DUBAI, (Reuters) – Projects worth more than $2 trillion have been announced or are under construction in the Gulf Arab countries that form the world’s largest oil-exporting region, Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) said on Sunday.

Economies of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and three other oil producers have surged on a five-fold rise in oil prices since 2002, and states are investing windfall oil revenues to develop everything from infrastructure to power.

MEED Projects — which tracks project announcements in the construction, industry, oil and gas, petrochemicals, power, and water and waste sectors — said total projects in the Gulf now exceed $2 trillion in value, 40 percent more than a year ago.

The project boom has happened “despite fears that rising construction costs would lead to a significant slowdown in the number of new projects being launched”, MEED said in a statement. It added that only about a quarter of the projects were now being built.

More than $1.2 trillion of these projects are in the construction sector, followed by the oil and gas sector at $430 billion, MEED said.

The UAE, a federation of seven emirates including Abu Dhabi and Dubai, accounts for 37 percent of total Gulf projects, MEED said.

The government of Abu Dhabi and private investors will invest about $163.4 billion in real estate projects in the emirate by 2030, Abu Dhabi’s Urban Planning Council said in September.