Saudi Arabia’s largest construction show is set to open its doors next month (October 10-14) in Riyadh, offering the construction industry professional in the region the opportunity to see first-hand the latest products and services from around 500 exhibitors coming from around the world.

To be held at the Riyadh Exhibition Centre, the forthcoming SaudiBuild 2004 exhibition –  the 16th in the series of international building, construction technology and building materials shows in Riyadh – has attracted participation from many international as well as Saudi and other GCC manufacturers and distributors, says a spokesman for the organiser Riyadh Exhibitions Company (REC). 
The event has already drawn in a total of 150 Saudi companies as well as foreign firms coming from 15 nations around the globe. These include national pavilions from six countries –  Turkey, Korea, China, India, UAE and Italy.  The Turkish pavilion is the largest covering a total of 400 sq m and will have on display the products and services of some 20 companies, the UAE pavilion will showcase the products of 10 companies and is the second largest with a total space of 300 sq m. The Chinese contingent includes 17 companies, while other pavilions will host nine Indian, 11 Korean and 24 Italian companies respectively.
Other countries represented at SaudiBuild include Germany, Iran, Bahrain, Malaysia, Brazil, Taiwan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
“SaudiBuild has been proven to be among the most important construction events for the region and the demand for space has been very high,” says the REC spokesman.
“For years, SaudiBuild has been a platform for the latest equipment, machinery and technology and a meeting point for the main foreign companies in the field and the country’s leading architects, contractors and decision-makers.” The spokesman points out. “Every year the show attracts tens of thousands of visitors.
Last year’s event drew in a total of 24,197 visitors from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Sudan, Switzerland, Germany, and India. The visitors came to see the products and services of some 860 participants including 331 direct exhibitors (189 locals and 142 international). These companies came from 20 countries including national pavilions erected by Austria, China, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Spain, Italy, Turkey and the UAE as well as individual participants from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Philippines, Qatar and Taiwan.
Last year’s event received praise from a number of professionals including the economic adviser-foreign trade VDMA (Germany) who, according to the organiser, said: “The Saudi construction market is very promising for German manufacturers and their products.  This is a developing market with potentials to grow more in the next four to five years.  We have a very good chance of doing business in the Kingdom and SaudiBuild is helping us a lot.”
Said Lukas Hlavaty of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic: “The Saudi market is promising for Czech companies. SaudiBuild is an excellent opportunity for us to expand the present business contacts and explore new opportunities.”
“SaudiBuild 2003 received the industry’s highest international recognition, the Union de Foires Internationales (UFI) accreditation,” the spokesman points out. “The UFI symbol reflects the highest international standards of the show and the venue as well.”
Also being held concurrently with SaudiBuild is SaudiStone 2004, the seventh in the series of international exhibitions for stone, marble and granite held annually in Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia, the largest construction market in the Middle East, is seeing a rapid population growth and the high national income based on oil and gas revenues will propel the industry for years to come, the spokesman says.
”The Kingdom’s public sector aims at expanding the number of schools, hospitals, industrial cities, roads, as well as electrical generation and water treatment plants. The private sector has also become a dominant force in the industry, spending many billions of riyals a year on offices, hotels, shopping malls and housing units,” he says.
The enormous scale of Saudi construction in general, and the building boom in Riyadh and the central region in particular, have made the SaudiBuild exhibition the largest international construction trade show in the Kingdom, the spokesman adds.
Abdul Kareem Al Muheir, a spokesman for leading Saudi ceramics and sanitary ware manufacturer Saudi Ceramic Company endorses this view: “The Saudi construction sector is a huge market. There are numerous ongoing and planned projects in the Kingdom.  The potential for selling our products is huge but to sell them we must first show them and SaudiBuild is the best place to do that.”
Over the last five years construction investments in Saudi Arabia amounted to some SR75 billion ($20 billion) annually, about 60 per cent coming from the public sector, 40 per cent from the private sector. As investments remain on the rise, Saudi Arabia will maintain its position of being the largest construction market in the Middle East, he concludes.
The show’s exhibits profile is grouped into: building materials; building equipment; architectural finishing products; security and safety systems; stone, marble and granite products; stone treatment and handling; construction tools and technology; electrical supplies and equipment; engineering services; environmental technology; infrastructure materials; indoor and outdoor lighting; power generation and controls; air-conditioning and heating; water technology; maintenance services and equipment; heavy construction equipment; landscape and hardscape; and municipal services.