The Ras al-Khaimah Investment Authority (Rakia) plans to finish design work on its estimated $400m convention centre by the end of July 2011.

“We expect the designs to be completed in the next six to 12 months. Construction contracts will be tendered at some point after this, although at the moment we are not sure when this will be,” says Khater Massaad, chief executive officer, Rakia.

The convention centre was launched in 2006. The original concept design had five exhibition halls covering a total area of 50,000 square metres. The proposed development also contained three hotels with 1,800 rooms each and three shopping malls (MEED 18:8:06).

The project will be built on Emirates road as part of the Gateway City development.

The architects for the project are Netherlands-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and Norway’s Snohetta

Rakia was established by the government in 2005 to oversee the socioeconomic development of the emirate.