Interview with Mr. Khaled Al Hashani
Khaled, my good friend, where have you been the past 4 years? How are you today?
Khaled: Hello Krah Community! I am so happy to meet you again after all these years. The Covid period shut us down for a long time, we were waiting for the Abu Dhabi factory to start, we spent 4 years of waiting, now it is running and working, thanks to your people – I want to say a special thank you to all engineers and workers involved. Today, I am working in a different way than I did in the past. My son Mohammed is now taking care of the Saudi factories, I am now taking care of new businesses in Saudi and Dubai, following the vision of our Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, which is Saudi 2030.
Thank you. Khaled, it seems that something has changed in the Middle East, Dubai is suddenly so green? Also, the government spent a huge amount of money for drainage, why?
Khaled: The Government here allocated 8bn$ for a huge stormwater project. After the unprecedented flooding 2-3 months ago, they are planning to build a stormwater runoff system.
That is a huge amount of Money. Overall, it seems like there is lots of money flowing in Saudi. Khaled, despite we are meeting in Dubai, you said you preferred Abu Dhabi. That’s also where the plant is located. Why is it that way?
Khaled: Abu Dhabi is the capital, that’s where the money is. Where we have a joint venture with XX, one of the big business men in Abu Dhabi, the business situation and the money is simply better than in Dubai, that’s what we believe. [maybe second plant in abu dhabi]
Can you understand why many German companies, especially since Covid, are running away from Germany and are moving to Dubai? Is it a real alternative?
Khaled: The alternative is Middle East – let alone the money and the business possibilities. The future of business, especially the pipe industry, is here. In Saudi, we have the vision of our prince, which will be realized by 2030. Parallelly, we will host the football World Cup in 2034. You as a German will know, what needs to be prepared for that. Saudis take a lot of German companies for these projects, because they are aware of the quality. Also, we have done many things to attract more tourists and raise awareness of the beauty of Saudi. Alone in the Red Sea we have more than 24 islands, 11 of them ready with hotels, spas, and entertainments to welcome tourists and guests. Then there is Neom, one of the biggest projects in the world. Whatever the prince dreams, he makes it reality. Then we have Aquarabia in Qiddiya City, the world’s largest aqua park, one hour away from Riyadh. That’s only a bit of what is to come.
So, all of the strict rules have changed? The country is now open for party amusement? Can I just bring a girl in a short dress to drink alcohol together at the beach for example? Six years ago it took me 6 months to get a visa – without a girl in a short dress with alcohol of course.
Khaled: First of all, it takes 10 minutes online for a visa application. Secondly, you can come with your family, girlfriend, anybody, they can wear whatever they want, but Alcohol is still prohibited. A lot of tourists come here now.
So you say for us the main market would be in Middle East, what do you think about the production area of Europe, especially Germany? Now after Covid everything is different in Saudi, it’s booming. What do you think about Germany, as I am a little bit sad about the location at the moment.
Khaled: You have to make an office in the Middle East. Saudi or Abu Dhabi or Dubai. You can open a company in 30 minutes. This will give you more opportunity to grab business here. The business in this area is huge. They companies here will not continue to look for business partners in Germany or Europe or the US. These companies come here, they all have an office here. Any big company. My advice is you make an office, bring your employees and we will meet again in 3 years and you will tell me, how your business has grown.
The biggest market in the Middle East for you in Saudi. What do you think where we should concentrate on?
Khaled: I will give you a small example. Saudi housing and municipalities have placed a consulting contract by 600bn riyadhs to 6 consultants for sewage and stormwater. Also we do not forget water desalination plants, power plants, this is for the next 20 years. We are goind to be very busy with that,
If I were to tell my employees or business partners in Germany that I want to open an office in Saudi, they would think it would mainly be for tax reasons. But your approach is a different one, you’re saying that being close to my customer is what they want, and if we won’t do it, somebody else will. We cannot wait any longer for them to find us or come to us in Germany, but we will have to come to them – the time of travelling is over. Is this correct?
Khaled: Very correct. I will give you one tip: Chinese have their offices here. They produce here and sell all the copies here. Also your machine. Of course the quality is on a whole other level, we do not need to talk about this – but they are here and present. All their equipment worth millions is here. They have bank accounts and employees here. Forget about the old stories. They will have to come, live here and take the world. There is nobody here who doesn’t believe you have the best product. But you are slow. You still think the business is the same like 10 years ago – it isn’t. And this is my advice.
That gives me a lot to think. Thank you for being so open. In Europe, we live in a Work-Life-Balance mode, which is just in Europe I think. We have to change, I cannot wait anymore. Thank you so much for your interview and your time, Khaled.