Saudi's contracting sector encompasses 165,000 companies, with $5.33bln worth of projects

Riyadh: President of the Saudi Contractors Authority Zakaria Al-Abdul Qader revealed that 165,000 companies operate in the contracting sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ranging from small, to medium, and large enterprises.

This came at an event organized by the Federation of Saudi Chambers, hosting the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Contractors Authority, Eng. Zakaria bin Abdul Rahman Al Abdul Qader, and Secretary-General of the Authority, Eng. Thabet bin Mubarak Al Suwaid, to discuss prospects for cooperation and the Authority's initiatives and services to organize and develop the contracting sector.

Al-Abd al-Qader indicated that the number of workers in the contracting sector has reached 3 million workers from various professions, adding that many jobs have been localized and work is underway with the legislatures to localize more.

The head of the Federation of Saudi Chambers' national contracting committee, Hamad Al-Hammad, explained that the value of projects in the contracting sector during the past 5 years amounted to SR20 trillion, which reflects the importance of the sector, its vitality, and its developmental role, adding that the contracting sector is yet to fully recover from the repercussion of the Corona pandemic, however, the sector is on moving a good upward path, stressing that the localization of Saudis in this sector is constantly growing.

The event witnessed the signing of an agreement between the Federation of Saudi Chambers and the Saudi Contractors Authority, signed by the Secretary-General of the Federation, Hussein Al-Abdul Qader, and the Secretary-General of the Authority, Eng. Thabet bin Mubarak Al-Suwaid, and stipulates expanding the scope of cooperation between the two sides, laying the foundations and standards for organizing and developing the sector, activating relevant regulations and decisions, enabling national facilities to undertake building and construction projects, improving their working conditions, providing technical advice to companies, identifying challenges and obstacles, providing proposals and solutions, and enhancing the participation of sector facilities in construction programs per the Kingdom’s 2030 vision.