DOHA - Resources such as materials, machinery and manpower will all come under pressure due to the hectic pace of construction activity going on in the country.
Jamal Ali, Qatar area manager for the $416m UK-based Hyder Consulting, an engineering, environmental, planning and management consultancy, told The Peninsula: yesterday: "The level of construction activities both in Qatar and regionally is at record levels and this will inevitably put pressure on available resources such as manpower, machinery and material."
Although Qatar and the GCC as a whole are seen as a major construction site, Ali said: "Also it should be recognised that development in various forms is taking place in areas such as China, India and the former East European nations which is adding to the constraint. The way to deal with this is to anticipate the market movement and scale of development."
Citing Hyder Consulting as an example, he said in the Middle East, the company's workforce has increased from 450 in 2002 to 1,200 this year. "As for project delays or (cost) overruns, the government here takes positive steps in addressing any shortfalls in materials like expanding the cement and steel factories and encouraging the labour force from neighbouring countries for employment (in Qatar)."
Ali said there was a need to shore up the transportation network here. While appreciating the development of a new airport, water, sewage network, schools and hospitals, he said: "Qatar needs a public/private transport system, for example light rail, to address the ever-increasing need in transporting people within the major cities with less reliance on personal transport."
The development work in the region now accounts for a sizeable 30 per cent of Hyder Consulting's international revenues. The UAE accounts for a whopping 75 per cent of revenues in the Middle East with the balance evenly split between Qatar and Bahrain, he said. Qatar accounts for 15 per cent of GCC income for the firm, a figure that Ali feels should rise to 30 per cent due to development work taking place here.
While working in coordination with local and regional firms here, Ali said the Gulf has become an attractive market for international consultancies to set up offices here.
Hyder Consulting is involved in projects in Qatar such as the Museum of Islamic Art, primary infrastructure and a sewage treatment plant at the Lusail Development, Doha Convention Centre and Tower, Dubai Tower, Doha North and West sewage treatment plants, the Burwat Al Khor Development, the new Doha Bank headquarters and infrastructure work in Bani Hajir North.
© The Peninsula 2007
