Eng. Thabet Al-Sawyeed, Governor, Saudi Contractors Authority, highlighted the growing importance and role of digitalisation in construction during his opening speech at the Construction Technology Festival 2022, saying that technology will disrupt the sector just as it has for other industries.
Speaking in Dubai, UAE to an audience of industry professionals, he said that within Saudi Arabia, the construction and contractor industry is the second largest non-oil sector, contributing almost 6% of the kingdom’s GDP. Its total annual market size is almost SR255bn, with about 175,000 companies working in the sector, making it a significant employer – 2.8 million people work in the industry.
“Technology has disrupted every business that we are aware of as of today. And this disruption [comes] with a very high positive value to these industries. Our sector is not any different from these other industries that were disrupted by technologies,” said Al-Sawyeed. Drones, modular building, big data will have a “huge value” for the industry, he said.
