The Application of Value Engineering in the Saudi Construction Industry - Essay Example

However, since then all government departments in Saudi Arabia have switched to using value engineering, and the Saudi government has sincerely tried to encourage the construction industry in the nation to benefit from value engineering. Value engineering is even more important today for the Saudi Arabian construction industry because moderate growth forecasts for the GDP rate demand delivery of value under conditions of intense competition and difficulty in raising finance for construction projects.

This literature review presents an examination of themes that emerge from published literature about value engineering, the Saudi Arabian construction industry and the application of value engineering in the Saudi Arabian construction industry. In the year 1902, when Ibn Saud captured the garrison town of Riyadh, it was just a dusty oasis in Najd (Businessweek, 2006, Pp. 1 – 2). However, according to the previously mentioned report, a surge in oil prices and a high rate of population growth has since then created a demand for sophisticated design and construction.

Today, Riyadh is no longer a dusty oasis, but a beacon to a new age of engineering prowess and the Saudi construction industry has come a long way from the standards of the year 1902. In the year 2005, the construction market in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, of which the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is also a member, achieved new heights in terms of the construction contracts awarded (AME Info, 2010, “Kuwait construction industry - hitting new heights”). According to the previously mentioned article, the value of the construction contracts for the GCC region doubled at the end of the year 2006 from the figure at the end of the year 2004 due to a rapid surge in the region’s real GDP following a boom in oil prices in the years 2003 - 2006.

However, since then, according to Gulf (2010, Pp. 2 – 3), financing conditions for