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Can these prices be maintained?
If we can develop into the new markets, it will give us a cushion to weather the storm here, which is what we are doing, and hope that next year will be better. Long term I see this office changing and becoming a regional base for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.
Did the slowdown force you to refocus elsewhere in the region?
We’d already started to view the Bahrain office as a spring board for other things particularly Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, because we recognised that Bahrain itself is a relatively small market over the long term. Of course the slowdown has focused our efforts even more on operations in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. We now have representatives in all those countries and we hope to have some good news on projects there very soon. We’re chasing a lot of work in Saudi Arabia.
How are you establishing yourselves in Saudi Arabia?
We’re working on two fronts, as an international company working on specific project, which we’ve been doing on and off, for many years. The second front is to joint venture with a local entity, which we’re currently in the process of formalising.
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Why set up your own JV in Saudi?
As an international consultant we can look at big projects on a project by project basis. But having a JV with a Saudi company will bring us closer to the grass roots market, especially anything to do with petrochemicals. It basically opens up more doors. Our JV company will bring us into a certain area of the market that is more petrochemical related.
Is Scott Wilson, as a whole, undergoing a restructuring process?
Last year, completely independent of the recession, it was decided that Scott Wilson would move towards a more sector oriented organisation rather than being organised geographically. It doesn’t mean the regions are not important but that the sectors have a bigger say in how we operate in any region.
We’re split into certain sectors such as environment and natural resources, highway and transportation, infrastructure and buildings and strategic consultancy, which includes marine and airport work.
What are the advantages?
One major reason is that it breaks down people working in silos, our skills and resources can be applied where necessary in the world. It will also help us tell which sectors are doing the best - these figures can be lost when reporting as a country office. This makes our growth strategies and opportunities clearer when analysing the figures.
The change has not been fully implemented, it’s ongoing, but by the end of the financial year we intend to be fully sectorised in the Gulf and people will be reporting along sector lines rather than us reporting as an office.
Scott Wilson is heavily involved with a number of land reclamation projects. Are environmental issues improving at all?
In the last four or five years we’ve seen much more focus on getting the environmental aspects, especially the marine environment, right. Five years ago people could do things that they can’t get away with now because there’s been a welcome strengthening of legislation. There is also much more emphasis on the consultant supervising the role of the dredging contractor and taking responsibility for it. This has improved the situation a lot.
Scott Wilson
The Scott Wilson Group is a global integrated design and engineering consultancy within more than 6000
staff members in 80 locations around the world. Key regions include the UK, Asia-Pacific, Europe, India and the Middle East, with regional centres in London, Hong Kong, Warsaw, New Delhi, Bahrain and Dubai. The Bahrain office was set up in 2005.
Get to know Eddie
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