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29 March 2024

General Mohammed meets Emir of Qatar

Published
By WAM

General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces was received by the Emir of Qatar His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani on Wednesday.

They discussed ways to further strengthen fraternal relations and cooperation between the two countries in all domains. The meeting also touched on regional developments and issues of mutual interest.
 
General Mohammed was accompanied by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs; Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister; Ahmed Juma Al Zaabi, Deputy Minister of Presidential Affairs; Sultan bin Nasser Al Suwaidi, Governor of the UAE Central Bank; Mohammed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, Under Secretary of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court and a number of officials. 

General Mohammed conveyed to the Emir of Qatar greetings of the President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The Emir of Qatar asked General Mohammed to pass on his greetings to Sheikh Khalifa and his best wishes to him.
 
Present from the Qatari side were Sheikh Jassem bin Hamad Al Thani, Personal Representative of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and a number of ministers.
 

General Mohammed reviews Khalifa Port, Kizad progress

General Mohammed reviewed the progress made at the mega project Khalifa Port and Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) at Taweelah.

This came during an in-depth presentation made at the Crown Prince's majlis by ADPC Chairman Dr. Sultan Al Jaber; CEO, Tony Douglas; Executive Vice President Ports Unit, ADPC, Captain Mohammed Al Shamisi and the Executive Vice President, Industrial Zones Unit, ADPC, Khaled Salmeen.

General Mohammed said: "Two years ago, I was presented with a disciplined 100 Steps Plan devised by ADPC that would deliver the first phase of the Port and adjacent Industrial Zone at precisely 0700 on September 1, 2012. I am satisfied with the progress made by ADPC and pleased that the project is on schedule."

He urged the management and teams in charge of the two projects to give emiratisation issue a top priority, and strive to help Emirati cadres acquire advanced skills, calling for establishing effective partnership and enhancing constructive investment ties to attract major companies and foreign investments to further develop business in this vital sector.

ADPC Chairman Dr Sultan Al Jaber said: "It was a great honour for ADPC to be invited to present a detailed overview of our progress at Khalifa Port and Kizad to General Mohammed, who, under the directives by the President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, gives great support to such projects in order to diversify income sources and serve sustainable development goals. We are delivering the first phase of this megaproject on time, on schedule and within budget as we promised. We are confident that the industrial complex, which will grow into one of the largest in the world within 20 years, will make a powerful contribution to the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. I would like to thank our staff, all stakeholders and partners for their backing, enthusiasm and commitment to this project."

ADPC's presentation to General Mohammed centred on the company's remarkable progress in delivering this megaproject on time and within the budget. He was briefed on the commercial agreements signed across the UAE designed to provide services which will help make the Port a success: they include Memoranda of Understanding with many government entities such as Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments, and the Ministry of Environment and Water.

Benefitting from the consistent support of major stakeholders across the entire Abu Dhabi government, and buoyed by the commercial success of its contracts signed not only in the UAE but also internationally, Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) is gearing up towards celebrating the milestone opening of the Port in less than four weeks time.

The landmark Container Terminal will then open for business and the Infrastructure for the first phase of the megaproject will be officially completed, and formally handed over at 0700, September 1st, 2012.

The semi-automated Khalifa Port Container Terminal is the most technologically advanced in the Mena and for a radius of 5,000 kilometres. Operated by Abu Dhabi Terminals, it features advanced automation that increases efficiencies and predictability while limiting variability so the operator, shipping lines, trucking companies and the importers and exporters can further optimize their logistics processes and avoid unnecessary costs.

The infrastructure has been designed to cater for the largest container vessels operating or planned, and includes some of the world s largest ship-to-shore (STS) cranes. In the container yard, unmanned automated stacking cranes ensure each container is always optimally positioned for the fastest possible delivery to either ships for loading or to trucks for delivery to their destinations.

The automation also extends to the landside operations where bookings and the clearing process can be done online in advance, doing away with the time consuming manual processes seen today. Combined with automated systems that use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), this ensures the optimal logistics processes.

The port serves as a dedicated enabler for the adjacent Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad), also developed by ADPC, and which will be one of the largest industrial zones in the world, offering its tenants easy access to markets, a low-cost operating environment, and ease of doing business.

Kizad has so far surpassed all targets and signed 25 lease agreements and preliminary agreements with local, regional and international tenants and more announcements will be rolled out in due course.