DAMMAM – Abdul Rahim Naqi, Secretary General of the Federation of Gulf Cooperation Council Chambers (FGCCC), on Wednesday urged contracting firms in the GCC states to form mergers in order to be competitive. Speaking to reporters after attending the annual Gulf Construction Conference at the Gulf Hotel's Conventions and Conferences Centre here on Tuesday, he said that merger is inevitable to withstand the stiff competition faced by the GCC contracting firms from multinational companies, which are keen on having a major chunk of the ongoing construction boom in most of the GCC states. Earlier, addressing the conference under the theme “Challenges and Future Opportunities in the Construction Sector”, Naqi urged Bahraini companies to invest in the highly promising Saudi market. Naqi said the GCC contracting sector witnessed an annual growth of 22 percent, reaching $137 billion during the current year. He attributed the positive trends in the GCC construction market to the growth in the gross domestic product (GDP) of the GCC states, ranging between five and six percent. “It is expected that the volume of the Gulf GDP would hit $3.6 trillion by the year 2016 against $2.4 billion in 2012. This will be coupled with the rapid growth of population, remarkable development in the infrastructure projects, huge demand for housing, and development of service sector,” he said at the conference which concluded on Wednesday. Naqi said that the Gulf government sector will become the first and foremost engine for contracts and construction projects in the GCC states, winning major share of projects, especially infrastructure and service projects such as schools, hospitals, and houses.
The two-day event was organized by the Bahrain Contractors Association (BCA) in association with the Oregon Consultants Group. BCA Chairman Ibrahim Youssef said that the conference focused on the latest developments in the building and construction sector in the GCC countries. He called for stepping up efforts for the merger of companies working in the construction and contracting sectors so that they can withstand stiff competitions from the multinational companies. The conference was held under the patronage of Bahrain's Labor Minister Jameel Humaidan. — SG
