Pierre Sironval, managing director at contractor Six Construct, has said that despite the slow down in the tendering processes in the region, he remains positive about the near-term future for the construction sector.

“We expect this year to be quite flat, but we still expect to see some positive signs starting end of this year [or] early next year,” he said.

But an unwanted consequence of the slow down has been a lengthening tendering process for new contracts. This is “never a good sign” said Sironval, adding that some tenders had become “quite a long, slow process”.

There are also signs of reduced up-front payments for some contracts, which means companies have to carefully managed their cash flow, and can lead to a situation where contractors end up partly financing a project. Sironval said the industry can operate under tighter margins, but he shared the view of a number of other business leaders, that clients need to take on a greater share of the risk.