The Future of Prefabrication and Modular Construction Industry is Bright in the Middle East, Say Construction Experts

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 04, 2016 --(PR.com)-- The Middle East Prefabrication and Modular Construction Summit 2016 which was held on the 16 & 17 of February 2016 witnessed high profile stakeholders, architects, market leaders and industry experts from construction, property development, mining, power & energy and oil & gas sectors from across the GCC region. The summit, organized by Information Exchange Group at Hotel Conrad in Dubai and supported by Sharjah Research Academy, Dubai Municipality and Fujairah Municipality, saw incisive discussions about the growing trends of and hindrances to offsite construction in the region. The summit clubbed together excellent professionals from the government bodies, academia, contracting and consulting firms including Sharjah Research Academy, Fujairah Municipality, Dubai Municipality, RAK Municipality, ADNOC, Arab Engineering Bureau, National Engineering Bureau, Speed House Group, DuBox, FRAMECAD, DAMAC Properties, Shapoorji Pallonji Middle East, Trimble, Ranco & Zamil Concrete Industries, KEO International Consultants, AECOM, Petrofac, RAK Properties, BAM International, Mott McDonald, Al Futtaim Group - Real Estate, to name a few.

Professor Mufid Samarai, Senior Advisor at the Sharjah Research Academy, presented his opening remarks with an emphasis on growing trends of prefabrication and modular building trends in Asia-pacific, Europe, GCC and Africa. He stated that the industry will scale up new heights in the GCC thanks to economic diversification by the governments. He further emphasized that modular design and prefabrication is increasingly seen as a tool towards achieving sustainability in the industry.

Mr. Michel D Hanna, the group GM, Speed House Group, called on the government bodies, consultants, contractors, architects and other stakeholders to embrace the idea of offsite construction more enthusiastically as we have already entered the time when we all want to ensure our investment in construction sectors reaches further. He was pretty upfront in his remarks that we must not lose sight of the Prefabrication and Modular Building Construction, as an alternative construction method, offering clear advantages in terms of cost, quality and fast project delivery. He presented the case studies related to Bathroom and Kitchen PODs that The POD Company, a subsidiary of Speed House Group, manufactures at Ajman, UAE. He pertinently highlighted a very interesting point during his presentation mentioning that his company Speed House Group , on some jobs, buys raw materials from India, hires Indian workforce and sells the POD units to hotel chains like IBIS HOTELS in Indian cities.

Engr. Sami Banat, General Manager, Ranco & Zamil Concrete Industries, KSA, said to this writer on the sidelines of the summit, "This summit has been a hit with the attendees in light of the growing popularity of Prefabrication and Modular Construction Industry which is forecast to grow at CAGR of 6.50% between 2015 and 2020 totaling USD 209 billion by the end of the decade."

During the two-day summit, attendees engaged in interactive panel discussions, one-to-one business meetings, round-table discussion.