Could The Big 5 Exhibition rejuvenate the construction industry?

Construction in Dubai

The Middle East is renowned for having one of the world's strongest construction sectors, but like many others, it has suffered setbacks in the face of the economic downturn, with hundreds of projects being cancelled or postponed. However The Big 5, the leading international building and construction show, could change all of that.

The conference, scheduled to take place at the leading international building and construction show at the end of November, is set to be 15 percent bigger than last year and see attendees from over 70 countries.

The show, which is almost sold out, with exhibitors from all over the world including Emirates Steel Industries, RAK Ceramics and Exeed Industries from the UAE, French Euroslot, Climatech and Dectron from Canada, Turkish based Tekmar marble, Tongby Control Technology from China, Germany's Putzmeister Mörtelmaschinen and the Lapesa Grupo from Zaragoza, Spain.

It is hoped that the exhibition will provide the opportunity for the entire industry sector to battle the turn down and get projects underway... primarily in the Middle East. Paula Al Chami, show Director for The Big 5 is confident that the Middle East construction sector will continue to prosper and the exhibition is the perfect opportunity to showcase that.

"The Big 5 exhibition is somewhat of a barometer for the construction industry and we are extremely positive that business is starting to stabilise. We seem to be bucking the trend of some other trade shows, which has been reflected in the increased floor space, and the right level of industry people signing up," she said.

The Big Exhibition is the largest event of its kind in the Middle East, and provides a fantastic networking opportunity for architects, engineers, contractors and developers from the public and private sectors.

Despite projects being cancelled, the region's construction sector is still doing better than many others. Total value of projects in the pipeline are estimated to total US$3.1 trillion, with the UAE leading the project market, accounting for 42 percent of the total project value. Meanwhile, the value of projects in Bahrain has more than doubled to almost US$68 billion and those in Qatar have increased by 71 percent in the last year.

Industry experts have attributed this to region being a perfect gateway for the Indian sub-continent and Asia and is in a strong position to provide access to the two regions with the highest expected construction growth in the next two years.

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