Sharjah looking at JVs for FDI

Sharjah is open to idea of forming joint ventures (JVs) and creating public private partnerships (PPP) with investors in an effort to attract more foreign direct investment into the emirate, a senior government official has revealed.

“One of our mandates is to attract investors to Sharjah. We are attracting them to the sectors, which as per our studies, are going to offer a good return to them… it could be a joint venture, build, operate and transfer, or public private partnership model… we are open to all of it,” Marwan Jasem Al Sarkal, chief executive officer, Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), told Emirates 24|7.

“We want to make sure that the project is feasible from the financial point of view and will add value to the emirate. We are looking at projects, which are going to make a change in Sharjah’s economy and will provide jobs for Emiratis.”

Shurooq has been promoting the medical, retail, food and hospitality sectors in the road shows being organized across the world.

“We promote investing in the medical zone, retail, hospitality and education sectors. The emirate offers limited retail opportunities the medical areas are not yet established and so we need to attract foreign investments in these sectors. We are focusing on international companies who want to open schools in Sharjah.”

He emphasises that Shurooq will help investors get all approvals on time with the government now focusing on expediting decision making process.

“We prepare everything… the investor does not deal with any other government agency. We ensure that the project happens on time, we make sure that approvals from different authorities are given on time. We want to make sure that the experience of dealing with the government is totally changed.”

Al Sarkal mentioned that the Sharjah government was not looking to create more free zones, but was open to idea of creating “special investment zones” if a company was planning to making “major” investments in the emirate.

“There is something for category A plus… we can sit with an investor and come to an agreement that will make your investment achievable. We will create a special zone for companies.”

In April, Al Sarkal told this website that Shurooq was looking at new ways to promote Sharjah’s status as an investment destination and obviously incentives were one way of doing this.

Sharjah's gross domestic product (GDP) rose to Dh71 billion by the end of 2008 from Dh41 billion in 2005. The emirates has recorded an annual growth rate of 11 per cent over the past five years.

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