General Shaikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces has reviewed the progress made at the megaproject Khalifa Port and Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) at Taweelah. This came during an in-depth presentation made at H. H. the Crown Prince’s majlis by ADPC Chairman Dr. Sultan Al Jaber; CEO, Tony Douglas; Executive Vice President Ports’ Unit, ADPC, Captain Mohamed Al Shamisi and the Executive Vice President, Industrial Zones’ Unit, ADPC, Khaled Salmeen. Shaikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan commented: ‘ 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 1st, 2012. I am satisfied with the progress made by ADPC and pleased that the project is on schedule.’ ADPC Chairman Dr Sultan Al Jaber commented: ‘It was a great honour for ADPC to be invited to present a detailed overview of our progress at Khalifa Port and Kizad to Shaikh Mohamed, who, under the directives by President His Highness Shaikh 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 Shaikh Mohamed centred on the company’s remarkable progress in delivering this megaproject on time and within budget. His Highness 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. Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC), 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, 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 region 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.