Saudi Arabia is determined to diversify an economy that was built from oil revenues. Aggressive growth plans have proved lucrative for the AV industry but Anna Mitchell learns that with great wealth comes tough competition.
Saudi Arabia is an economy built on oil. From the moment oil fields were discovered in 1938 the country started its extraordinary transformation from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the very richest.
In a region dominated by resource rich nations Saudi Arabia still stands out due to its wealth and fast paced development, which is largely government funded. But, like many of its neighbours, Saudi Arabia knows that however lucrative oil may be now, and in years to come, the reserves won’t last forever.
Therefore, an aggressive diversification programme has ploughed staggering amounts of cash into education and healthcare as well as trying to promote non-oil related businesses with the emergence of new economic cities.
Unsurprisingly growth and investment is fuelling building projects and proving lucrative for AV and IT integration specialists. But it’s also attracting a lot of attention, which sometimes isn’t welcome.
Read Sharing the wealth in InAVate Active to learn more about the market from Yousef A. Abdul Hadi, senior business development engineer at integrator SmarTech AV, and Nassif Chaoul, who handles AV integration operations for Samir Group, one of the top 100 companies in Saudi Arabia.