Saudi diversification vital for Emaar says chief

Jeddah Gate: one of Emaar's major developments underway in Saudi.

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Emaar sees Saudi Arabia as a key future market on the back of its recent projects and the kingdom’s demand for housing, the company’s Middle East CEO Dia Malaeb has told ConstructionWeekOnline.

Speaking on the sidelines of Cityscape Jeddah, Dia said that Emaar’s recent awards for Jeddah Gate and the Economic City were a vote of confidence in the firm, and proof that their diversification in the wake of the financial crisis was the right move.

“We are pleased and proud. It has shown everybody very clearly that our master planning caters for the needs of the Saudi people, and our architectural design suits the environment,” he said.

Dia said that Emaar’s diversification into markets such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Syria – as well as projects ranging from hospitality to healthcare – had proved effective in minimising the effect of the global downturn

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“We could tell in 2005 that Dubai was not going to continue with the same hype, that it could only last three or four years, so we took a wise decision to diversify our investments,” he said.

“We expanded to several countries and we found a warm welcome for our ideas because our reputation had preceeded us. Our expansion to other countries came at the right time, before the financial crisis. Now, Dubai is slowing down while the countries that we went into are going up.”

Dia said that demand in Saudi Arabia was set to increase as the government tried to meet its targets of 200,000 new homes every year for five years.

“Saudi Arabia is growing, and it is taking care of its people. They need to build new homes as soon as possible,” he said. “Their vision and long term strategy tells them that they should hire companies like us to come and establish here and help this development reach its target in the shortest time.

Finally, Dia was upbeat about the resources that Saudi Arabia provides in terms of construction contractors and infrastructure.

“Our specs are high and not just any contractor can do our buildings. In Saudi Arabia the best technology is available, the best contractors are available. The things we need to make a project work are all here,” he said.

He pointed out that Emaar managed to achieve an eight day cycle in the kingdom, meaning they were able to average a floor every eight days.

“An eight day cycle is really an achievement here because it needs a lot of coordination between the design, the contractor, the consultants, and us, the devleoper. It needs a lot of coordination, but we have achieved it,” he said.