Gulf construction sector slow to embrace e-commerce

The research reveals that construction industry in the Gulf will take a little more time to catch up with the e-commerce frenzy, as important issues such as online security, collaboration tools, online bidding and online tender floating processes have not been streamlined by the concerned authorities and industry officials.
Despite the launch of Dubai e-government last year, government departments have not yet initiated the process of floating the projects online for direct bidding.
Industry officials say the industry has not yet reached a level where it can directly bid for projects online.

The construction industry in the UAE and the Gulf in general will have to adopt the Internet and embrace e-commerce in order to survive the competition. Many technology solution providers are currently trying to penetrate the market with the latest software solutions that will enable the government departments, ministries and municipalities to float the project details, drawings, building materials samples and codes for bidding directly through the Net.

Last year, a Malaysian company, AsiaBuildOnline introduced its latest software solutions for the government departments for floating online tenders. At that time Dubai’s e-government project was almost ready for launch. The industry in Gulf is in need of acquiring the right technology to make their processes Web-enabled so that they can offer their drawings and projects online. However, as most construction companies in the region are yet to plug on, they have a lot of catching up to do. The biggest challenge is to upgrade to make them ‘e-enabled’ in order to enter the ‘e-construction’ era.

Beijing welcomes foreign partners in urban railway construction

China’s capital city Beijing has welcome foreign participation in the construction of its urban railway communications system. This was the message expressed by Beijing Mayor Liu Qi. Liu briefed the visitors on the city’s railway communications development, explaining that Beijing’s objective is to have 300 kilometers of urban railways before the year 2008, an important undertaking given that Beijing currently has only 50 kilometers of subways.He said that this would be a large-scale investment project, and expressed his hope that foreign companies would participate in the development of the city’s urban railway communications system. British companies are interested in Beijing’s urban construction and there were broad cooperative prospects in technological consultations, project management and financing.

Siemens Solar & PowerLight to manufacture roof tiles

Siemens Solar Industries, L.P. and PowerLight Corporation have announced the formation of a strategic alliance to manufacture PowerLight’s "PowerGuard" solar photovoltaic (PV) roof tiles in Chatsworth, CA. This alliance is expected to help California and especially the City of Los Angeles in meeting the increasing demand for clean energy with solar electric power.

Under the new agreement, Siemens Solar and PowerLight have established a specialized manufacturing line at a Siemens Solar module manufacturing facility in California. This production line is capable of manufacturing up to 6 megawatts of solar electric roof tiles per year, primarily for use in Los Angeles’ commercial, industrial, and government facilities.

The unique roof tiles are patented, lightweight solar PV roofing assembly optimized for flat and low-sloped roofs. The PowerGuard roof tiles will incorporate Siemens’ high efficiency single crystalline cells. Over their 30-year design life, the roof tiles will reduce customers’ utility costs while extending the lifetime of the roof. Los Angeles businesses and homeowners are already installing Siemens Solar "earthsafe(TM)" solar electric systems at substantially reduced rates due to the Solar Incentive program offered by the LA Department of Water and Power.

In addition to the Solar Power Program, the internationally recognized Green LA initiatives include Energy Efficiency, Green Power, Electric Transportation, Cool Schools Tree Planting and Recycling efforts. Through the visionary solar power incentive program, the LADWP offers its residential and commercial customers a rebate of $6 per watt for solar electric systems manufactured in the City of Los Angeles. The LADWP’s goal is to encourage the installation of 100,000 solar systems in Los Angeles by 2010, and to install more than 2.5 megawatts of power each year for the next four years.

Construction for nuclear reactor of Korea begins

First concrete foundations of North Korea’s $4.6bil. light-water atomic reactor project was poured during a ceremony early September. The Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) is building the reactor which is funded by the US as well as the European Union, South Korea and Japan. The organisation was set up under a 1994 US-North Korea deal known as the Agreed Framework, which suspended the North’s suspected nuclear weapons programme in the exchange for annual supplies of heating oil and two western-built nuclear reactors.