The Dubai Maritime City Authority (DMCA) has signed an agreement with Lloyd’s Register (LR), the global engineering and business services organisation, to jointly undertake research & development and commercialization activities.

Amer Ali, executive director of the DMCA, and Tom Boardley, LR’s executive vice president and global head of Corporate and External Affairs, signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

“Our MoU with LR falls in line with our total commitment to supporting the Dubai Maritime Sector Strategy and Dubai Industrial Strategy, to plan and establish a dynamic and safe maritime sector over the next decades in step with Dubai’s growth into a leading global maritime gateway,” said Ali.

“LR is an excellent partner in this regard given its outstanding reputation for integrity, impartiality and technical excellence. The passion our organizations share for ensuring that the interests of our clients are safe, sustainable and dependable will enable us to jointly set new benchmarks for maritime excellence particularly in R&D and commercialization locally and across the region.”

Under the terms of the MoU, both parties will set up a joint applied technology cluster to drive research and accelerate the development of mid to high level technology readiness areas that support current and future maritime industry needs.

They will also organize and participate in regular workshops aimed at identifying subject areas with the potential to become significant joint research and development prospects. Moreover, the signatories will pursue opportunities for the commercialization of technology and organize and participate in joint academic and scientific activities such as conferences and knowledge exchanges with industry.

Boardley added: “Dubai Maritime City Authority has extensive expertise in maritime development and is thus an excellent partner for us to seek new avenues for growth and expansion in the region and deliver better and more innovative services to our customers.”

“For our part, we are committed to exchanging knowledge and best practices to help accelerate Dubai’s transformation into a premier global maritime centre. The axis of our Singapore and Southampton Global Technology Centres will be used to drive through the collaboration,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service