Saudi- Council of Engineers slams Housing Ministry

(MENAFN- Arab News) The Housing Ministry has failed to answer requests made by the Saudi Council of Engineers making cooperation with the ministry difficult at best officials at the council said.According to Mukhtar Al-Shaibani a member of the council's board of directors the Housing Ministry has a great responsibility to implement their residential projects. Al-Shaibani gave a 7 out of 10 to the ministry when it comes to efforts to implement current projects.Hoping that the Housing Ministry will rely more on international standards and not only the country's traditional ones Al-Shaibani stressed the importance of creating new integrated neighborhood housing projects such as those of the Defense Ministry and Saudi Aramco.The official referred to the issue during a meeting organized by the council in Riyadh to raise awareness about engineering challenges in housing construction.During the meeting the official pointed out that the council has identified over the past two years more than 30000 people in engineering positions who are employed without the necessary degrees and qualifications. He said 120000 engineers are currently enrolled with the council out of which 13000 of them are Saudis and 2000 female engineers.One of the main issues discussed during the meeting referred to the importance of educating citizens about the process of selecting their homes as well as means to obtain affordable housing for the population.Al-Shaibani thanked Municipal and Rural Affairs Minister Prince Mansour bin Miteb for sponsoring the first national project to raise awareness among citizens about proper standards for buildings and the right steps to purchasing their homes.This project is one of many offered by the council to help its citizens live in better dwellings said SCE spokesman Nasser Saif Al-Abdullatif. The awareness project includes a number of events and activities spread across various media platforms to benefit Saudi society as a whole.