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Ajman eyes alternative renewable energy to preserve environment

AJMAN — Ajman will be one of the first emirates in the UAE to adopt the use of alternative renewable energy to preserve the environment in accordance with international standards, a senior government official said.

Speaking to journalists at his office on Tuesday, Shaikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of Ajman Municipality and Planning Department, said the emirate was in the forefront of efforts to translate the vision of the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to initiate energy production through alternative renewable sources into reality.

He said His Highness Shaikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Ajman, had directed them to seek alternative energy and as by his directives, the Ajman government is now in talks with seven international renewable energy companies to help them produce electricity.

“Our major target would be producing energy through recycling of wastes using modern technology that meets the international environment safety conditions,” he said.

He said details of the project would be given to the media soon.

The vision is to male Ajman a tourist hub by 2015 and this will become a reality considering the huge projects currently underway in the emirate.

“Ajman is a beautiful emirate, it has nice sea shores, more than 10,000 hotel rooms and the Zora project are all to put Ajman on an international tourist map,” he said.

The Zora project, he said, was very important to Ajman as it was the tourist face of Ajman and all its work was to be delivered on time, saying that in the next few months they would be announcing the progress of the first phase of the project.

Ajman is now one of the fastest growing emirates, currently experiencing growth at 6-8 per cent based on the big projects they are being undertaken.

The government was able to help out companies that were failing during the financial crisis and this had helped to minimise the impact of the global crisis in the emirate. We cannot deny that we were not affected by the crisis. Ajman is part of the UAE and the UAE is part of the world and this was a global crisis.

“Though the real estate sector is vulnerable, other sectors like education, health and retail are doing well.”

He said that they had advised some investors and business persons to consider other sectors and also postpone some real estate projects.

On the infrastructure, he said road projects costing Dh200 million started in 2008 have been completed. The Shaikh Zayed Road project being undertaken jointly with the Ministry of Public Works at a cost of Dh250 million and a new cultural centre at Dh50million will be finished in three weeks.

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com