The Committee of Building and Construction (CBC) at Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry announced recently that it will launch its first forum on building and construction in Jeddah. Khalaf Hawsan Al-Otaibi, Chairman of the Committee, said that CBC will participate in the Building and Decoration Exhibition to be held in March in Jeddah. He said more emphasis will be given to the importance of the sector in economic activities and how it can help in creating job opportunities, meeting the increasing demand of residential units and reducing prices. “This sector ranks second in the national economy, following the oil sector. It contributes SR55 billion to the Gross Domestic Product. Not only that, there are also many indications that clearly manifest the role of this sector in the national economy. One is that the total assets of the sector have reached SR154.4 billion,” Al-Otaibi said. The sector suffers from a shortage of Saudi labor, lack of technical expertise to implement projects, as well as absence of regulations, he said. These factors delay projects and the construction movement in one of the biggest markets of the Middle East, Al-Otaibi added. Public spending on infrastructure projects will attract foreign investors and encourage them to enter into partnerships with local investors to benefit from one of the markets that has high growth potential, he said. “The construction sector is very important for current development projects being implemented all over the Kingdom. In the first four years of the eight-year development plan, the growth rate of this sector reached 4.9 percent. It is a vital sector and provides for safe investments with few risks,” Al-Otaibi said. The volume of investment in the Saudi market will exceed SR82 billion in the next three years and it is expected that the volume of investments in constructing new buildings will reach SR484 billion in 2010, he said. “This sector will see unprecedented boom in the next few years,” Al-Otaibi added. __
