Ajman's five-year plan to 'fly high'

Dabbas is also the chief executive of Aqaar Properties in the emirate, which is in charge of developing Ajman One, Ajman Marina and Al Zora.

Is Ajman going to be the next big thing after Dubai and what are the largest projects planned or under construction?

It is emerging in all aspects. It’s coming up in terms of real estate, tourism, health, hospitals, schools and leisure. Ajman University has been the most popular university in the UAE for a long time, with most of our students coming from outside the emirate. At the moment the biggest projects are Ajman One, Ajman Marina and Al Zora.

What is the Al Zora development?

We’re working on the masterplan. It’s a city within a city – It’s not just a residential community. To encourage people to live there you have to provide them with everything – a place to live and work, hospitals, entertainment, leisure and everything that they will need day to day. It will contain many five-star hotels as well as a golf course.

The tourism industry in Ajman can be developed and will become a beneficial factor for the emirate. Ajman is lucky because of its coast and quality of water.

Will the architecture in Ajman reflect traditional Arabic culture?

I’m sure it will be a good mix. Some projects will be traditional while some will be modern. It depends on the use of the project from day to day.

We are trying to combine the two, as we don’t want to go completely modern. One can do wonders with Arabic architecture – look at the Madinat Jumeriah in Dubai – it reflects the Arabic culture beautifully.

Is Ajman late in jumping on the UAE construction bandwagon?

Some people say we’re late but I don’t think so at all. I think we’ve timed it perfectly. In the next five years Ajman will be flying high.

As a government, we believe that we have to build sustainable projects and that is why we are taking our time. We aren’t fly-by-night developers that develop and then go on to greener pastures. We live here and we have to live here in years to come. It is our home and our emirate. If we don’t build sustainable projects we will end up spending a lot of money over the years to sustain it all, and we don’t want to be in that position. We want lasting projects. That is our priority.

We are learning from things that have happened in Dubai. I believe that if we rush we will not succeed, that is why the municipality is appointing a consultant to take care of all these things. I mean look at the problems that happened with the Springs and Meadows residents. We don’t want that.

Do projects move quickly in Ajman or is it difficult to get things done?

The best thing about Ajman is that the decision makers are so accessible. Something that would normally take a month to get approved would take about five minutes in Ajman. The Ajman Royal family has a common goal and that is to make Ajman a great place for people to visit or to live.

In Ajman the municipality is working very hard to improve the road network. A new 3,000mW power and desalination plant is also being built next to Al Zora. So we will have no problems with water, electricity or sewerage.

And the municipality is about to appoint a consultant to take a look at the whole of the emirate in terms of urban planning, transportation, road network, and traffic impact studies.

Ajman has been pegged to Dubai in the news a lot recently. Is there a reason for that?

It’s straightforward really. Our benchmark is Dubai. Soon, Dubai will issue its new property law and then within the next couple of days Ajman will issue its own based on Dubai’s. At the end of the day it is the UAE we’re talking about, not individual emirates. We have to move forward as a country not as independent cities. We want a law that is in tandem with the rest of the country. It will be beneficial for the country.

Whatever affects a certain emirate will affect other emirates as well. Take the metro for example; if Dubai links up its metro with Ajman, Sharjah will benefit tremendously.

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READERS' COMMENTS

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Posted by dr. mir nizam Ali, abu dhabi, u.a.e. on Tuesday 13 February 2007 at 17:40 UAE time


why has Ajman left behind in advertising its property projects. One hardly reads or hears about this emirates where as I know its not any less in comparision to other emirates and there is more picturique areas there as well and of course less crouded which is the main interest to people in Dubai and Abu dhabi who are sick of the traffic blues!

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