The Tecom group, a free trade zones operator, is merging its Dubai Biotechnology and Research Park (DuBiotech) and the Energy and Environment Park (EnPark) to create a new, single Dubai Science Park brand.
DuBiotech was set up in 2005 to help develop the city’s biotechnology and life sciences industry.
It is now home to more than 230 companies including the international pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer and Amgen.
EnPark was set up as a sister organisation within DuBiotech in 2007 and has attracted companies in the renewable energy and environment sectors.
Speaking about the merger, Marwan Abdulaziz, Dubai Science Park’s executive director, observed: “We have been thinking about it for over a year now.”
He said that it was “confusing” that some companies on the renewable energy sector were in a DuBiotech-branded building because EnPark had no physical presence of its own.
However, the main reason for the merger is to allow Dubai Science Park to attract companies which do not fit neatly into the biotech or environmental bracket.
Mr Abdulaziz said that, for instance, there were companies in sectors related to biotechnology such as food and agricultural sciences that would appreciate the opportunity to set up shop in the Dubai Science Park and collaborate with their peers in the industry.
One such sector is wearable technologies.
“The new brand, Dubai Science Park, in partnership with more than 280 business partners, is focused on achieving our vision of becoming the most innovative and vibrant science community in the Middle East,” said Mr Abdulaziz.
The Dubai Science Park has a laboratory building with a high occupancy rate and warehouse space that is nearly fully occupied.
An office building is to be added at the site in the third quarter of next year, and a second phase of new warehouse space has been commissioned and should be ready in about 18 months.
Last month, the Tecom Group reported that the number of tenants in DuBiotech and Enpark rose 20 per cent in the first seven months of the year from last year with the addition of 45 businesses.
The group is part of Dubai Holding, whose main business arm, Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group, recently posted a 24 per cent rise in first-half net profit to Dh2.6 billion.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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