KSA focus - Friends with benefits

ZFP's design for the SABIC Research Center in Riyadh.
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Saudi architects have benefitted as international firms seek local partners, but are partnerships more than marriages of convenience?

Local partnerships are an essential part of doing business in Saudi Arabia, and as a result local design firms continue to benefit from the construction boom.

Saudi law requires international designers to either go into partnership with a local consultant, or set up their own office in the kingdom with a Saudi representative, and both strategies have been widely used by international firms.

But while international firms have little choice but to take a Saudi partner if they want to operate in the kingdom, these relationships are not only driven by necessity. A global firm can benefit from having a partner with a local focus, while a local partner can benefit from an international firm’s wide-ranging experience.

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“They need each other, it is a two way benefit,” said Yasser Hejazy, director of Saudi Arabian firm Yasser Hejazy Consulting Engineers.

“Saudi firms can gain experience, learn about the industry and also learn to think outside of the box.”

Yasser Hejazy has just signed a partnership agreement with DEP, a Lebanese engineering company with offices in Paris, Dubai and now Jeddah. Hejazy explained that Saudi Arabia can sometimes be a tricky place to do business, and partnerships help to bridge that gap.

“International firms can often be unfamiliar with Saudi Arabian culture and the way that people think here. Joining with a Saudi firm helps them understand Saudi culture, so they are much more likely to be able to penetrate the market,” he said.

For Zuhair Fayez Partnership Consultants, Saudi Arabia’s largest architectural firm, working with international firms has become a part of life. Founded in Jeddah some 30 years ago and now employing upwards of 3,500 people, Zuhair is currently working on some massive projects in Riyadh and Jeddah, as well as overseas.

Ammar Al-Sabban, head of landscape architecture at ZFP, said that rapid change has occurred in the Saudi market, leading to many firms who previously worked on small, individual projects suddenly getting involved with major developments.