Borouge, a leading petrochemical company has organised a workshop with Khalifa Fund, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), Abu Dhabi Ports and its subsidiary Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD). The workshop was held in order to give an overview about polymers industry and its significant role in the economic development and to discuss ways of collaboration and potential opportunities to attract small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into the industry.
Driven by its new brand position of INSPIRING TOMORROW through creating value and driving the industry into new horizons, Borouge aimed through this workshop to bring together the three government bodies to inspire future and encourage the development of polymers conversion in Abu Dhabi.
“The workshop was an important activity with the most influential economic authorities in Abu Dhabi where we agreed on supporting the involvement of more plastics convertors into our industry and help boost the petrochemicals and polymers businesses,” said Ahmed Al Shamsi, Senior Vice President Regional MEAE, Borouge.
He highlighted Borouge’s leading role in the development of polymers industry with the differentiated portfolio of innovative plastics solutions the Company provides for infrastructure, packaging and energy applications. “Over the past two decades, Borouge has largely contributed to the diversification of the UAE economy with support from its partners.”
Abdulkareem Al Masabi, Executive Vice President – Ports at Abu Dhabi Ports, thanked Borouge for the initiative of organising such a workshop, whereas Edwin Lammers, Vice President Commercial at KIZAD, talked about the advantages that KIZAD offers to investors of SMEs including business efficiency, easy access to international markets, low-cost operational environment and other essential support to achieve long-term competitive advantage.
Ahmed Al Romaithi, Project Manager Zaarie Program at Khalifa Fund, underlined the importance of such a meeting in supporting the development of plastics conversion business in Abu Dhabi through attracting SMEs. Another representative from ADDED showed the department’s willingness to provide support and services for the establishment of new SMEs to run new businesses in the petrochemicals and polymers industries.
Gustaf Akermark from Abu Dhabi Polymers Park also shared his experience with the Park which hosts about 50 to 60 plastic product manufacturers and provides logistics services to many plastics conversion firms. He noted that the Abu Dhabi Polymers Park offers local firms with access to its infrastructure and low-cost raw materials and it will offer foreign firms a chance to establish a foothold in the GCC.
The workshop concluded with a visit to the Borouge Innovation Centre in Abu Dhabi where the participants learned about the creative work Borouge is carrying out to develop new grades of polymers that add value to businesses, allowing Borouge to better support its customers and respond to their needs. Providing expertise in polymer analysis, processing, and application testing, the Borouge Innovation Centre has been granted over 178 patents for new developed value-added grades of polymers out of more than 597 patents that the Company has filed so far at the World Intellectual Property Organisation database.
