The 9th Arabcab Conference has been a very busy and successful conference hosted at the Ritz Carlton Grand Canal in Abu Dhabi. Here is a recap of the main activities during the three days.
Day 1: 26th October 2013
This year’s event started on Saturday, 26th October with a dinner sponsored by the main sponsor Borouge. The guests enjoyed meeting one another and talking about common issues over the sounds of the Arabian Oud.
Day 2: 27th October 2013
Conference activities were officially opened with a speech from His Highness Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, who welcomed the delegates and talked about Abu Dhabi’s endeavours in the field of electricity and power. He wished the participants success in their efforts to form complete and balanced plans for the Arab world in the field of electricity and power and to set unified standards and help to grow cable industry in the Arab world. His highness also talked about the importance of the issue of housing in the Arab world and the need to find viable solutions for it.
His speech was followed by a speech from Arabcab’s Secretary General Mr. Hamid Al Zayani, who welcomed the guests to the convention and talked briefly about the rapid growth of Abu Dhabi and how it set an example for other cities. Mr. Hamid also stressed the importance of the issue of housing and wished all the participants a successful conference.
This was followed by a speech from His Excellency Mr. Rashid Bin Saud Al Shamsi, who welcomed the guests and wished them a very successful conference.
After a short break, the presentations resumed. The main topic for the second speakers session was housing in the Arab world, which was the main theme of the conference. The first speech was given by Mr. Ghassan Boulboul, member of the Arabcab executive committee, who spoke on behalf of Iraq’s ministry of housing on the issue of housing in Iraq and the solutions the government had been trying to come up with to combat it. He also highlighted the key projects that had been completed or were under construction in Iraq.
This was followed by a speech from Mr. Ashraf Osman, acting CEO, AlDukheil Financial Group, who spoke about the issue of housing in the Arab world, highlighting the key figures that needed to be addressed as well as the ever-increasing demand for housing in the region and how it links to cable industry. He also spoke in detail about housing in Saudi Arabia.
Finally, Mr. Abdulrahman Al Ahmed from the Al Fanar group gave his presentation on the mega projects happening in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and how these projects had massive logistical requirements in them, including a great deal of demand for electrical and phone cables.
The second day concluded with a dinner at Cedar Lounge, Fairmont Bab Al Bahar Hotel.
Day 3: 28th October 2013
The final day activities began with a speech from Mr. Phillip Radbourne, director, Integer Research. In his speech, he spoke about the latest developments of the cable industry in the GCC region and what these developments meant to cable manufacturers and suppliers in the region.
This was followed by a speech by Mr. Eric Le Roux, director of the commodity team in Société General. He spoke about the most recent fluctuations in the prices of copper and aluminium.
The last speech of the day was presented by Senior Technical Engineer in Borouge Mr. Hakan Lennartsson, who spoke about the creative solutions the company offered to cable industry and how they could help to get the best quality out of cables.
After a short break, the conference resumed with the General Committee meeting, in which many issues, such as the importance of having unified standards for cables in the Arab World and how to combat product dumping in its markets, were discussed. The committee also agreed on Egypt to host the 10th Arabcab Conference.
