In a ceremony held on 17 January 2010 at Al Qasba, Gulftainer Group Managing Director Peter Richards handed over a cheque to Kalimat's Publisher Dareen Charafeddine, in the presence of Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Founder and CEO of Kalimat.

Gulftainer have decided to provide AED 1.5m support in sponsorship to the Sharjah based publisher of quality children's books in Arabic for their international events and book fairs.

Said Sheikha Bodour, "We are delighted to receive this support from Gulftainer. It will certainly go a long way towards helping us achieve the goals we have set for ourselves for 2010.

Through our ongoing participation in international events, we aim to increase the exposure of both our Arabic titles and our aim of instilling a love of reading in the youth of today."

Sponsorship for Kalimat

"This sponsorship has been earmarked to cover our participation in international exhibitions and book fairs, and we are looking forward to promoting Kalimat's goals and message globally throughout the coming year.

The international events are an important part of our business strategy, as they present us with an excellent opportunity to network with key players and to exchange experience with renowned publishing and distribution experts in the Arab and global markets," she continued.

Speaking of the reasons behind the donation, Gulftainer's Peter Richards said, "Gulftainer is committed to making a discernibledifference within the communities in which we operate and with which we engage closely.

This sponsorship is in line with our strategy to support and facilitate the members of the community, particularly in the area of youth education, as young people are the world's most valuable future asset.

As a Sharjah-based company operating in the region for over 30 years, we are committed to improving the quality of life of the people who live and work in the region, and we fully support Kalimat's aim of encouraging a love of reading and Arabic literature among children throughout the Arab world. We wish this intiative great success" he added.

Throughputs at Gulftainer's UAE facilities - Khorfakkan Container Terminal (KCT) and Sharjah Container Terminal (SCT) - increased by nearly 10% to 2,750,285 teu in 2009.

This remarkable performance in a difficult year, when virtually all container terminals throughout the world saw substantial downturns, undoubtedly reflects both the relative economic buoyancy of the region and the fact that KCT, in particular, has the reputation of being one of the world's fastest and most productive terminals.

Gulftainer Group Managing Director Peter Richards emphasised, "2009 was always going to be very difficult year for the industry as a whole and this certainly turned out to be the case.

However, we worked hard in 2009 to give all our shipping line customers even better performance at our terminals providing the best and fastest operational performance, and helping them to save time and money at a time when they needed it most.This strategy, together with an almost 'Business as usual' environment in many parts of the Gulf and Indian Ocean, helped to ensure we were less directly affected than many other terminal operators, both regionally and worldwide.

KCT is renowned for its productivity and in 2009 this reputation was confirmed over and over again, with record breaking (and time and money saving) performances.

We continued to expand the terminals - KCT received six new shore gantry cranes in 2009 - to ensure that performance was maintained, and all Gulftainer staff and their colleagues in the Sharjah Port Authority are to be congratulated for their efforts in keeping quality and efficiency standards so high.

Our customers have worked hard serving the wider Gulf and Indian Ocean region, which has seen less of a downturn than the rest of the world, as the throughputs indicate, and we will make sure we keep giving them the best platform to continue in 2010," he concluded.

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