Saudi Arabia Has $750b Construction Projects in The Pipeline 

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) Saudi Arabia leads the way in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region construction industry with 750 billion of new projects in the pipeline, making up 31 percent of the entire regional market, Citigroup said in a new report.

As a whole, on a year-on-year basis, the value of GCC projects planned and underway crept up 2.5 percent to 1,906 billion.

Iraq, which is now looking to rebuild its balance sheet, remains the third largest market in the region with just under 315 billion of new projects. It is also showing signs of spending across segments, which could mean more opportunities for contractors.

In Kuwait, though the value of projects has grown 10 percent to almost 200 billion since the start of the year, the market generally is expected to be hampered in the coming months by domestic political tensions.

On the negative side, the report noted that the value of construction projects cancelled in MENA has risen by eight percent since the start of the year,reported the Saudi Gazette Monday.

However, the value of cancelled and delayed construction projects in the region remained largely unchanged at approximately 719 billion since January 2012, the lender s latest construction project tracker showed.

According to the study, more than half (57 percent) of these cancelled or delayed projects were in the UAE, with the value of such projects rising two percent since Citigroup s last report, published in January.

The story was significantly different in Saudi Arabia, where the value of cancelled and delayed developments pared by eight percent to 316 billion.