Speaking to the media atHUG EMEA,President of Honeywell Process Solution Vimal Kapur, stressed that turbulent times in the oil and industry call for better asset management, which Honeywell aims to deliver with its software solutions. Following is an excerpt from the interview
How important is the Middle East Market to Honeywell solutions and what is your growth strategy in this market?
We are based in every country in the Middle East across the board. In fact, I am not aware of any country that we are not present in. We have a manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia and are setting up one in Abu Dhabi next year, in Q1 next year. And of course, we have very good operations in Oman, Qatar, Saudi and UAE, offices in Iraq, Basra, so we are present across the board so yes, we are present there and we think that that is how we are very successful there.
And what is the growth strategy?
Given the situation in the Middle East, there is less opportunities then there was. Once there were ten and now there are two, so there is a significant reduction in opportunities. Customers want to run their assets better, they want more return from their assets which goes well with our story and how we can provide then services which are outcome based, how we provide them software which helps their return on their assets, so this has been our focus around the world not just the middle east. We can deliver these local, and this is one of strengths.
What do you think about the big nation strategies like the UAE and Saudi pushing towards 2030?
We fully support these national projects and these fully align with us, which is why we are setting up production facilities there. In Saudi in particular, we are supporting the localisation. We have new graduates every year which we train to Honeywell standards until they become Honeywell engineers. We are doing what a corporation should be doing. We are not hampered by our commitment but by the ability of time. We will do everything we can and what is capable, by this is a great thing to do.
Donald Empire (Honeywell PR director): It is not only training but we have set up training centres in Saudi. We do have some partnerships with some of the universities in Saudi.
