Saudi Arabia's contracting sector boasts a total of 165,000 companies, ranging from small, to medium, and large enterprises, reported SPA, citing a top industry official.

 

The total number of workers entering the contracting industry from various professions has surged to 3 million, stated Engineer Zakaria bin Abdul Rahman Al Abdul Qader, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Contractors Authority.

 

Al Qader was speaking at an event organised by the Federation of Saudi Chambers to discuss the prospects for cooperation and the authority's initiatives and services to organise and develop the contracting sector. It was also attended by Secretary-General of the Authority Engineer Thabet bin Mubarak Al Suwaid.

 

Many jobs have been localised and work is underway with the legislatures to localise more, he added.

 

The event witnessed the signing of an agreement between the Federation of Saudi Chambers and Saudi Contractors Authority, signed by the Secretary-General of the Federation, Hussein Al Abdul Qader, and Engineer Al Suwaid, that stipulates expanding the scope of co-operation between the two sides, laying the foundations and standards for organizing and developing the sector, said the SPA report.

 

The agreement stressed upon 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.

 

The head of the Federation of Saudi Chambers' national contracting committee, Hamad Al-Hammad, said the value of projects in the contracting sector during the past 5 years surged to SR20 trillion, thus reflecting the importance of the sector, its vitality, and its developmental role.

 

According to him, the contracting sector was yet to fully recover from the repercussion of Covid-19 pandemic.

 

However, the sector is on a good upward trajectory, he stated, adding that the localization of Saudis in this sector is constantly growing.