Qatar is the third largest projects market in GCC


Qatar is the third largest projects market among the GCC countries behind Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to the Meed Insight projects forecast for the GCC countries.

Speaking on the upcoming projects in the country yesterday at the Meed 2013 Qatar Conference held at Grand Hyatt hotel, Ed James, head of Meed Insight, said that unlike other countries in the region where construction accounts for the major share of the projects, transportation takes the major share of projects in Qatar.

Speaking about the upcoming projects in Qatar, James said that all sectors in Qatar enjoyed exceptional growth in the last decade.

Transportation sector has the major projects in the country as a lot of infrastructure developments are done in connection with the upcoming football World Cup in 2022. There are $90bn worth of planned and announced projects still to be awarded. Transportation sector takes a lion’s share of leading projects in the country with the metro-rail, expressway and Doha Bay initiatives. In addition, many major projects also could be awarded this year.”

He added that in 2012, $14bn worth projects were announced.

James said that Qatar was expected to register 7-10% economic growth in 2013.

As for the major projects, he said: “The metro will be 358km in length and it is expected that $35bn will be needed to complete the whole project.

Similarly, Ashghal will be investing QR50bn for the drainage projects over next 5-7 years.”

James added that there will be a total of 221 projects related to drainage by Ashghal.

As for the top contractors and clients, James said that while the leading contractors in the country are IGC and Hyundai, Ashghal is the top client followed by Qatar Foundation, Qatar Petroleum and Qatari Diar.

According to him, the major construction activities in the coming years will be by Qatari Diar, Barwa, Dohaland.

“There will also be the construction of 12 stadiums and 240 hotels in connection with the 2022 Fifa World Cup. The hotels will be located with 20 kilometres of the stadiums,” he added.

James went on to mention that the GCC countries presented a largely positive picture in the number of projects for the coming years.

He said “Arab Spring has impacted the markets positively as many more infrastructural and construction activities have picked up in many of the countries.

Some of the GCC countries have pledged assistance to many of these countries, leading to various construction activities in the whole region and this can be a real boost.”

He also opined that oil, which is still the main stay of many of the countries in the region, was expected to remain high, which would further strengthen the construction and other sectors.