Photo: (l-r) Joseph Waight, Financial Secretary for the Government of Belize and Yacoub Shubeilat, Managing Director of DAO
by Charles Gladden
BELMOPAN, Tues. Dec. 10, 2024
The Government of Belize and Dar Al Omran International Engineering Consulting Company (DAO) in Saudi Arabia signed a US$1,634,981.27 (BZ$3,269,962.54) Consultancy Services Contract for the Design and Supervision of a Tertiary Level Teaching Hospital in Belmopan on Tuesday, December 10.
The DAO will be responsible for providing a complete architectural and engineering design for the 150-bed hospital, in addition to supervising the layout, construction, and landscaping of the hospital complex in order to ensure it meets the standards and requirements of the Government of Belize and the Saudi Fund for Development.
The DAO is listed among the top firms in Saudi Arabia that applied for the consultancy, and is known as a multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering consulting firm with over 43 years of experience, with a focus on healthcare infrastructure. They have carried out projects in over 20 countries worldwide, including the construction of medical facilities with over 6,000 hospital beds and 2 million square meters of residential area, and have previously worked with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Caribbean.
The contract with DAO is a 55-month consultancy, which includes a 9-month service for the development and approval of the design, a 34-month construction period with supervision, and a 12-month defect liability period.
The Financial Secretary for the Government of Belize, Joseph Waight, signed on behalf of Belize, and Yacoub Shubeilat, Managing Director of DAO, signed on the company’s behalf.
(AMANDALA Ed. Note: A Government of Belize press release on May 31, 2023, said that “On May 30, Prime Minister P.M. Hon. John Briceno signed a US$45-million development loan agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) for the construction of a tertiary hospital in Belmopan.”)