Spurred by the boom in the regional construction industry, landscaping projects in the GCC region comprising commercial and residential landscaping design and maintenance are set to double in volume to exceed Dh60 billion ($16.3 billion) by 2010.

This was revealed by UK's CMPi, organisers of Gulf Landscaping, set to take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre on November 17 and 18.

Landscaping in the GCC is a competitive business fraught with high competition, shrinking profits and high capital expense.

"With the advent of international players, regional landscape designers and builders are realizing that there's more to growth than sunshine, soil and water," said CMPi group director Chris Fountain.

Fountain said the GCC is beginning to value the outdoors and landscaping professionals are now in big demand.

"Driven by the construction boom, many households have increasingly turned to landscaping services to design, develop and maintain their investments while landscaping contractors are learning how to grab their share of this high growth market," he said.

Gulf Landscaping is an exhibition for the booming Middle East outdoor design and landscaping architecture industries.

The exhibition will serve as a sourcing platform and networking event for the regions landscape architects, developers, contractors and other key buyers, to enable them to select products, services and solutions for the huge number of major developments in the commercial, retail, leisure and residential sectors, as well as city parks and highways.-TradeArabia News Service