By Feroz Khan
RIYADH — The Indian Engineers Forum (IEF) recently celebrated its 20th Anniversary while also celebrating ‘Engineers Day’ at the Ritz Carlton where a group of IEF’ers welcomed guests for the celebrations.
With its humble beginnings of 5 founding members, including Eng. Nasir Ansari, it has metamorphosed into a huge fraternity during an amazing journey in last two decades.
It has been organizing enlightening seminars and activities on technology, leadership development and management became their signature routine. Like Jack Welch said, “an organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
Indian Ambassador Ahmad Javed was the chief guest and he extended his felicitations to the IEF in the Kingdom on the occasion of the completion of 20 years successfully. He said, “I also take the opportunity to congratulate all the Chapters of the Forum as they step into the third decade and keep organizing professional seminars and community events, which harbors the most important activity of any human being — self development.”
Javed drew the attention of the community, particularly the engineers, towards the immense opportunities Vision 2030 and the dream project of Neom offer and encouraged all to participate wholeheartedly.
Eng. Abdullatif Al Harkan, secretary general of Saudi Council of Engineers, was the guest of honor on this occasion. He appreciated the contributions of the Indian engineers in Saudi Arabia and expressed happiness at the close working relationship with IEF. He said Indian engineers number about 22,500, about second highest in the Kingdom. Eng. Al Harkan urged IEF to increase mutual cooperation and to invite Saudi engineers to their events in order to enhance an exchange of expertise. Also, he encouraged the Indian engineers to participate more in the professional & academic programs of SCE. He too spoke of the huge opportunities that await as Vision 2030 unfolds and invited the Indian engineers to partake in it.
The IEF has not only played a part in the building of Kingdom’s infrastructure but, also, are an integral part of the Indian Diaspora that has contributed to the brand building of India. They have not just built structures of concrete and steel but also built bridges of love and respect between our two nations during their sojourn here.
The IEF Chairman Eng. Amir Khan welcomed all walked the gathering through ‘IEF’s Journey of Two Decades’. Founded in 1998, IEF has accomplished many milestones in its 20 years of existence.
Amir Khan thanked the Embassy of India for its continued patronage since 1998. He also said “our enhanced collaborations with Saudi Council of Engineers has reached new heights. And this has led to IEF to proactively start communications and interactions with the Institute of Engineers (India)”.
Last year, the president of The Institution of Engineers (India) congratulated the IEF Saudi Arabia for celebrating the Engineers Day 2017 in association with Saudi Council of Engineers in Riyadh.
Eng. Saad Tarin, IEF’s vice president, public relations, gave a presentation of the SAADY Group of Companies in presence of their CEO Dr. Nadeem Tarin. They were the Platinum Sponsors of the event.
Eng. M.A. Nayeem, CEO of the Masah Group, main sponsor of the event, oversaw the Presentation of his company where-in the fantastic array of his company’s architectural and engineering marvels were shown.
During the event, three engineers from each Chapter of Indian Engineers Forum Chapters were honored and recognized by the chairman for their contributions in the development and sustenance of the forum under the categories of IEF Engineer of the Year, Leadership Excellence Award and Distinguished Service Award.
Also, Chairman Awards were presented to Eng. Farhan Hashmi, Eng. Nadeem Ali, Eng. Owais Ahmed, Eng. Amitabh Saxena and Eng. Mohammed Sayeeduddin.
Also applauded are the efforts and endeavors of all the chapter presidents of IEF, engineers Farhan Hashmi, Mohammed Sayeeduddin, Shuja Sheriff, Tasneem Akhtar, Mohammed Khader and their efficient teams without whose unwavering commitment and contributions IEF would not have achieved the milestones it did in its distinguished journey of 20 years.
In closing, IEF President of Riyadh Chapter Farhan Hashmi, congratulated Team IEF on the successful completion of 20 years in Saudi Arabia and called the evening to a close.
