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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has topped the Middle East region for the past 12 months with a portfolio value on mega projects estimated at $11.57 billion (AED 42.2 billion). Amongst the most prominent of these projects is the multi-purpose "District Seven" in the city Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in Dubai with a value estimated at 25 Billion dirhams.
In the second position comes Iraq with a portfolio valued at $10 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia at $3.66 billion, then Jordan and Kuwait with projects worth $3 billion and $1.3 billion respectively, and Oman at $100 million.
The Gulf region alone accounts for 20 percent of the world's Marble and Stone Market, whereas the sector’s size is estimated at $5 billion (more than 18 billion dirhams) in the region, thus it is expected to need about 19.6 billion tons of stones by 2020.
Civil construction, which includes residential, commercial, tourism and infrastructure projects, accounts for 80% of total stone use in the Middle East.

Source: (Khaleej Times, Edited)