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SIAC Construction

SAIC – A Leading Player in Middle Eastern Construction Space

The Middle East has emerged as the construction industry marvel for the 21st century world. Places like Egypt, Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and many such have become dream destinations to visit for millions and millions across the world. The grounds behind this are the extravagant, high-rise buildings, which keep on attracting nearly everyone’s attention. The grand and diverse architectural buildings make us wonder about such a scale of construction.

Construction involves planning logistics, designs, budgeting, labor, legal permissions, etc. Construction companies take care of all these requirements. The Middle East is currently the home for many top construction companies planning and developing future-ready infrastructure across the region.

One such construction company in the Middle East is SIAC, Industrial Construction & Engineering Company, headquartered in Egypt’s capital city, Cairo. Since its establishment in 1986, it has developed a wide number of quality projects all over the Middle East and Europe region.

In an interview with SIAC Founder, Chairman, Eng. Nehad Ragab, we gained insights into the company’s journey of becoming a top-quality construction firm.

Below are excerpts from the interview:

Please brief our audience about your company, its distinct services, and how it is currently positioned as the leading player in the Middle Eastern architecture and construction space.

SIAC is a member of SIAC Holding. SIAC Construction has a vast experience in the construction business in Egypt and the region as well. SIAC accomplished a large number of major projects, including turnkey construction of top-quality finishing and prestigious buildings, office buildings, hotels, hospitals as well as heavy industrial construction including steel mills and cement plants, petrochemical and power plants.

SIAC is considered one of the top EPC contractors in Egypt and the region.

Tell us more about services your company offers and how these are impacting the industry and your clients.

SIAC is a general construction contractor for top-quality finishing buildings, heavy industrial construction, power plants, infrastructure, petrochemical projects.
SIAC offers a full range of integrated construction services and delivers the works on time with the highest standards of quality and safety. That makes our clients award us any future construction works that they have.

SIAC executed a landmark project as the Al-Saleh Mosque (45,000 Prayers) in Sana’a, one of the largest mosques worldwide.

Being an experienced leader, share your opinion on the impact of adopting technologies such as AI on the architecture space and what more could be expected in the future?

We in SIAC encourage the new technologies and seek to apply them. AI will make the planning process of the architects easier by analyzing the whole data and creating models that can save a lot of time and effort for the architect.

AI will increase efficiency in the design and construction of buildings as well as create multiple solutions that will push boundaries of architectural developments and it is an opportunity to discover what ways the world could be improved through AI.

Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, what initial challenges did your company face, and how did you drive the company to sustain operations while ensuring the safety of your employees at the same time?

The main challenge was how to deliver our projects on time while keeping our employees safe. So, we undertook urgent procedures such as:

  • Measuring the temperature of everyone before entering the site and once again during the day.
  • Using sanitizing gate for each site
  • Forced wearing masks
  • Ensured that there were sufficient sanitizers and hand-washing stations
  • Adequate social distancing

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the architecture space?

I advise them to stay at the forefront of technology and never give up in front of technology challenges.

How do you envision scaling your company’s operations and offerings in 2022?

Expand regionally, as we were before the revolutions of Arab Spring.

Please give us a few testimonials of your clients/customers that accurately highlight your organization’s position in the market.

We have a lot of testimonials from our clients through our projects like:

Asas Real Estate Company for Al-Qasr Hotel & Apartments Project in Aden, Hill International for Steigenberger Tahrir Hotel & Office Building Complex in Egypt, Taisie Corporation, Japan for Djibouti Palace (Kempinski Hotel) in Djibouti, HSBC for HSBC Bank Egypt Global Service Center (The first project that has LEED Gold Certificate in Egypt), DANIELLI, Italy for Egyptian Steel Mill in Sokhna Project in Egypt, TECHNIP KTI, Italy for Suez Oil Processing Company (SOPC) Hydrogen & Sulphur Plant Project in Egypt, Abb Sae Sadelmi, Italy for Assiut Thermal Power Plant 300MW Project.

About The Founder 

Eng. Nehad Ragab, is the Chairman of SIAC Holding. He has thirty-five years of experience in construction and development industries, which provides a broad base of expertise in the building and construction industry, development, and investment.

His career spans a full spectrum of all types of projects in the region, which has enabled him to participate fully as a chairman or as a board member in several affiliated companies or associations.

Ragab, established SIAC Construction, in 1986 and SIAC Holding, respectively, with a strong commitment to international standards.

Ragab is participating as Chairman or Board Member in several affiliated and associated companies as well as public and private associations, whilst providing the strong leadership necessary to maintain the successful operations of SIAC Holding and SIAC Construction, as world-class standard regional integrated construction companies.