Business & Money | Wednesday 12 December, 2018 3:30 am |

 Informa Exhibitions, Saudi, a newly opened country branch of Informa Exhibitions is looking to grow Saudi Arabia’s non-oil sector with its events in 2019. The expansion into KSA this year comes at a pivotal time as the country prepares for its Saudi Vision 2030 goals, a blueprint for economic diversification to usher the country into a post-oil era.

 

The Saudi branch will look at bringing world-class events into the Kingdom next year as well as establish their footprint in the exhibitions’ industry with their list of regional and global events. Among the events billed for 2019 is the 8thedition of Cityscape Jeddah, expected to be Jeddah’s largest real estate exhibition, taking place from the 5-7 April at the Center for Forums and Events. 

 

Part of the Cityscape portfolio, Cityscape Jeddah will bring together top local and international developers to showcase the latest real estate opportunities and unveil hundreds of new projects from across the property spectrum to investors and homebuyers, who represent over 50% of the visitors. Organisers are expecting more than 40 exhibitors and over 8,000 visitors to the event next year.

 

Investors have remained optimistic about the real estate market following Saudi’s Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the economy away from oil. Reforms under the Vision 2030 are expected to create an attractive investment environment, especially for the real estate sector, which is predicted to double its contribution to the economy throughout the period to 2030. 

 

“We see Saudi Arabia as a vital market for Informa’s global growth strategy and we are working on bringing several world-class events to the country. Over the last few years, we have witnessed KSA make significant strides to attract foreign and local investment, implement various urban regeneration initiatives, and invest in infrastructure, factors that will no doubt transform the country into a global investment powerhouse. As leaders in our field, we strongly believe that through our events we can drive investment and create a meeting point for regional and international leaders who can contribute towards Saudi Arabia’s Vision,” said Mohaned Yaman, Senior Exhibition Manager at Cityscape Jeddah.

 

Based in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabia branch will look at creating more large-scale events planned in different sectors throughout 2019. In October, the branch officially launched the first edition of Middle East Electricity Saudi.