Sweden-headquartered Hifab, which established a regional presence in Saudi Arabia six years ago, is now looking at broadening its horizons in the region.

Towards this end, it has recently established an office in Abu Dhabi and is also eyeing the Qatari market.
Since its inception in Riyadh in 2001 as Hifab Middle East, the company has been pursuing its goal of providing professional project management services to private and governmental clients within the GCC states and has been active in the telecommunications as well as civil construction and environmental sectors in Saudi Arabia.
“We have been providing services to Saudi Telecommunications Company, Ericsson and Motorola,” says Ulf Blomdahl, manager business development, marketing and sales of Hifab AB. “We have also gained considerable experience in the region through our involvement in the gigantic oil storage caverns project in Saudi Arabia.”
Some of the projects it was involved in included expansion and upgrading of existing GSM network in Saudi Arabia with 2.8 million lines. The project, implemented between September 2001 and June 2003, was followed by a contract for Etisalat/Mobily for the installation of a part of the new kingdom wide network from October 2004 to September 2006.
“The project included rapid roll-out of a complete infrastructure in the Western region including Jeddah, Taif, Makkah as well as in Riyadh in the Central Province, involving a total of 563 new sites and the introduction of 3G,” he says.
Hifab was also engaged on a power plant project for Yamama Cement in Riyadh. The Siemens project entailed the installation of gas turbines including the construction of foundations for the turbines, as well as the construction of an administration building, electrical control building, roads and infrastructure.
“Hifab was responsible for the civil work management, electrical and mechanical inspections, inspection of the fire detection systems, design review, documentation/quality control,” he says.
 “Now that much of the telecommunications infrastructure is in place in Saudi Arabia, we have turned our focus to Abu Dhabi where we opened an office last summer,” says Blomdahl.
In Abu Dhabi, Hifab is bidding for a number of infrastructure and building projects.
To further strengthen its position in the GCC market, Hifab has joined hands with Projacs “in a bid to capitalise on the company’s local expertise”, according to Blomdahl.
Hifab employs around 50 staff in the region, in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran and Abu Dhabi. The Swedish company provides qualified project management services such as project management, planning management, construction and installation management, project administration, procurement, quality and environmental control and inspection, in the Middle East region.
Founded in 1947, Hifab operates as an independent project manager and is the leading project management company in Sweden with its history rooted in the construction industry. It entered the international market during the 1970s, and diversified into new sectors such as energy, environmental engineering, IT and telecommunications in the 1990s.
Hifab manages infrastructure and building projects, construction management, installation and environmental management and know-how as well as property development.
“Hifab acts as professional independent project managers in relation to designers, contractors and suppliers. We also work as advisors and project managers in donor-financed development cooperation programmes and commercial projects,” Blomdahl says.
Hifab is currently managing development cooperation projects in around 20 countries, most of which are within the infrastructure, rural development, environment, mining, geological investigation, procurement, institutional development and social development sectors.
“Hifab has gained experience in more than 70 countries over 40 years and hence is used to work in different cultures with mixed nationality staff, and with different international procurement standards and contract conditions. We provide full set-ups or individual experts to fill certain functions in existing project organisations. We work together with the client towards a common goal and our role is to be a proactive manager who runs and coordinates the project from concept to completion,” he adds.
Last year alone, it completed almost 1,500 large and small projects.
Hifab employs some 400 experts – including some 50 environmental specialists – and 600 national professionals. It works in accordance with certified (ISO 9001 and ISO 14001) management systems.
Further information about the company can be obtained from www.hifab.se.