"The graduates possess intellectual capacity, knowledge and culture. They possess physical well-being and strong morals. Thus, they should be prepared to lead our nation to greater heights," Alaquil said in an interview with Arab News.
About girls' education, Alaquil said: "As a citizen of Saudi Arabia, I can openly admit that we have come a long way in the development of girls' education. Education can blossom them into successful young women as we can see today the girls coming out of our schools, colleges and universities. Lighting the future of our country and providing jobs for our new graduates should be our responsibility, as the fate of the nation will depend on how and what we do today. We'll succeed only when our girls are also well educated and equipped with knowledge to become masters of their career, possessed with strong morals and values."
The challenges that the Kingdom faces today will continue to increase, so one way of tackling them is to increase the number of scholarships and offer them opportunities to pursue education, and encourage them to go for higher education and jobs. "Education and integrity are like the Siamese twins of success. You cannot record a sustainable success without knowledge and sound education; we need to maintain and strengthen our core values, and abide by the strong ethics and quality of education for girls that we can see at Effat University and Dar Al-Hekma College," Alaquil said.
Many universities have developed a code of ethics that their students are expected to follow. Most important is "integrity" which is an internal system of principles that guide our behavior and the rewards are vast. Integrity is a choice rather than an obligation. Integrity cannot be forced by outside sources; it conveys a sense of strength. When we act with integrity, we do what is right even when no one is watching, Alaquil said. Students of integrity are guided by a set of principles that empowers them to work consistently to achieve higher standards. As it is said, "If you have integrity, nothing else matters, and if you don't have integrity, nothing else matters."
This is where we must emphasize the importance of education. "In Saudi Arabia we are blessed with wealth, and with this wealth we must give back to our community by providing educational scholarships, for example, to enhance the opportunity for those who cannot financially afford it. Many large corporations in the Middle East are contributing to this cause, and through this we are enriching the lives of many and I am proud that CPC is among those companies," he added.
Alaquil, a member of the construction and human resources committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, also put emphasis on the importance of company contributions to national education in Saudi Arabia, especially in the light of the government's efforts to promote science, education and research with the aim of transforming the Kingdom into a cultural community in the coming years.
In the Middle East in general and Saudi Arabia in particular, organizations and corporations are facing various business challenges, one of them being the difficulty in attracting talent and retaining quality employees, the lack of employee loyalty, the increased competition of foreign workers and the shortage of skilled local candidates. What Saudi universities need to focus on is how to be better in encouraging students to study and select the proper objectives and careers that are in need, he said.
Alaquil said CPC is maintaining the Saudization percentage approved by the government. Young Saudis are trained in the factories and other jobs. He said CPC recently signed an agreement with the Human Resources Development Fund, Makkah branch, to train and recruit 1,490 young Saudis at its factories in the Kingdom.
According to him, this is a challenging time for the construction industry in Saudi Arabia due to the heavy demand for housing units; 175,000 units are required per year for the next 10 years. It will generate demand for construction materials and the companies will require logistic support to fulfill these requirements.
He described CPC, an industrial arm of the Saudi Binladin Group, as "One-Stop-Shop Toward Building the Future" by providing a full range of products and services that covers over 85 percent of any major construction project requirements. The concept of one-stop-shop is to put all factories in one industrial park where we allow developers and contractors to contact one source for all their needs. "Since its establishment in 2005, CPC has risen to the challenge by consolidating 27 limited liability companies, which provide their clients exactly what they require," Alaquil said.
One of CPC's major investments is the Bahra Industrial Complex with an area of more than 1.7 million square meters for its industrial complex site, establishing major factories for the supply of various construction materials. In Bahra, CPC owns a company called Bahra Precast Co., which was set up to build the segments required for the Jamarat Bridge, and is able to manufacture all the requirements of concrete bridges and panels for railway projects.
In addition, within the parameters of this industrial complex, there are additional factories manufacturing steel, aluminum, electrical cables and rental equipment. With adhesives, marble and granite, finishing, furnishing, decorating and wood factory to be added soon, all to support its first industrial park in Jeddah.
There are already three CPC Industrial parks in Riyadh, Jeddah and Bahra. Due to heavy demand for construction material in Dammam, work has already started at the 500,000 square meters of land for a fourth industrial park, which will be operational by 2012. "We have plans for Madinah as well. The focus will be on Knowledge Economic City and expansion of the Holy Mosque," he added.
Despite the enormous size of the Kingdom's market and availability of demand, CPC's ambitions have gone far beyond the boundaries of this market. The first CPC investment outside the Kingdom was in Adra, the industrial zone in Damascus, where the company bought a property and built the first out of the Kingdom industrial park for its factories on a total area of 515,000 square meters.
"Our investments in Syria are estimated at $110 million. After the inauguration of the CPC industrial complex in that country it is now possible for us to export to neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq " he said.
Another major investment is the industrial complex on a land measuring 1.5 million square meters at the city of "6th of October" in Egypt. CPC has been given full support by the Egyptian government and "we're able to develop infrastructure for the water network, sanitary drainage system, electrical and telephone networks, roads and plantations."
When asked about the impact of the recent turmoil in Egypt on the CPC industrial complex, Alaquil said: "It wasn't affected and it is secured." The Egyptian Investment Authority is approaching us to purchase another property, he said.
The Algerian government is also interested in similar projects. "We are planning to develop a concept similar to the one in Egypt on two million square meters of land, which will also help reduce the rate of unemployment and support the Algerian economy," Alaquil said.
The company has acquired an area of 300,000 square meters to construct a CPC industrial park in Abu Dhabi, which consists of pre-cast, steel and other construction products factories.
The company is also targeting India and is in the process of setting up CPC India. CPC has a joint venture with India's Maytas Infrastructure, he said.
Regarded as one of the fastest-growing companies in the Kingdom, the success of CPC, which has won various accolades for its achievements, emphasizes that its one-stop-shop for building the future is indeed the foundation of its success.
