JEDDAH, 20 December 2004 — An exhibition and conference on Saudi real estate development and investment opened at Jeddah Hilton last night, with nearly a dozen national and overseas companies showcasing exhaustive information on their contribution and future role in shaping the sector. Prince Abdullah ibn Fahd Al-Saud, deputy governor for security affairs, Makkah Region, formally inaugurated the event that will feature a conference and workshops on related subjects on the sidelines of the exhibition that ends on Thursday. Giving presentations at the conference will be Rikaz Development Company’s Vahid Mehrinfar, Dr. Hannah Alasam and Nuha Hussain of UK Property Management on the UK real estate and health care opportunities and investments, and Bally Chohan, CEO of UK Property investment on the UK and European real estate high yielding opportunities. Businessmen and investors who attended the opening session said the event was appropriately timed since there is a boom in real estate. “Also, investors have been looking for avenues of investment with the repatriation of their funds from overseas locations and real estate offers a lucrative avenue,” Saad Abdulkarim, who runs a real estate business, told Arab News. The event is being organized by the Jeddah-based Trade Exhibitions & Conferences Ltd. (Trade-X Arabia) with the cooperation of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce & Industry and the Saudi Real Estate Committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry. “Design and engineering consultants, marketing agencies and property developers are among those prominently taking part in the expo,” Trade-X Arabia Chief Executive Officer Adel A. Shakoor said.
