In the news: Audi and Volkswagen have recently opened their central depot, the Audi Volkswagen Middle East parts centre at the Jebel Ali Free Zone or Jafza for short. The warehouse facility was worth $10 million contain an initial stock of 40,000 parts including of course the popular lines of auto parts sold by the automaker like the Volkswagen radiator hose and others. The total worth of all these parts is $7 million and is tracked through a dedicated on-site management team.

The opening of the Audi Volkswagen Middle East Parts Centre was celebrated in a grand ceremony at the Jafza site and was attended by prominent personalities like Sheik Majid Bin Saeed bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, Chief of Amiri Court of Ajman Jamal Majid Bin Thaniyah, Vice-Chairman Dubai World and Group CEO Ports and Free Zones World and Salma Hareb, CEO of Jafza and Economic Zones World. Also present at the ceremony were Ernst Hasbach who is the managing director of Audi Volkswagen Middle East FZE and Klaus Hellmann, Board Member, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

Bin Thaniyah at his speech during the ceremony has congratulated the effort of the Volkswagen group for their successful endeavors and wished them all more success in their latest venture. Here are excerpts from Bin Thaniyah's speech:

"Dubai World and Audi Volkswagen Middle East have shared a unique partnership with each other and we are all working in tandem with similar strategies in mind. "

"A part of Jafza's strategy has been to add value to our customers operations and today we are proud to be associated with this project."

"Once again, I am delighted to be here with you today on the launch of this prestigious project and wish you all the success for the future."

Last April 2006 the bid for the construction of the Audi Volkswagen Middle East Parts Centre was awarded to Rudolph Hellmann Logistics. And through their cooperation, Audi and Volkswagen will further aim to improve their service level across the region as well as promote the use of genuine parts to ensure vehicle safety.

Jafza or Jebel Ali Free Zone was chosen by Volkswagen since its one of the world's fastest and largest growing free zones. Jafza was first established in 1985 and since then have grown into a community of about 6,000 companies from 120 countries across the world and leading the rapidly growing UAE economy. Jafza is also one of the popular brands in the region and known for its excellence, innovation and its power of partnership.

Jafza is also the leading business hub in the Middle East and focuses in developing a long term relationship with its customers. It also foster alliances with global investors by offering them world class infrastructure which are supported by quality driven value added services and incentives, giving them all the opportunities to engage in huge business ventures in the region in the most efficient way possible.

The Dubai World is established in March 2006 and is one of the world's leading hold companies with more than 50,000 employees spread across 100 cities around the world. The Dubai World also manages and supervises the portfolio of businesses and projects for Dubai Government and works to make Dubai the leading center for both commerce and trading industry.