Dubai media City behind backs its new festival

Inaugural Dubai International Film Festival aims to build cultural bridges.
Cultural understanding and international harmony will be the themes of the inaugural Dubai International Film Festival, Dubai Media City’s newly launched film festival scheduled for December 6-11, 2004.

DUBAI MEDIA CITY CORPORATE PROFILE

Dubai Media City is the media arm of Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone which emerged out of the vision of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister to develop Dubai into a global ICT and Media hub by creating an infrastructure, environment and attitude that will enable technology and media focused enterprises to operate locally, regionally and globally with significant competitive advantages.

MISSION OF DUBAI MEDIA CITY
Create and market world class enabling services for the media industry.

Infrastructure and Environment
Dubai Media City brings to the media community a state-of-art infrastructure based on next-generation information and telecommunication technologies. Companies can avail of the most advanced scalable ICT network and unique voice/data services at competitive rates. Companies in Dubai Media City have the unique edge of commercial benefits derived from our free zone status including 100 % business ownership requiring no sponsorship and guaranteed 50-year exemption from personal income and corporate taxes.

Community
Dubai Media City is the place where every kind of media business – Publishing & Printing, Music, New Media, Leisure & Entertainment, Broadcasting, Information Agencies and Film - can thrive and have the freedom to create.

Success Story
Since its official opening in January 2001, Dubai Media City has grown tremendously to become a thriving media community of over 780 companies and more than 260 freelance media professionals. Several global media giants and promising entrepreneurial ventures have joined the Dubai Media City community. Three quarters of the media community represents regional and international media companies.

A unique conglomerate of leading international media companies has chosen Dubai Media City to host their regional offices. CNN has launched its Arabic news website and regional news bureau at Dubai Media City. Pan-Arabic giant broadcaster MBC has not only relocated its international headquarters from London to Dubai Media City, but it has also launched a new Arabic satellite news channel “Al-Arabia” that is currently broadcasting from MBC’s premises in DMC.

CNBC Arabiya, a regional Arabic-language news channel, presenting in-depth and up-to-the-minute coverage of the economic and business implications of local and international affairs, has launched operations from its new studio in Dubai Media City.

Showtime Network has also consolidated its operations, transmissions and sales & marketing to Dubai Media City. Other giants like, Reuters, Sony Broadcast and Professional, , Bertelsmann, Lowe Worldwide, STAR TV, BMG music International, Team Young & Rubicam, Leo Burnett, AFP, Associated Press (AP) and International Advertising Association (IAA), to name a few, have shifted their regional headquarters here. The number of broadcasters registered at DMC stands at 24 major companies.

The presence of companies from across the media industry spectrum in Dubai Media City has created a large pool of skills, expertise and resources that companies can tap into. The media community also offers a high quality of business interaction and network that can be leveraged for enhanced problem solving and knowledge sharing.

Major Initiatives
Under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Defence Minister, Dubai Media City announced recently the launch of the International Media Production Zone (IMPZ), the first dedicated trade zone created in the region for media-related production activities.
Located on 35 million sq. ft of land along Emirates Road, the Zone seeks to create a cluster environment for media production companies from across the industry value chain to interact and collaborate productively.
The zone will provide a state-of-the-art infrastructure that is designed to support all sectors of the media and entertainment industry. The first production cluster to initiate business from the new zone will be the printing industry. Some of the other sectors for which the Zone will provide an ideal production location include music, broadcast among others. For example, companies producing CDs and chips and components for media equipment could immensely benefit from basing themselves in the Zone.

Talent
As part of our mission of promoting talent and entrepreneurship in the region, Dubai Media City started the Media Business Centre, a unique facility for freelancers and independent media professionals. Over 260 freelancers have found the centre an ideal base for gaining visibility and building relationships with the media industry.
The Media Business Centre has made a key contribution to plugging the large gap in the regional market for a freelance workforce. Dubai Media City is also constantly exploring ways of ensuring that media companies here will have a steady supply of talent.

In June 2001, DMC launched the annual Ibda’a Media Student Awards with the objective of identifying, showcasing and fostering talent at a formative stage. The Awards aim to tap talent from a vast region extending from West Africa to the Indian subcontinent and South Africa to the CIS countries.

The Third Ibda’a Media Student Awards were announced on December 17th, 2003, honouring 9 winners in the Awards' nine categories. Three winners came from South Africa, three from India, and one winner came from Iran, Egypt and UAE. In its third round, Ibda’a Awards has attracted a major participation with 1819 entries from more than 20 countries in nine categories- Animation, Journalism, Radio, TV, Film Production, Photography, Graphic Design Television Advertising and Print Advertising. To create a wider audience for Ibda’a’s messages, Dubai Media City has launched a dedicated website for the Awards (www.ibdaa-awards.com). Dubai Media City conducted Ibda’a road-shows this year in two new countries - Morocco and Tunisia. Other targeted countries include UAE, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and GCC.

Knowledge Village
Knowledge Village is a vibrant, connected learning community that will develop the region’s talent pool and accelerate its move to the knowledge economy. It is set up to position the Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone as a centre of excellence for learning and innovation. This new Education and Training hub is also set up to complement the Free Zone’s other two clusters: Dubai Internet City as IT hub and Dubai Media City as Media hub.

Knowledge Village will provide the infrastructure for developing, sharing and applying knowledge. In addition, KV will facilitate, promote, and become the flagship for e-Learning throughout the region. In summery, KV community is set to create a culture and access to the new learning: life long learning.

Facts & Figures
Dubai Media City has completed phase III of expansion that, apart from commercial offerings, provides a range of facilities aimed at enhancing the quality of life of business partners. Shared business centres, customer service centres, IT services as well as cafes, restaurants and retail stores are part of Dubai Media City’s offerings. Dubai Media City’s Phase one has a total leasable space area of 326,650 sq. ft. Total leasable space in Phase II is 260,000 sq. ft and Phase III 350,000 square feet.

For more information, please visit DMC website: www.dubaimediacity.com