BrazilDesign consultancy of Oman to partner with Qatar project managers
Design consultants F&M Middle East of Oman have struck a strategic partnership agreement with the Qatari project management consultancy ASTAD.
The Omani-based design and engineering consultancy F&M Middle East Engineering has signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with fellow GCC member-state project management company ASTAD of Qatar, with a view to extending mutual business opportunities in the engineering consultancy, construction, design and project management fields.
Established in Muscat at the end of 2015 with over a dozen specialists, F&M Middle East serves as the regional base of Italian-headquartered design and engineering consultancy F&M Ingeneria SPA, which has been active in the Sultanate since 2009. Previous regional projects include the structural design contract for a School of Peace in Palestine, an energy self-sufficient school and recreation centre at a refugee camp in Gaza as the first of twenty such UN-commissioned projects in Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
In Qatar, the firm has been engaged for multidisciplinary design and management services for the development of the new CTO2 Cargo handling facility at Doha’s Hamad International Airport, its capacity expected to be among largest in the world, while closer to home, the company is providing services on the Crew Reporting Building for the New Muscat International Airport – which, with the help of airport consultants Munich Airport International, is in its final testing phase before opening next month.
The firm’s new strategic partner ASTAD, meanwhile, has since 2002 been involved in the development and delivery of numerous complex and high-profile sites domestically, including project management for Qatar’s Foundation Stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup – the first open air-conditioned sports stadium in the world – and consultancy on the new National Museum of Qatar, which is certain to become an iconic regional landmark courtesy of its extraordinary desert rose-inspired design.
Altogether, the firm, which is home to some 800 employees, has participated in over 250 building and infrastructure projects across industries such as education, healthcare, recreation, transport, and the commercial and residential sectors, offering services in design, project and construction management, quantity surveying, and facility management.
Future collaboration
Commenting on the firm’s new strategic collaboration agreement with F&M Middle East, ASTAD’s CEO Ali Al-Khalifa said, “ This MoU allows us to collaboratively deliver expert design and project management services not just in Qatar, but internationally. ASTAD and F&M are specialists in our respective fields and markets and this MoU will support the continued growth and success of our companies.”
Hazem Abdul Karim, a Lebanese national with F&M since 2008 and General Manager of the firm’s Middle East operations, responded in kind; “ASTAD and F&M have worked hand-in-hand on multiple projects since 2010. We have also jointly participated on tenders here in Oman. This MoU further cements our working relationship and will serve as a value-add for our clients in Oman and in the region.”
Late last year, it was reported that trade between Oman and Qatar had increased by 2,000% following Doha’s freeze-out by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with Oman’s long-cultivated political neutrality allowing the country to capitalise on the blockade. Such stability and the country’s broadly cordial diplomatic status were recently cited by the Big Four firm EY upon their unveiling of a multimillion-dollar regional cybersecurity centre in Muscat.
