Industry leaders attend Dossier Construction’s Infrastructure Awards & Summit 2016

Over 400 leading names of the construction, infrastructure, real estate, manufacturing and design & engineering consultancy participated in the Dossier Construction’s Infrastructure Awards & Summit 2016, organized on 26th October at Intercontinental Muscat. The prestigious event was organized under the auspices of Public Authority for Electricity & Water (PAEW) and endorsed by Omran and Ithraa.

The event was divided into two parts – Summit in the first half of the day and Award’s function in the evening. In the Summit, Eng. Omar Al Wahaibi, Group CEO, Nama Group was the chief guest and keynote speaker. While delivering the keynote speech, he stated, “In 2015, Nama Group invested approximately RO 400 million on the transmission and distribution networks to increase network reliability to serve our growing customer base which has reached one million customers at the end of 2015… Looking forward, we are planning to complete a number of strategic projects by year 2020 including 132kV transmission line from Tibat to Khasab and Dibba, and the largest projected outlay with RO 724.6 million of which 76 per cent goes towards transmission lines, switchgears and transformers, in addition to the establishment of the 400kV backbone, which will account for approximately 45 per cent of the total investments between 2016-2020. The distribution companies are projecting a total outlay on 11kv and below for customer extensions worth RO637.5 million and RO 410.3 million on 33kv substations. The 2017 investment plans will set aside RO155 million to develop the transmission business and RO 295 million for distribution.”

The Summit also featured a panel discussion on ‘Power Infrastructure – On the In-Country Value (ICV) Path’ involving the top names from the industry including Gert Hoefman, CEO of Oman Cables Industry; Eng. Hassan Ali Abduwani, CEO of Voltamp Energy; Praveer Chakravorty, CEO of Bahwan Engineering Company; Ghada Al Yousef, Executive Manager Group Communication & Sustainability of Nama Group; and Markus-Erich Strohmeier, CEO of Siemens Oman. The panel discussion focused on the ICV, business opportunities, renewable energy and efficiency in energy generation and consumption.

The panel discussion was followed by presentations from the top industry leaders in Oman and abroad on subjects including construction claims and dispute resolution, Building Information Modelling (BIM), urban planning and new trends in design & engineering. The speakers included Rohit Singhal, Managing Director – India, South East Asia and Middle East, Long International; Marco G. Malpiedi, Managing Director, Oman in Atkins; Federico Zaggia, Head-International Business Development, F&M Ingegneria, Italy; and Ibrahim Atta-Apau, Regional BIM Manager in Atkins.

The other attraction during the Summit was a session on business opportunities in East African market. It included presentations from Thomas Ernest Ngulika, Assistant Director - Transport Infrastructure, Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications, in Tanzania; Zemichael Berhe, Managing Director of ICON Engineering Plc. in Ethiopia; and John Wagema, Second Counsellor in Kenya’s Embassy in Oman.

Later in the evening, the Award’s function was held to felicitate the best industry performers, practices, technologies and projects. His Excellency Dr. Rashid bin Al Safi Al Huraibi, Chairman of the Tender Board, was the Chief Guest for the evening. Overall, 21 awards were presented to the deserving companies, professionals and industry leaders across various categories. The event culminated with the presentation of coveted ‘Business Leader of the Year Award’ to Sheikh Salim Abdullah Al Rawas.

The event is instituted by Dossier-Construction magazine, Oman’s first and only business-to-business (B2B) magazine on the construction sector, published by United Media Services.