Sharjah-based Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Lamprell, a leading provider of fabrication, engineering and contracting services to the offshore and onshore oil and gas and renewable energy industries.
Under the agreement, Lamprell will lease an additional 1.36 million sq ft of land inside the free zone in order to continue to boost its efficiencies and support the delivery of its strategic objectives.
This is further testimony to HFZA’s growing status and reputation as a leading hub for attracting foreign investments and offering global competitive advantages, remarked its director Saud Salim Al Mazrouei after signing the deal with Lamprell’s Company Secretary and General Counsel, Alex Ridout.
Lamprell, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, has over 40 years’ experience in providing engineering, procurement, construction and other contracting services to the energy industries.
It employs more than 4,000 people across multiple facilities, with its primary facilities located in Hamriyah, Sharjah.
In 2011, the group expanded its operations at HFZA with the opening of new facilities specialising in constructing jackup drilling rigs and fabricating jacket foundations for turbines and cranes required for land and marine fields, wind fields and other energy production facilities.
"We have successfully created a growth-stimulating and an incubator-like environment and are offering excellent facilities, making us a magnet for foreign investments," remarked Al Mazrouei. "This is why businesses choose to launch and expand from Sharjah into regional and international markets," he added.
Al Mazrouei pointed out that Lamprell’s expansion at HFZA despite the current global economic conditions highlights the great confidence placed in Sharjah being a leading global hub for businesses, in addition to the global reputation enjoyed by HFZA, famous for being the current and future headquarters of major companies specialised in heavy industries.
On its expansion move, Ridout said: "This will allow us to improve our production efficiency significantly and support our strategic objectives. Throughout Lamprell’s journey alongside HFZA, they have been with us every step of the way: a real business partner."
"In addition to offering industrial and commercial plots of land, HFZA, the second largest industrial free zone in the UAE, provides advanced infrastructure and modern facilities that strengthen external expansion plans for investors, especially in import and re-export to the world’s markets," he stated.
"It also provides countless competitive advantages, most notably a single window operation that boosts the efficiency of performance and ease procedures of doing business, along with multiple tax exemptions, repatriation of capital and profits, full foreign ownership of business, and quick access to regional and global markets," he added.
