So far what did we cover is an introduction to the course, followed by the industry characteristics or the uniqueness that we have in our construction environment. Then we touch base on examples of internal challenges we are facing as an industry. And now we're going to move forward to a trends in this section that are shaping the industry's future, especially during the work we did at the World Economic Forum. We managed to highlight many examples on this area. But for the nature of this course, I will only focus on 10 specific examples that personally speaking I found very relevant to what I want to deliver in this course. Now, we need as an industry to identify and also implement optimal responses to these trends, both with respect to the opportunities they offer, and the respect to the challenges they pose. So we have opportunities from these trends will come and there will be kind of challenges that we'll be facing from these trends as well. Here are the ten trend examples I will cover in the course. I will start as you can see here with the project size and the project complexity followed by the aging in infrastructure globally and more examples I'm going to give definitely in developed countries. Also the keen interest in rise of internationalization and global business environment. Then I will touch base just briefly on gap of investment we are experiencing, followed by the rising concern on the topic of climate change. And of course, I'm going to link that to the sustainability practices in our industry. After that, I will highlight the area of increase or the increase of urbanization followed by the challenge we are facing on the workforce. Then I will wrap up with types of risks that are rising globally and the increased level of complexity and regulations. Let us start with the project complexity. Projects are becoming bigger and more complex. Let's take few recent examples, the Dubai Mall. The Dubai Mall in United Arab Emirates is the largest retail development in the world. It offers an astounding number of stores and the scope of amenities. The overall construction costs of the mall was around $1.3 billion, comprises over 12 million square feet total area with leasable retail space. An excess of 9 million in square feet, that is around four times the size of Mall of America, which is the biggest mall in the USA. Second, the Three Gorges Dam in China has around five locks that the ship will go through. Cost around approximately $23 billion. Also, the recent development of a small town or a town in Qatar called Msheireb Downtown with a cost of around $5.5 billion. In these three projects, I actually had the opportunity to visit them myself and with my research team that GLCM during the construction phase, it was a great experience. Now another project is worth mentioning that is still undergoing under construction as well. Is the London Crossrail will cost around the $23 billion. It is a new railway in UK, United Kingdom, running from the Reading and Heathrow in the West as you can see here, through 42 kilometres of new tunnels under London to Sheffield and Abbey Wood in the East. Now let's talk a little bit now with examples about vertical construction. Let's look at the following the Shanghai Tower just the top three here in the slot. The Shanghai Tower is around 632 meter high. Also Tokyo Skytree, 634 meter high. An interesting fact about this project actually, it got hit by an earthquake during construction, dealing with such challenges is highly complex. And of course, last but not least, is Burj Khalifa, 828 meter high. Currently is the tallest building in the world, it built using concrete. So you can imagine the challenges being faced during construction, when you think about pumping the concrete from the ground all the way up in certain types or certain levels, I'm sorry, in the Burj or the tower. So this is definitely, in my humble opinion, is building an outstanding engineering In marvel. So when we are talking about skyscrapers, now, one of the biggest developers in the world based in Dubai called Emaar, is currently building a tower that got designed by Mr. Santiago Calatrava. I got the privilege to visit the project now while it's under construction and based on my understanding, it will be more than 828 meter high. The number is not yet declared the specific exact height. Also, speaking of skyscrapers last example, the Kingdom Tower that currently under construction, my understanding it's got put on hold for the time being. But it is in Saudi Arabia is still the exact height is not officially declared but it is expected to be close or even above the 1000 meter high. Let me wrap up with this trend on something which is speaking of magnitude of the mega programs, the Belt and Road initiative also known as the One Belt One Road. It is a global development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013, involving infrastructure development and investments in nearly 70 countries.
