Designed in Dubai?
By John Mason – Electronic News, 2/2/2004
Dubai, UAE – Construction is scheduled to start almost at once on the Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) project, designed to be the “most integrated technology park for micro- and opto-electronics in the world.”
Investments in the high-tech design and manufacturing industry at DSO are estimated to exceed $10 billion to 15 billion, over a period of 20 years.
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Work on the master plan for the ambitious project, which Englewood, Colo.-based CH2M Hill International Ltd.'s subsidiary Industrial Design & Construction (IDC) began a year ago, is complete. DSO has just awarded a contract for construction of the infrastructure to Lebanon-based Khatib & Alami Engineering Co.
“Dubai has changed dramatically over the last three decades, becoming a major business center with a dynamic and diversified economy,” said H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defense. “Due to its strategic location, and other attractions, Dubai serves as the biggest re-exporting center in the Middle East with access to more than 1.5 billion consumers.”
A few years ago Dubai Internet City was a government initiative similar to DSO, and proceeded to attract 470 companies by early 2003, including Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and IBM. DSO expects to add many more to that list.
“DSO, as of now, is a wholly owned enterprise of the Dubai Government,” said Mohammed al Zarouni, director-general of Dubai Airport Free Zone (Dafza) and Dubai Silicon Oasis. As for bringing in overseas investors, “Let’s say that the door is open to anyone to discuss equity participation.”
“The door is definitely open and companies are streaming in,” said Salem Abuzeid, DSO’s chief marketing officer. “We are in advanced discussions with a number of local, regional and international companies – all part of the semiconductor supply chain: PC and consumer electronics manufacturers, IC and electronics design companies, electronics assemblers, incubation companies, education and training institutions, assembly test packaging, networking and outsourcing support, business link-ups, venture capital and consulting.
“We have set ourselves apart from other technology parks based on our focus on wireless electronics innovation,” added Abuzeid.
“A project such as the Dubai Silicon Oasis is strictly not for the short term,” said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of the Dubai Airport Free Zone and DSO and president of Dubai Civil Aviation and chairman of the Emirates Group. “The DSO will help create a new class of young business leaders that will make Dubai the magnet for technologically skilled workers.”
The Dubai Silicon Incubation Center (DSIC) will provide a facility for broadband and wireless incubation for the development and commercialization of intellectual property and will help create regional enterprises at the top end of the technology spectrum.
“We will have a design center that companies that set up shop here can use instead of investing in design infrastructure of their own,” Abuzeid said. “We will also have design engineers to carry out their projects if they don’t want to hire their own.”
DSO will be a free zone, based on three business pillars: design, manufacturing, and assembly and distribution of advanced electronic products. The first will focus on the design of integrated circuits (ICs) or microchips – and hardware, the creation of intellectual property (IP) and the development of applications. Pillar No. 2 will see the establishment of a manufacturing industry for semiconductors and liquid crystal display (LCD) screens based on thin-film transistor (TFT) technology. The third pillar will cover the assembly and distribution of personal and notebook computers and mobile phones. DSO is targeted to have the infrastructure in place and the first buildings operational by the end of 2005.
Under the leadership of the Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority, the DSO will consist of a 6.5-million-square-meter plot in Nad Al Shiba, some 17 kilometers from Dubai’s city center, on which will be built the main offices of the DSO park, the aforementioned plants, R&D centers, educational facilities, residential complexes, healthcare facilities, banks, hotels, entertainment centers and restaurants.
“Companies that want to start up in Dubai can easily find financial backers,” Abuzeid said. “The region is loaded with money. There are many people and organizations anxious to back promising high tech companies starting up in the region.”
One challenge facing the park is that although Dubai serves as Middle East headquarters for a dozen or more of the biggest multinational electronics companies in the world its existing electronics industry per se needs building up, which will take time and investment.
“A big draw for all companies, however, is that while semiconductor companies are accustomed to getting tax holidays in many places “in Dubai every company and individual enjoys a tax holiday,” Abuzeid said. “This is a particular plus for design companies, assembly companies and fabless companies.”
Dubai’s location and its innovative enterprises and free zones make it a magnet for attracting people from Asia, Europe and the United States.
Immigration policies in Dubai are extremely open. “We have a pro-business government, no red tape, a visa can be granted in two days. Half the population in Dubai originally came from India,” Abuzeid said.
“DSO has, or is developing, all the necessary ingredients to build a next-generation, global electronics hub,” said Jack Harding, CEO of Silicon Valley-based eSilicon. “The DSO team has definitely done its homework, and will be offering the world’s most economic infrastructure for electronic innovation.”
“As for a technical workforce we are working with local universities here and elsewhere in the region to initiate courses to train engineers to carry out jobs the park will need,” Abuzeid said. “We also plan to establish a college for higher education attuned to the microelectronic industry-semiconductors.”
While the long-term vision of Dubai Silicon Oasis is to develop an advanced technology manufacturing industry, short-term priorities are to attract fabless companies engaged in IC design and IP creation.
DSO has an advisory group consisting of four executives: George M. Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association; Jurgen Knorr, former CEO of Germany’s Siemens Semiconductor Group, now Infineon Technologies; Mihir Parikh, former CEO of Asyst Technologies; and Wayne L. Sterling, a U.S. expert in economic development.
In mid-December, the Oasis acquired an important partner: SiNova Semiconductor, an IC developer of solutions for the telecommunications sector.
In addition to locating its corporate headquarters at the DSO site, SiNova will establish a design hub to share with other companies advanced in sub-micron design methodology, design tools, end-to-end design and manufacturing capabilities for wireless, multimedia and mixed-signal processing systems.
John Mason is a contributing editor to Electronic News. Mason is based in Spain.