The tendering process for Dubai International Airport's second development phase will be conducted entirely online, officials at Dubai Civil Aviation (DCA) said on Tuesday.
The process will be carried out through a joint venture B2B (business-to-business) portal, www.ax-max.com, they told the Gulf News.
DCA has set up a 51 percent-owned company, Middle East Airport Exchange (Max), to run the portal. The balance is held by DCA's Malaysian partner, airportXchange.
"The joint venture is very much in keeping with the Dubai government initiative of e-government and e-commerce. This is a very important step for us. The second phase of the (airport) expansion program, costing $1.4 billion, will involve many big projects which will all be tendered online in the coming months," said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, DCA's president.
DCA wishes to promote the dedicated aviation portal among other regional airports, and is not averse to sharing equity with regional partners, he said.
"We have not officially talked with other Middle East airports, but in informal talks they have been very interested. We look at all airports in the Gulf to join us and be members of this program. We will invite airports to send representatives who we will brief. We would like all to get together on a commercial basis," said Khalifa Zaffin, director of engineering at DCA.
The second development phase started Tuesday with an online request for prequalification bids for a Dh450 million contract.
The contract is for cargo handling equipment and storage systems for the mega cargo terminal. The three million tonnes capacity terminal is being designed by Aeroportes de Paris – Albawaba.com
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