Face to Face: Osama Hadid, AlJaber Engineering

Osama Hadid, MD at AlJaber Engineering

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To get to AlJaber Engineering’s office in Doha, one has to negotiate cordoned-off excavations and rickety pedestrian walkways and temporary bridges to even get near the building. Quite close by is the construction site of the New National Museum of Qatar, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel.

This is a sign of the kind of transformation that Doha has embarked upon. “Come back in ten years’ time and you will see a new city. I think it will start showing in five years, but it will look really good in ten, when you will see a drastic change. By the time the 2022 World Cup is played here, Doha will be a new city, and Qatar will be a new country,” says MD Osama Hadid.

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There is such a marked contrast between the older buildings of downtown Doha and the gleaming high-rise towers of West Bay that one wonders how much of the city’s heritage will be sacrificed in the road leading to the World Cup.

Hadid, however, is eminently realistic. He acknowledges that Doha itself is at least 15 years’ behind the rest of the region in terms of essential infrastructure, and says the concept of ‘heritage’ itself has to be seen in the context of modernity and progress.

“I would not really call it heritage buildings, because these were built mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, and the quality was not up to standard. I think there are a few spots that should be preserved, such as the palaces of the sheikhs and so on, but in general I do not feel bad that we have so much demolition, because it has to be done.

Abu Dhabi did a similar thing in the 1990s when it knocked down every building less than 20 storeys, and that is why it now has a new city.”

Interestingly, Qatar’s development seems to have taken up the slack in the region’s construction industry as it adapts to the rigours and constraints imposed by the downturn. “It is a good time to float projects because most will come below budget.

Contractors are pretty hungry these days, and are moving aggressively. For the whole region, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the promising markets. Saudi is a challenging market to work in; Qatar is still growing, so has potential for well-established companies, who will have an excellent chance here.” However, increased competition brings with it its own set of challenges.

“The biggest challenge is the potential competition we will be seeing, and which we are seeing already. Qatar is an open market that provides numerous opportunities. However, serious technical evaluation of the bids and the capabilities of the bidders will, with time, ensure that only healthy and capable contractors will prevail.

It will be a difficult period for maybe the next couple of years,” says Hadid.

“What we hope will help us with this increased competition is the use of shortlisted contractors on some projects, together with a strict prequalification regime, and possibly even negotiated contracts when the World Cup momentum picks up.

This will give strong companies an opportunity to show added value, rather than simply compete on price.”

A related issue is preference for local contractors. “We certainly see an improvement in the tendency to favour local contractors,” notes Hadid. “The sentiment that local contractors did not have capabilities to execute projects and were not trustworthy is starting to change.