Abstract
The Saudi government is keen on urban and infrastructure development projects and takes several measures to ensure their completion and use on time. One of the most important reasons for projects' success or failure is contractors. Hence, this has been one of the priorities considered by Saudi government through many actions and efforts to eliminate projects' delays and faltering, and increase the chances of projects' success. In spite of such measures and efforts, recent studies have shown that many government projects are overdue or faltered due to various reasons, 83% of which are related to contractors' technical or financial incapability. This situation was considered the main problem for this study that aims to explore the status of contractors' classification and qualification in Saudi Arabia, and the related models, criteria, and efficiency measures. The study concludes, through inductive, analytical and descriptive approaches, that the current classification and qualification criteria are almost similar and need to be developed. It is recommended that such criteria and their related procedures should be merged, and applied by a specialized classification and qualification agency. This could save money and effort, and enhance efficiency. It's also recommended that a further level of qualification should be applied by the owner government agencies, for projects of a special nature.