Mega Projects Enhance Growth of Saudi Arabia’s Facilities Management

NEOM (Photo: Saudi PIF)
NEOM (Photo: Saudi PIF)
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Mega Projects Enhance Growth of Saudi Arabia’s Facilities Management

NEOM (Photo: Saudi PIF)
NEOM (Photo: Saudi PIF)

Mega Saudi projects have contributed to increasing the volume of facilities management investments, which are expected to exceed $60 billion during 2030.
Facilities management is defined as a comprehensive field that brings together the workplace (buildings and facilities), its workforce, and system operations.
It aims to ensure smooth workflow, improve the efficiency of using facilities, and create a safe and comfortable work environment.
The sector covers a wide range of services, including hard services such as mechanical and electrical maintenance, fire safety, and maintenance of building systems and equipment, and soft services such as cleaning, recycling, pest and infection control, floor maintenance and waste disposal.
An electronic platform was launched in 2023 to develop the sector.
In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi Facilities Management Association, Eng. Ayed Al-Qahtani, said that the volume of the sector is expected to reach $60 billion in 2030, with a 13.5 percent growth rate until the end of the decade.
Total government spending on the infrastructure and public services sector in the Saudi budget for 2023 amounted to about SAR 190 billion ($50.6 billion), of which facilities management constitutes a large part, according to Al-Qahtani.

According to MordorIntelligence’s expectations, the size of the facilities management market in Saudi Arabia will reach $49.6 billion by 2029, driven by many factors, including government investments in infrastructure projects.
For its part, P&S Intelligence believes that the market will grow at a compound annual rate of 12.4 percent, reaching $90.1 billion by the end of the current decade, pointing to increased construction activities in the country, a growing tourism industry, and over-reliance on advanced technologies.
Al-Qahtani stressed that the Kingdom’s market in the facilities management sector is the fastest growing in the world, with the entry of major international companies into the local market.
He revealed that the association intends to hold the International Facilities Management Conference and Exhibition in September, under the patronage of the Minister of Municipalities and Housing, Majid Al-Hogail, and in strategic partnership with the Saudi Facilities Management Company, which is owned by the Public Investment Fund.
The company was established in 2023 to meet the market needs and provide sector services for the Fund’s real estate development projects.
Al-Qahtani noted that the objectives of the upcoming conference were based on three elements: the quality of human life within the built environment, the role of artificial intelligence in facilities management, especially in light of recent developments and the global tech outage, in addition to the protection of data inside buildings.
He said he expects the event to witness the signing of 10 to 15 cooperation agreements.

 

 



Euro Zone Poised to Enter Trade Quagmire as Trump Wins

A container ship unloads its cargo in the German port of Hamburg (Reuters)
A container ship unloads its cargo in the German port of Hamburg (Reuters)
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Euro Zone Poised to Enter Trade Quagmire as Trump Wins

A container ship unloads its cargo in the German port of Hamburg (Reuters)
A container ship unloads its cargo in the German port of Hamburg (Reuters)

As Trump 2.0 becomes a reality, Europe is poised to enter a new geopolitical and trade quagmire with its biggest trading partner.

Donald Trump's victory may harm Europe's economy as proposed 10% US tariffs risk hitting European exports such as cars and chemicals, eroding Europe's GDP by up to 1.5% or about €260 billion.

Analysts warn of European Central Bank (ECB) rate cuts, euro weakness, and a recession risk.

According to several economic analyses, there is broad agreement that Trump's proposed 10% universal tariff on all US imports may significantly disrupt European growth, intensify monetary policy divergence, and strain key trade-dependent sectors such as autos and chemicals.

The long-term effects on Europe's economic resilience could prove even more significant if tariffs lead to protracted trade conflicts, prompting the European Central Bank (ECB) to respond with aggressive rate cuts to cushion the impact, according to Euronews.

Trump's proposed across-the-board tariff on imports, including those from Europe, could profoundly impact sectors such as cars and chemicals, which rely heavily on US exports.

Data from the European Commission shows that the European Union exported €502.3 billion in goods to the US in 2023, making up a fifth of all non-European Union exports.

European exports to the US are led by machinery and vehicles (€207.6 billion), chemicals (€137.4 billion), and other manufactured goods (€103.7 billion), which together comprise nearly 90% of the bloc's transatlantic exports.

ABN Amro analysts, including head of macro research Bill Diviney, warn that tariffs “would cause a collapse in exports to the US,” with trade-oriented economies such as Germany and the Netherlands likely to be hardest hit.

According to the Dutch bank, Trump's tariffs would shave approximately 1.5 percentage points off European growth, translating to a potential €260 bn economic loss based on Europe's estimated 2024 GDP of €17.4 tn.

Should Europe's growth falter under Trump's tariffs, the European Central Bank (ECB) may be compelled to respond aggressively, slashing rates to near zero by 2025.

In contrast, the US Federal Reserve may continue raising rates, leading to “one of the biggest and most sustained monetary policy divergences” between the ECB and the Fed since the euro's inception in 1999.

Dirk Schumacher, head of European macro research at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking Germany, suggests that a 10% tariff increase could reduce GDP by approximately 0.5% in Germany, 0.3% in France, 0.4% in Italy, and 0.2% in Spain.

Schumacher warns that “the euro area could slide into recession in response to higher tariffs.”

According to Goldman Sachs' economists James Moberly and Sven Jari Stehn, the broad tariff would likely erode eurozone GDP by approximately 1%.

Goldman Sachs analysts project that a 1% GDP loss translates into a hit to earnings per share (EPS) for European firms by 6-7 percentage points, which would be sufficient to erase expected EPS growth for 2025.