Khalil Awada

Khalil Awada, President and COO at Abniya, speaks to TBY about the company’s services and activities, the sports sector, and goals for the coming year.

Can you introduce Abniya to our readers?

Khalil Awada: Abniya is a general contracting company based in Riyadh and serving the MENA region. We specialize in civil construction, industrial automation and electro-mechanical turnkey projects. At Abniya, we are committed to helping clients reach their handover target with the best quality services and equipment, highest safety standards and lowest risk mitigated. Today, we aim to deliver world-class sustainable projects, in line with the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision and our Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. Quality partnerships are the base of our business. The company establishes long and quality based relationships with its clients and subcontractors to insure high customer satisfaction.

The Kingdom’s Real Estate and Construction sector has seen an acceleration in development. To what would you attribute this acceleration?

Khalil Awada: Saudi Arabia is witnessing a golden age in growth and development specially in the fields of construction and real estate for the following reasons: First of all, the strategic and wise 2030 vision of the Kingdom which is taking the country to a different level in all sectors and specially in our field. Construction activities have been increased by 14% in the first six months of 2021 and still growing then comes the property tax relaxations and affordable housing programs, the ministry of housing plans to build 300,000 housing units in the coming five years of course in partnership with the private sector. In the commercial side, there’s a huge demand in the market for offices due to all the incentives the government is offering to attract multinational and foreign companies to open their headquarters and businesses in the Kingdom. The Kingdom has a population of 30 million individuals which 70% are under 35 years old and has also a strategic location in the middle of trade routes crossing three continents and hold amazing natural resources.

How has Abniya seized this opportunity?

Khalil Awada: Abniya seized this opportunity by implementing growth within the company itself, by hiring brilliant Saudi talents, offering them consistent training in addition to using new systems in building our projects to keep up with the international standards and competition. We also resource the best technologies and new systems that help us deliver impeccable projects within the requested timeframe.

In terms of partnerships and projects, what are Abniya’s efforts in accelerating the development of the sports sector in Saudi Arabia?

Khalil Awada: Sport in Saudi Arabia is an important part of Saudi Arabian culture, and the country participates in many international sporting competitions and the value of Saudi Arabia’s sports event industry is growing by 8% per year estimated USD3.3 billion by 2024, according to Ernst and Young (EY). Sports’ contribution to the Saudi Arabia GDP has already grown from USD2.4 billion in 2016 to USD6.9 billion in 2019. As mentioned earlier over two-thirds of Saudi Arabia’s population is under the age of 35 with a growing appetite for sport, driving both event participation and attendance. Having said this, the Kingdom is encouraging the growth of this field by offering affordable facilities for everyone. We at Abniya are very proud for developing (construction side) the multipurpose SFA Dome in Dammam that was launched last week in Dammam under the auspices of his highness Prince Khaled bin Waleed. We are also working on exciting upcoming projects which we are very keen to accomplish perfectly and meet all the international standards from design, quality, safety and execution.

The Kingdom has taken significant steps to scale up its climate action and environmental protection. What are Abniya’s contributions to the Saudi green initiative?

Khalil Awada: Abniya’s contributions to the Saudi green initiative are many. We believe in the Kingdom’s green initiative as the “green Building” will help the planet and preserve precious natural resources which lead to improve our health and quality of life. At Abniya we took the lead to implement some rules in line with the green initiative of the Kingdom like using efficiently the energy, water and any natural resources, we are also implementing solar energies in all our upcoming projects, recycling the waste, using sustainable materials (when available) and considering the environment when we design a project.

What are your strategic priorities for the year ahead?

Khalil Awada: Our priorities will always remain our clients by offering them outstanding services and high-quality projects, our growth in terms of experience, team and innovative solutions remain a strategic priority for us as we aim to play a major role during this exciting phase of the history of the Kingdom. On top of our priorities our commitment to the work of ethics and the high integrity of our subcontractors and staff makes our mission possible.