V.Ships and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement have agreed to open offices in the much heralded Dubai Maritime City as Dubai steps up its efforts to attract managers and owners away from established maritime clusters like Cyprus.
John Ewing, Chief Commercial Officer at the Dubai Maritime City, told SMI that the world’s top two ship managers had agreed to open up a small presence to begin with but they would be encouraged, as would other interested ship managers, to boost their operations on the man-made island.
“They are going small up front but are looking to see how it operates,” he said. They have a lot of resources going through India so it is better for them to be in Dubai than India because of the infrastructure and air links from Dubai.
“We hope to see them setting up and building their operations here. I am not saying they should move the headquarters here but Dubai could be a major regional centre for ship management,” he said.
