Arabtec Holding’s chief financier has said that prospects for contractors, looking for opportunities in the construction market, were best in gas and oil producing regions such as Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. 

Ziad Makhzoumi dismissed the idea that construction was only about building high rises or hotels and said that increasing populations in all of these regions meant that both hard and soft infrastructure was required.   

Makhzoumi distinguished the growth of Dubai with other neighbouring countries and Emirates, saying that it ‘grew very quickly’ and that ‘in some ways’ Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were still ‘behind’. 

According to Makhzoumi, studies of Saudi Arabia alone have shown that the country will need about $2.4 trilliion worth of ‘infrastructure work’ in the years ahead. 

Arabtec is currently commissioned to work on the construction of Saudi Arabia’s Princess Noura Women’s University, which is expected to cover 8 million m² and have its very own light railway.