With an ambitious plan led by Sharjah Media City (Shams), Sharjah is starting a journey that will change the way movies are made in the area. The goal of this project is to make the emirate a center for film production and creative businesses. This will make it a game-changer in the media sector of the UAE.

Rashid Sahoo, Director of Operations at Shams, talked about the project during the recent Gulf News Invest UAE event in Dubai. The group discussion was called “Leveraging Free Zones for Investment Growth.” He called it “Sharjahwood,” comparing it to well-known film businesses like Bollywood and Hollywood. Sahoo said that this idea could change the UAE’s entertainment business in a big way.

Sadoo announced the opening of Chance creation, a cutting-edge center for media creation created by Shams. Work on the center began last month. Sahoo said, “No matter what happens in the world, people will always want to be entertained.” The effort is meant to meet the growing demand for movie content around the world. This comment fits with a study that shows how popular movies and TV shows are.

The project is made up of three important parts:

1. Cinematic Studios: The building of state-of-the-art production facilities for both local and foreign filmmakers.
2. SME Hub: A space set aside for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the media industry. This area encourages innovation by letting small businesses and big production houses work together.
3. Residential Community: A place to live that is meant to support the whole media ecosystem by giving workers who work in the area a place to live and other services. The goal of this unified method is to build a creative community that can support itself.

Sahoo said that the project would use cutting edge technologies and make sure that the facilities met the highest standards in the media business around the world. He also said that the idea of a media production hub is not new, but that this project is especially made for the UAE. He said, “We are building on proven models from around the world but adapting them to fit our region’s strengths.”

In later talks, the panelists talked more about how free zones help the UAE reach its larger economic goals. Along with Sahoo, Zubair Makhdoomi (Sales Director at the Free Zones Authority of Ajman), Mustafa Shaker (Sales Director at RAKEZ), and Fatma Amiri (Government Relations Manager at Meydan Free Zone) took part in the talks.

Shaker talked about the UAE’s big plan to have three hundred thousand businesses there by 2025. Half of this growth will come from free zones, according to Shaker. He said, “The UAE is a launch pad that opens up access to the local ecosystem, the GCC, and the rest of the world.”

Makhdoomi talked about how free zones have changed over the last 30 years, focusing on how important they are to the UAE’s economic growth and how this model is now being used all over the world. Amiri talked about how Meydan Free Zone focuses on industries with a lot of growth, like e-commerce and management consulting. He said, “Meydan Free Zone is committed to supporting these industries through tailored solutions and world-class infrastructure.”

The group also talked about the UAE’s plans to go digital and make it easier to start a business. Makhdoomi said that the Free Zones Authority of Ajman has made it easier to get a license with just one click, cutting the time it takes to get one to less than five minutes. He also said, “COVID-19 sped up our digital transformation, and now our goal is to make the investor journey as smooth as possible.”

Sustainability was another important topic, and the speakers talked about plans to help the UAE reach its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Shaker talked about RAKEZ’s support for green industries and showed a company that fixes up laptops for customers all over the world. Seventy percent of its customers are from Europe, the US, and Asia, which shows that there is a strong market for environmentally friendly products around the world.

Makhdoomi talked about how matchmaking events can help small and big businesses work together in free zones. He stressed how important it is for these two types of businesses to work together. He said, “We have a pool of seventeen thousand customers, and we actively help new businesses get connected with others in the UAE’s business ecosystem.”

In terms of the future, Sahoo stressed how important it is to keep adapting to new technologies, especially those that involve artificial intelligence. He ended by giving people hope by saying, “The UAE’s big investments in technology give us confidence that we are ready for the future.”