Saturday, 24 June 2006
Building on new-found confidence?
by
Rupert Cornford ITP Business
Highlights:
A recent report on Kuwait labelled this oil-rich Gulf country as ‘emerging’. With the economy slowly waking up from the jitters of nearly 15 years’ of tension with Iraq following the 1990 invasion, the country is now said to be experiencing rapid growth after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.
Added to the fact that Kuwait sits on 10% of the world’s proven oil reserves and the government is looking more and more at inward investment, a recipe for an economic explosion certainly looks to be cooking up.
So what will this mean for the construction industry? “I think you are going to see more private money involved in government projects,” says de Lange. “Hopefully things will move a little faster.”
Another big test for Kuwait will be the planned development of a new town in Subiya, northern Kuwait. Named the City of Silk or Madinat Al Hareer, a new town for 500,000 residents has been in the pipeline for decades.
“Planners have dreams and targets, and the thing about Subiya — if and when it’s built — is that it will be the first time that a town will be established that will be totally independent of Kuwait City,” says de Lange. “So psychologically it’s a huge quantum leap.
“All the development in Kuwait so far is physically and emotionally linked to Kuwait City. Even Al Khiran [Pearl City — a residential development close to the Saudi Arabia border] down in the south is at the end of the motorway that drives into the city,” continues de Lange.
“There has been a natural reluctance for this quantum leap to start a completely new city.”
But this reluctance may be showing signs of disappearing. According to Atkins, approval for a 1km-high Burj-beating tower on the development has been endorsed by the powers that be in the Kuwaiti government.
“We’re just waiting on final approval and for a planning committee to be formally set up to front the project,” said Mike Otlet, director and head of structures, Atkins. “We’re confident we’ll get final approval from the Kuwaiti government. It’s a long process because at the moment nobody can buy land or accommodation unless they’re a Kuwaiti resident. So the parliamentary rules on development will need to be changed.”
So on the face of it, with plans to develop world-record breaking towers, the confidence of the Kuwait government in its construction industry seems to moving in the right direction.
But Al-Jaouni is not so sure. “I have very little information, but it may not fly,” he says of the Subiya project. “First of all, why would you want to go 1km tall? For an area that is completely undeveloped, it is premature.
“In terms of master planning, Subiya Town has been on the drawing board since 1983 — it was revised in 1986/87 and now it is coming back to life, but it could take another 20 years to be developed,” he adds.
Al-Jaouni goes on to say that there is an increasing demand for residential housing, and that he could see a town in Subiya being developed to some extent. “There is a demand for housing projects, specifically private housing developments, and we are starting to see satellite housing towns all over the country, especially on the borders for security reasons.”
But whether the City of Silk is born into a 500,000-strong city or a smaller satellite town, the cogs that are pushing this development forward have definitely started to turn again.
So with all the factors in place for the construction industry to up the ante and genuinely compete with its powerful GCC neighbours, Kuwait is showing the signs of wanting to fully emerge from the shade and develop to its maximum potential.
With the growth of hungry private investors, a renewed sense of confidence in the government and a traditionally reliable construction industry, Kuwait is looking to find its feet, benefit from the reconstruction of Iraq and define its own controlled construction explosion that will see it learn from the lessons of the UAE and Qatar, all the while keeping its feet firmly on the ground.
“Kuwait was supposed to be what Dubai is now, but the occupation stopped many projects,” says Akil A Lookman, senior architect and project manager, Gulf Consult.