Conference Overview

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

The Construction Week Jeddah Expansion 2012 Conference saw 217 senior construction professionals and Government representatives gather at the Park Hyatt in Jeddah. The main theme discussed was how to meet the demand for residential, commercial and retail real estate in Jeddah.

The conference began with the Mayor of Jeddah, H.E. Dr. Hani AbuRas, delivering the opening keynote address. Highlights of his speech included statements that the Saudi Arabian construction industry is the most important in the region, contributing 70% of the value of the total market. He added that the construction industry played a vital role in the overall economic and social development of the Kingdom.

Jeddah, in particular, is facing a major housing shortage and has embarked on an ambitious housing development programme. This was the focus of the morning sessions where Jeremy Lester, Chief Executive Officer of Grocon, John Spitz, Senior Vice President & Regional Director of Hill International, and Radwan Hariri, Head of Development at Oger Real Estate, shared their views on the future of residential real estate developments. A one-to-one interview was conducted with the Managing Director of Drake & Scull, Saleh Muradwejj, where he spoke about the iconic Al Jowarah tower, which is set to become the tallest residential tower in Jeddah when completed in 2013.

Before the lunch break, the Saudi Bin Ladin Group had prepared a special presentation on the Makkah Clock Tower development that was delivered by Dr. Koshak Hamza, Director General of the Architecture & Engineering Office of Jeddah, Makkah and Janbu. This was followed by interactive panel discussion on how hotel and tourism trends are influencing real estate development in Jeddah and its surrounding areas.

The afternoon was dedicated to commercial and retail developments where great insights were offered by the Director of Development at Emaar Middle East, Akram Omar, with his work at the King Abdullah Economic City mega project.

The final session of the day brought together the heads of the largest international contractors that are currently active in the Kingdom to discuss the need for support infrastructure in Jeddah for real estate development to be successful. These included the Andrew Hopkins, Regional Director at AECOM, Joseph Kilar, Executive Vice President at Samsung C&T, and Rob Smith, Country Manager of CH2M HILL.

The impressive line-up of 23 speakers and panellists came from all over the Kingdom to share their knowledge and experience. The participants left on a very good note with reason for optimism that the pipeline of real estate projects planned, and underway, will continue to grow and be delivered at a high rate in the decade to come.

TESTIMONIALS

“I was very impressed with the level of organisation at the Construction Week conference. More importantly the line-up of experts and influential figures of the industry resulted in highly beneficial panel discussions. The insights gained about the trends and industry dynamics revealed through this event was extremely valuable.”
Dr Amro Taibah, Head of Urban Planning Committee, Jeddah City Council

“Jeddah Expansion 2012 was an insightful overview of the many fascinating changes and opportunities that Jeddah presents to professionals of the design and construction fields. The event presented an excellent platform for networking between the private sector and government agencies.”
Donald K. Bordui, Principal, Saudi Diyar Consultants

“It was a well prepared seminar with very appropriate topic on Jeddah Expansion. The knowledge of speakers regarding their fields was fabulous and the discussion was very effective. Thumbs up!”
Osama Loubani, Civil Engineer, Mohammed Binladin Company

“The Jeddah Expansion 2012 shared lessons learned of best practice among the construction sector, design consultants and government. The forum offered insight into the city’s current challenges, future opportunities of ‘expanding & regenerating’ Jeddah by identifying the biggest challenges for Jeddah is to coordinate infrastructure.”
CT Bien, Deputy Project Manager, CH2MHILL Olayan

“I would like to thank Construction Week for a well organised and excellent conference focusing on the most innovate solutions in the area of construction.”
Salim Assaggaf, Project Director, Prince Sultan Technical College Project

“It was a well organised conference which covered a lot of relevant ongoing and upcoming topics, which highlight the challenges ahead for both the government sector and industry players i.e. be it the Ministry, real estate developers and contractors. We found the discussion session with the panel on the key issues was rather interesting and informative, as it was a dialogue involving the Ministry and market players.”
Lee Swee Chai, Project Director, Keppel AL Numu Dev

“As a forum for the public and private sectors to address the aspirations and challenges facing Jeddah city developers, Jeddah Expansion 2012 delivered pertinent, well moderated discussion over a broad range of cultural, planning and construction topics. I enjoyed the panel contributions and the comments of Radwan Hariri in particular. This was a well organised, interesting and informative conference.”
Tim G Newbery, Director of Development, Hajaj & Associates