The facilities management (FM) industry in the UAE remains upbeat with a projected value exceeding $10 billion by 2012 despite the current global financial crisis, said Wahid Attallah, chairman, Sungwon OBO, a member of Makateb Holding, the first office building operator company in the world. Leveraging the healthy growth prospects, Sungwon OBO announced that it aims to achieve a growth of between 15 percent to 20 percent within the next 3 years, pointing out that companies that provide core services are expected to withstand the downturn because of the strategic and critical importance of their services to the economy. The UAE's facilities management sector remains a popular destination among international investors, citing the newly minted partnership between Makateb and Sungwon Development, the pioneering facility management company in South Korea which is now the facilities management division of Makateb. “On a positive note, the financial crisis has actually helped improve the business value of Makateb as real estate companies and big-time developers are putting a premium on cost-efficient and high-quality maintenance and management solutions for their existing properties. Buildings, facilities and other properties need to be maintained and managed; considering the actual size of the property market in the UAE and across the region, there is more than enough cushion to prevent us from being negatively affected by the crisis,” Attallah said. Steve Woo Young Choi, vice chairman of Sungwon OBO, said: “Dubai and the rest of the UAE remain strong as a facilities management market mainly because of the country's enormous development activities in the past several years. Despite the slowdown in real estate development, there are already several existing properties and many more that are poised to be delivered within the next year or two, clearly representing a healthy growth potential for Sungwon OBO and the rest of the facilities management sector. This is the prime reason why we have been eager to invest in this market and partner with Makateb.” With up to 80 percent of the overall costs within a building's life cycle being attributed to operation, maintenance and management, developers and building owners are now optimizing business value of properties through the cost-effective building management solutions of facilities management providers.
