Facilities Management headed for major Middle East growth

Fuelled by the recent construction boom of the last few years, the Facilities Management industry is currently estimated to be worth $4.8bn in both hard and soft services a year across the GCC.

With an increasing amount of new build developments coming onto the market across the region, and the increasing trend in the region for building owners to outsource their facilities management needs, the regional Facilities Management industry is set to continue to grow and outstrip the construction industry.

Commercial opportunities for the region's facilities management industry are increasingly available in the real estate, transport infrastructure, hospitality and government services sectors. With large scale leisure developments such as Dubai Sports City and mixed use developments such as Emaar's Economic City in Saudi Arabia nearing completion, new and diversified challenges are facing the region's Facilities Management professionals across the region.

MEED's Middle East Facilities Management conference 2009, supported by Pacific Controls, takes place from the 20th January to 21st January at the Park Hyatt, Dubai. This is a must-attend event for all facilities management professionals and demonstrates MEED's clear ability in keeping their 'finger on the pulse' of key industry topics relevant for the business climate.

Edmund O'Sullivan, Chairman MEED Events, said:

"This event is a first for our comprehensive event portfolio. We have added such a niche topic because of its increasing importance to an organisation's success in streamlining operations, systems and procedures that affect bottom line. Middle East Facilities Management 2009 will outline the latest procedures and strategies within the industry and will be an ideal opportunity to keep abreast of industry developments, build business relations and network with key industry personnel."

Highlights of the Middle East Facilities Management 2009 event will include presentations from senior level industry experts such as Mick Dalton Senior Director, Property Management Emaar; Dr. Shetha Al-Zubaidi, Developments Director, Tameer Holding Investments; Adib Moubadder, Director of Facilities Union Properties and Bill Heath, MD MACE Macro International, who will be discussing ways to explore new markets for facilities management.

Speaking about the upcoming event Mike Cairney, Director EC Harris International Ltd said, "Facilities Management is a rapidly growing industry in the region and is an industry that is set to continue to expand across the region in the near future. As investors and building owners are looking to maximise value and save on long term costs the traditional concepts and methods of facilities management prevalent in the region are being challenged and new opportunities are available for companies to take on new markets and provide more advanced services."

Representatives from Emaar Properties and Davis Langdon will be hosting pre conference Masterclasses on 'Integrating sustainable Facilities Management into projects' and 'Calculating the risks - service charges' on Monday 19th January.

O'Sullivan concluded, "Within this fast growing professional discipline, facilities managers have extensive responsibilities for providing, maintaining and developing myriad services. Successful organisations will, in future, approach facilities management as an integral part of their strategic plan and organisations that treat facilities management as a 'commodity overhead' will find themselves at a significant strategic disadvantage."