Dubai – There are 5,000 construction projects in the Middle East for an estimated US$ 1.8 trillion, according to a research by DMG, the company that organizes Big 5, the main fair in the sector in the region, beginning on Monday (21), in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The information was provided by the fair organizer, Andy White, in an interview to ANBA on Sunday (20).
According to White, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are becoming greater and greater players in the sector, with Saudi answering to 65% of projects in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 2012. The bloc includes both countries and the Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman.
“The number of pre-inscriptions [of visitors] we have received from these areas (Saudi Arabia and Qatar) has grown, and has been growing for the last three years,” said White. The Middle East is doing very well [in the building sector],” he added.
This does not mean that there is no business in Dubai, as there are also constructions in the emirate, but not at the same level as prior to the 2008 financial crisis. There are, according to him, no new megaprojects. White pointed out, however, that the city is still the main trade hub in the region, attracting businessmen from different countries.
At a moment in which the debt crisis in Europe affects the global economy, it would be expected that the fair should suffer negative reflexes, but, according to the executive, the opposite took place. With the European markets on the ebb, companies from the continent see in the Middle East an opportunity to sell their products.
“We have not been affected by the European crisis. In a bizarre way, it helped us, as people must export,” he said. “There are no works in the United Kingdom or Spain, for example, so companies must export, and many seek the Middle East,” he added.
In the region, investment covered by governments with money from the oil industry is used in the construction of schools, hospitals and housing projects, whose demand are on the rise.
He added that the number of exhibitors from countries like Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain, some of those most affected by the crisis, has risen. The countries with the greatest number of exhibitors are Italy, Germany and Turkey, with Turkish presence having doubled in comparison to last year, despite the domestic market in the country living a good moment.
Brazil is participating in the Big 5 once again with a pavilion organized by the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex), with companies in the field of porcellanato, marble and granite, decorative stones, bathroom metals and ceramics, pictures and decorative panels.
Innovation
DMG also studied the main interests of those visiting the fair and the result was: products, much more than services, and innovative products, environmentally sustainable and that are novel in the region. “The market is very competitive, so [those interested in selling] must show some differential,” he said.
In this respect, he pointed out that two areas of special interest for buyer are cooling, as it is hot all year round and cooling is constantly necessary, requiring great expense, so there is demand for more efficient equipment, and technology for water distribution and treatment, as the product is expensive in the arid region. As examples, White mentioned a system that collects shower and sink water, purifies it and makes it available for irrigation.
If buyers, on the one hand, are seeking the cheaper products, the fair organizers, according to the executive, are trying to show businessmen that, in the long run, cheap becomes expensive, and an item with higher added value, more expensive at the time of purchase, often generates economy.
For such, over the four days of the fair, 130 free seminars will be offered with the objective of presenting innovative and environmentally sustainable material. White added that Abu Dhabi emirate is already imposing a series of environmental demands on projects, and that Dubai should start in 2014. In the near future, Saudi Arabia should also start with these demands.
*Translated by Mark Ament
