estate income, combined with the way building projects are financed in Dubai. Buildings are generally financed by a series of down payments, typically 10% increments that are due at certain predetermined points through the construction process, with only the final 10% normally due on delivery. It is very common for projects progress rapidly at first, collecting the bulk of the installments, and then apparently slow to a crawl in the final phase. The result is that the rate at which buildings are released into the market is heavily restricted. This keeps the supply of finished property behind what is required, inflating prices and increasing the take up of new off plan developments. If all the nearly-finished property in Dubai was actually completed in the next few months, the glut would depress the market and kill off new projects which are the emirate's major source of income. Consequently the short term profitability of DIC and other landmark projects may rely on failing to meet demand from IT companies in order to enhance real estate values.

There are now privately funded buildings for lease located in the vicinity of DIC within the Free Zone but with the rapid increase in residential and commercial rents in Dubai over the last 2 years, the cost of office space at DIC may well be prohibitive by the time these buildings are ready.

[edit] Location

Dubai Internet City is about 25 kilometers south of the center of Dubai city on the Shaikh Zayed Road towards Abu Dhabi city. It is located in an area which is rapidly becoming the new downtown of Dubai, and is located between Dubai Marina and Jumeirah, two of the most exclusive (and expensive) areas of Dubai. It is less than 1 km from the sea coast and is near several five star hotels.