Investment in Mesaieed Industrial City Reaches US$30 Billion

Doha , March 23 (QNA) - Mesaieed Industrial City (MIC) Director said that the amount of investment made in the city reached almost US$ 30 billion, including setting up Qatar Aluminum Company (Qatalum) which was completed recently with an estimated investment of over US$4 billion in its first phase.
Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), MIC Director Mohammed Jassim Al Baker said that the city has adopted a 25-year strategic plan to improve its infrastructure, adding that some of the projects have been completed such as a treatment center for hazardous wastes that covers all industrial waste produced in Qatar.
Other projects that were completed also include lighting networks as well as electricity, water and sanitation. The city also built the state-of-the-art accommodations for the workers which have playing grounds for different sports as well as providing internet access to houses through fiber-optic communication.
The total number of factors in the city currently is 86, he said, revealing that 18 of them are heavy industry plants while the remaining 68 are light industry factories.
The authorities in the city allocated land for around 176 new projects, Al Baker said, pointing out that some 45 projects' proposals received in 2010 are currently under study.
Some of these projects under study are related to expanding Qatar's oil refinery as well as expanding Qatar Steel and beginning phase two of Qatar Aluminum Company (Qatalum), underlining that there are a number of big projects taking place in the city now, including QAFCO 5 and 6 concerned with fertilizers.
He mentioned that manufacturing industries and construction industries have become more popular than others in the last five years. He added that the key aspects which decide whether to accept or reject a project are the industrial city's experts who study the proposed project from all angels in addition to a land allocation committee which decide whether to assign a land to the project.
Al Baker said that he is particularly proud of the city's Health, Safety, Environment and Waste Management Department (HSE & Waste) which has a number of roles including Managing, implementing and enforcing health, safety and environment standards for Mesaieed Industrial City activities to comply with Qatar national laws and regulations as well as Qatar Petroleum's (QP) policies and land lease agreements. This includes checking the air and water quality as well as using advanced technology to limit the effects of the factories' emissions.
Al Baker said that dwellers of Mesaieed live far away in the Northern part of MIC, so they are unaffected by any harmful gas emissions which are pushed south by the wind. The engineer added that another achievement of the city was assigning all dealings regarding assigning land and developing projects to one area.
He added that the role of MIC's management is to facilitate the establishment of projects for investors and companies who seek to have those projects in the city. Another task for the management is to indirectly invite investors in a particular industry to invest in projects in the city by having conferences and other forms of networking which promote for the advantages of having those particular industries in the city. Al Baker said that the direct promotion for projects is not one of MIC management's duties, adding that there are other organizations responsible for that. He said that MIC achieve their main task through providing the projects with the necessary land and ports. It is worth noting that Mesaieed's port is one of the biggest and oldest ports in Qatar. More than 40 million tons worth of products, commercial and industrial, are transferred in and out of Qatar through the port. The port has 23 docks and receives around 3000 ships annually.
Regarding the first task, the engineer said that there are administrative and technical standards for assigning a land to a particular project. The administrative side includes acquiring an initial approval from the Ministry of Environment. Other steps include getting an industrial licensing and getting a trade register among other procedures. The technical side includes the field of the industry as well as the suitability of having it in Mesaieed Industrial City among other factors.
The final stage to the technical side is acquiring the approval of a committee of land allocation formed from The Ministry of Energy and Industry and Qatar Petroleum, in addition to the Minister of Power and Industry's approval of the committee's decision.
Al Baker said that MIC will have to expand in size geographically in the future, especially that one of the main challenges according to the director is the limited amount of land available to the industrial city. He added that one of the main obstacles is the investor's lack of industrial experience and their concern with the short-term goals. (QNA)