Out With The Old

Why the mindset of the landscape industry in the GCC needs to change.

- Daniel McNamara

The GCC landscape industry is unique in the way that it presents a specific set of challenges, which combined with an abundance of projects make it stand apart from most modern economies around the world.

The region’s unparalleled economic success which has resulted in multiple landscape construction projects is beneficial in the wider sense; however the problem prevails that there is a shortage of skilled workers to carry out these projects to the desired standard and timeframe.

For example, I believe that methods of construction for civil works currently employed in the landscape sector leave a lot to be desired. The workforce which is mainly from countries where labor costs and experience is low has created a drag on efficiency. The effect of which is directly leading to escalated & unnecessary costs for landscape construction. The workers limited training and inefficient methods of work require upgrading. The workforce has mainly been recruited from countries where sometimes the hand skills of the vast majority of these workers has not reached to the level that is required to produce good quality, efficient work on a consistent basis. The current procedures in use to create landscapes usually lead to a much longer construction period than practically necessary. Additionally, the quality of work does quite often not reach to the highest possible standard because the number of highly skilled workers available simply cannot meet demand. This adds to extra costs and lower quality for the clients who must ultimately pay for these inefficiencies.

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