Dubai, UAE: In the past few years, each emirate has laid its own set of visions and introduced programmes to promote sustainable development. However, a slump in the oil prices have impacted the economy, thereby affecting the immediate funding towards the programmes and delaying the implementation of projects. Governments have had to realign their goals according to the prevailing market conditions.

Citing Qatar as an example, Vasanth Kumar, CEO of Qatar-headquartered Arabian MEP, says that it appears that infrastructure requirement of projects related to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, such as the stadia and the metro rail, have taken precedence over Qatar National Vision 2030.

Presenting another case with Saudi Arabia as an instance, Khalil Issa, Project Development Director at UAE-headquartered ADC Energy Systems, says the focus the last few months have been on addressing financial crunch that is prevalent in the market. He says, “We as contractors have already identified that there is shortage of funds in the market and many contractors are already hurrying to fix that.”  As there has been no fresh injection of capital into the market, he says that it is unlikely that major changes will be introduced in Saudi Vision 2030.

To a large extent, contractors believe that as long as the current market conditions prevail, there will be no major changes in the government programmes, and the focus will be on short-term goals.