JEDDAH, 15 April 2005 — Jeddah Mayor Adel Faqeeh will open the annual Saudi Building and Interiors Exhibition & Symposium at International Exhibition & Convention Center at 5 p.m. on Sunday. The exhibition, Saudi Arabia’s 14th comprehensive showcase for the industry, will have the participation of 200 national and international companies.
Turkey, which held its solo exhibition on machines and machinery equipments for the second year in a row recently, is the biggest participant with 33 companies. Other exhibitors are from Bahrain, China, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Italy, Lebanon, Kuwait, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea and UAE.
Dozens of leading Saudi companies involved in the building and interiors trade and manufacturing of construction materials and equipments are among the prominent exhibitors.
Saudi Council of Engineers will conduct a symposium from Monday (April 18) to Thursday (April 21). Experts and specialists in the building and interiors sector will speak and present papers at various sessions during the five-day event.
The exhibition is being held at a time when the building sector is booming all over the Kingdom. The continuous process of repatriation of funds from abroad, especially after the Sept. 11 events in 2001 in the United States, has enabled local businessmen and investors to divert their funds to real estate, according to industry leaders. They also consider real estate as the most lucrative sector for investment, ‘as returns are high and quick,” one of them said.
The construction industry is the largest non-oil economic sector in the Kingdom. During 2005, the sector involving building and construction materials is expected to contribute in excess of $15 billion to the Kingdom’s economy.
The staging of interiors alongside building in this show has proven to be extremely successful over the years, as it has provided exhibitors with a broad spectrum of visitors, mainly comprising architects, engineers, designers, interior decorators, and decision makers, according to the organizer, Al-Harithy Company for Exhibitions Ltd., which has staged more than 300 trade exhibitions in the city across a wide range of industry sectors over the past 25 years. The exhibition will remain open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. up to April 21.