Mr. Riad Kamal
The construction and real estate markets in Dubai in 2009; continued to exhibit signs of sluggishness. Arabtec tackled these issues by maintaining close and continuous client interactions as they pertained to payment terms and completion schedules, and yet still backing our commitment to the UAE and our clients.
To compensate for the slowdown in business in Dubai, Arabtec has successfully entered the Saudi Arabian and Qatari markets. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have very positive market dynamics for Arabtec Holding; it allows us to build on our expertise in the residential and commercial space with increasing opportunities to address a drive towards infrastructure opportunities. The Saudi market boasts a buoyant economy induced by a recent stabilization of the oil price thus assuring excess surplus of funds. Moreover, the modernization needs of the oil and gas sector alone with a young growing population needing ever increasing residential, infrastructural and commercial real estate development means immediate and tangible opportunities for Arabtec. Arabtec was awarded several projects in the second half of 2009 with an approximate contract value of AED 4.2 billion. We continue to work with our partners to source new projects and increase our execution capabilities in Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and believe that these markets will be our larger markets in the coming years.
In addition to the breakthrough in the Saudi Arabian and Qatari markets, we are cognizant of our need to diversify geographically and besides Russia, Jordan, Pakistan and Syria we are currently in the process of exploring and tendering for numerous opportunities in Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Angola and Turkmenistan. We are also expanding our infrastructure works capabilities predominantly in line with the increased demand of work in this sub-sector caused by the regional macro-economic factors and the related increased governmental spending.
We still strongly believe in the UAE and GCC markets in particular and the vast Arab market in general and our aim is to maintain our position as one of the leading construction companies in the region.