Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) has been named Global Free Zone of the Year 2022 by a panel of the Financial Times specialist editorial team and independent judges.
This is the eighth successive time that the government of Dubai’s authority on commodities trade and enterprise has won accolades from the Financial Times’ fDi Magazine.
The award, among the most prestigious of accolades a free zone can earn, is decided against a comprehensive set of criteria and a review of the free zones’ ecosystems.
The methodology focuses on metrics that demonstrate core growth of the free zones, both in terms of the increase in small and large tenants. Among some of the criteria on which judgement was made this year included how effectively each free zone provides ecosystems and related initiatives that support growth, business and marketing strategy, infrastructure improvements, COVID-response and promotion of sustainability.
Among other awards that the DMCC received this year are Large Tenant Free Zone of the Year – Global; Large Tenant Free Zone of the year – Middle East; Middle East Free Zone of the Year; SME Free Zone of the Year – Middle East; Excellence Award for ESG Practices – Global and Excellence Award for Infrastructure Development – Global.
Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DMCC, said: “Since DMCC was established in 2002, we have had two core goals – create a global gateway for trade, and comprehensively enhance the ease of doing business for our member companies.
“This simple, yet critical, strategy has underpinned our exceptional growth and is why our business district is now home to over 21,000 global businesses of all sizes and sectors. As we continue to accelerate our growth across all our business verticals, I would like to thank Financial Times’ fDI Magazine for once again recognising DMCC’s achievements on the global stage.”
Impressive performances all over
As many as 2,485 new businesses – from markets including China, India, the UK and the US – became part of the DMCC, making 2021 its best performance since its inception. This momentum was carried into 2022 with DMCC seeing the best H1 on record, attracting 1,469 companies to bring the district’s total to 21,000.
DMCC was also recognised for making a broad range of upgrades and enhancements across its business district, Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT). This included a project that will see all car park sunshades replaced with solar panel shades, resulting in a saving of 7,612 MWh energy each year. It also launched a range of new sports and wellness facilities, alongside landscaping and façade enhancements across the district. Over 60,000 people work in JLT, the 87-tower business district.
DMCC has continued to enhance Dubai’s status as a leading hub for global commodities trade.
At the start of the year, DMCC held the Dubai Diamond Conference, at which Bin Sulayem announced that the UAE is now the world’s largest rough diamond trading hub. DMCC also recently announced that in H1 2022, the UAE traded a total of $19.8 billion worth of rough and polished diamonds, representing a year-on-year increase of 25 percent. The polished diamond segment saw a record 52.5 percent growth over H1 2021.
Meanwhile, the Tradeflow platform, DMCC’s electronic commodities registry, reached AED746 billion ($203.1 billion) in transactions for H1 2022 – its highest ever six-month volumes. The DMCC Tea Centre and DMCC Coffee Centre also saw strong results with a combined 30,539 metric tonnes of tea and coffee output in H1 2022.
The DMCC also announced the launch of the DMCC Crypto Centre in mid-2021 as a comprehensive ecosystem for the development and operation of blockchain and other cryptographic technologies. It has grown significantly with 14 percent of new company registrations in H1 relating to crypto activities. The Crypto Centre is now home to 450 crypto businesses.
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