sustainable industries throughout the Middle East countries will help make sectors such as construction more robust and resilient, industry experts who will be participating in the upcoming CityBuild Construction Summit 2011 in Abu Dhabi said. They said that despite new threats posed by political unrest and a distinct lack of robust business continuity plans in place to provide protection in a high-risk market, the Middle East construction industry has great potential for sustained growth. In addition to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which both present the biggest opportunities, India is seen as a prime market for growth, while Kuwait and the Emirates of Ajman and Fujairah in the UAE, also have significant potential. The white paper "Rebuilding the Middle East" which examines the opportunities and challenges facing the construction industry in the Middle East in the wake of economic and political turmoil, the energy, infrastructure and healthcare sectors are singled out for presenting the most lucrative business opportunities. Published by Informa Exhibitions, organizers of CityBuild Abu Dhabi, the Middle East's premier event for construction products, the report underlines an urgent need for more nationals to be brought into the industry. The report said the construction business needs to be less dependent on expatriate workforces, and also must look towards new markets to find business, rather than rely too heavily on markets it knows. In terms of business continuity and reactions to civil crises, Jim Drysdale, director MENEA, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), said it is typically the expatriate population which leaves first, making it "absolutely vital for all these local economies that the number of nationals and the number of locals involved increases in professional services." Stephen Lines, Gulf ambassador with the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), said "that means going back to education, giving the local population opportunities. It is a key priority for us to get more Emiratis, more Qataris, more Egyptians involved and not relying on expatriates who provided a key resource at one stage, but who typically move on with the market." He added that "bringing locals into the marketplace and training them in the way forward with best practice methodology is what we should all be trying to do. We have to go into the universities and colleges and start to develop from there." The white paper noted that Middle East countries, most of which have strong and stable economic and social infrastructures, still have a lot to offer to the ongoing development of the construction industry. One of the industry's most important roles now is rebuilding the Middle East brand, countering the negative perception of the region to the world, and capitalizing on the existing opportunities. CityBuild Abu Dhabi and the CityBuild Construction Summit are co-located with Cityscape Abu Dhabi and the Malaysia Services Exhibition (MSE) taking place on April 17-20 at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.
