As the Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority (Dafza) prepares for a prestigious UN recognition, it has become one of the few free zones in the region and the first in UAE to receive ISO 9001:2000 certification, the Gulf News reported. Representatives from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) are expected to visit Dafza next year as part of efforts to confer the free zone consultant's status, said the daily.
Once it receives that recognition, Dafza will be able to offer constancy to other free zones on management.
A team from Turkey's free zone was in Dubai recently to seek cooperation from Dafza whereby both free zones can transfer know-how.
A memorandum has been signed with the Berlin airport free zone.
According to the daily, a Dafza team is expected to visit several countries including Sweden, India and Hong Kong soon. The team will make presentations on Dafza's advantages over other free zones.
Shahla Ahmed Abdul Razak, director of sales and marketing, was quoted by the paper as saying that Dafza was committed to quality and the new ISO certification is an acknowledgement of that.
"This certification is not a one-off gesture of quality. We will sustain this quality all along and this will be manifest from the procedures we follow and the systems we have in place," she said.
Set up in 1996, the zone has recorded good growth. More than 125 companies have been registered and about 500 applications have been received for companies intending to set up their facilities in it, it added – Albawaba.com
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