Thousands of jobs to come up in Sharjah's Al Saja’a Industrial Oasis
Sharjah Asset Management, the investment arm of the Government of Sharjah, has sold 55 plots in its Al Saja’a Industrial Oasis project, which will attract light to medium production-based industries and create thousands of new jobs, a senior company executive told Emirates 24/7.
“We have sold the 55 plots (being 15 per cent of the total development) released for sale in late October. We will release the remaining 298 plot at a later date,” said Gregg Downer, Chief Real Estate Officer, Sharjah Asset Management.
However the project value is estimated in the multi-billion dirhams considering the land value and the investors’ build-up costs, he added.
The infrastructure development and associated project costs, excluding land, is estimated at Dh385 million.
The project is targeting light and medium industrial including warehouse and cold storage, light/medium production based industries and related office and separately some mixed use and retailing.
In May 2015, Darwish Engineering Emirates was awarded the grading and infrastructure works contract. Currently, grading works are completed and infrastructure works is underway.
The government will build all the infrastructure (electricity, gas, telecommunications, roads, water network, soak away drainage and telecommunications), but plot owners will have to bear the cost of septic tank and all related fees/charges by authorities, taxes, etc.
New jobs
The expected total population including day and night movements to/from Al Saja’a Industrial Oasis is expected to be approximately 20,800 people.
“If we assume that the population employees represents the number of jobs created plus the number of persons that were involved in the development of Al Saja’a Industrial Oasis, then this number is approximately 21,000 persons,” revealed Downer.
In October 2015, the company said that the launch of Al Saja’a Industrial Oasis follows the visionary long-term plan of the Sharjah government to launch several growth projects aiming at developing the industrial, real estate and commercial sectors, to address the growing needs of investors and owners in the emirate.
The project is located on Emirates Road (E611) and in close proximity to Sharjah International Airport and Al Hamriya Port and covers an area of over 14 million square feet of land.
Sharjah rating reaffirmed
In March 2015, Moody's Investors Service said Sharjah's fiscal position remains strong and the economy remains well-diversified, which will provide some degree of support to the impact of oil price volatility.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in May 2015 also affirmed Sharjah’s long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings with a stable outlook. It estimated gross domestic product per capita at $28,700 in 2015 and real economic growth at about 3.5 per cent this year, down from an estimate of 5.5 per cent in 2014.