Come together

SALEH MURADWEIJ
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In the midst of all the negative news coming out of the region, CW sat down with a select group of key decision makers in its second Roundtable event, and found that faith in the region’s construction industry still exists

Discussion Panel

SALEH MURADWEIJ

Executive Director, Gulf Technical Construction Company (GTCC) has over 20 years of professional experience throughout the GCC and the Levant. He is also a member on the Drake & Scull International Board of Directors.

ANDREW BRODERICK

Head of Health, Safety Security & Environment, Aldar Properties, has been working in HSE for the past 18 years in various industries. He is also the official Build Safe UAE spokesperson in Abu Dhabi.

LOIC FINLAN

Building Physicist, KEO International Conultants has spent the last 12 years working in Europe, Asia and the Middle East on town planning, infrastructure and building projects. He joined KEO from Arup where he was head of energy strategy.

ROBERT PERKINS

President & CEO, QP International Project Management, has a BSc in engineering and accounting from the University of North Carolina and has 35 years of experience.

NABIL MANGO

Executive Vice President & COO, has over 28 years of experience within the industry both as a contractor and a consultant. He holds a BSC in civil engineering and construction.

NIZAR EL YAFI

Vice President, Pre-Construction & Business Development has a Bachelors in Architecture from Cairo and has 32 years behind him in consultancy and PM.

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What are your future plans?

Robert Perkins: We see in the next six months or so, work coming out of the government, than anything else – infrastructure work, facilities they’d need for their own developments; that’s our focus right now.

Saleh Muradweij: We started and will always be in Dubai, however, we have recognised the potential for work coming from outside Dubai, not just recently, but in the past two years. We are currently focusing on Abu Dhabi and negotiating a lot of projects with the Saudi government. There is more work than contractors can handle in Saudi. Over the next 4 or 5 years we will be heavily involved in Saudi.

Is everyone heading to Saudi?

Andrew Broderick: No. We’ve got a lot of government projects coming up right here in Abu Dhabi. A lot of work can be expected out of Abu Dhabi in the coming few months.

How are you spreading your risk?

Perkins: We’re spreading our risk by changing our focus from one client to multiple clients; multiple markets as well. It makes more business sense.

Muradweij: There is more work in infrastructure than in commercial or residential in the region.

Infrastructure will remain a focus for countries who do not plan to expand in the real estate sector also. We’ve also diversified into areas including waste water treatment. Diversity is a must to maintain growth.

Nizar Al Yafi: Yesterday we won two jobs, one in Dubai for project management and another in Ras Al Khaimah. We are not leaving Dubai. It had a little problem, but it will be solved. If we get work in Dubai, we’ll take it.

Nabil Mango: But those projects are belonging to the Abu Dhabi government.Perkins: The challenges for people in the region are not just looking for investment opportunities, they’re going to look for viable projects that have a good feasibility and will pay back, and that is what we’re trying to identify.

Muradweij: Earlier Dubai was concentrating on building places and now they’re focusing on infrastructure work to feed these places. There is still ample work in Dubai.