RIYADH, 30 May — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, is expected to brief Swedish business executives and industry leaders on the investment opportunities in the Kingdom during his visit to Sweden from June 8 to 10.
An official at the Swedish Embassy told Arab News that Prince Abdullah, who has been invited by Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal. He will be arriving in Stockholm from Berlin, Germany, en route to Ottawa, Canada. He said Prince Abdullah’s program includes a dinner invitation from King Carl Gustav who, along with Queen Sylvia, had visited Riyadh in 1981.
The Stockholm visit will provide Prince Abdullah and his delegation an opportunity to renew their contacts and take stock of bilateral relations. “We appreciate that the visit is taking place in response to a long-standing invitation. We look forward to it, as the focus of the discussions will be on the economic program and what needs to be done to move it forward,” the official said.
Sweden, which holds the rotating EU presidency till the end of June, had listed among its priorities enlargement of EU membership, boosting employment opportunities and protecting the environment. The Middle East also figured among its priorities. The two sides are likely to discuss the explosive situation in the region during the talks.
On the economic front, the bilateral trade is tilted in favor of Sweden, whose exports to the Kingdom stood at $273.95 million in the first half of last year, or more than double the Saudi exports to Sweden at $135.44 million. With around 25 Swedish joint ventures in the Kingdom in sectors like telecommunications, power generation, transportation, mining, consultancy and manufacturing, Swedish presence is a major factor in lending a momentum to the Kingdom’s industrialization program.
The spokesman said the captains of Swedish industry would explore the possibility of diversifying Saudi-Swedish relations in areas such as environmental protection and biotechnology in which Sweden is particularly strong. Treatment of sewage water and recycling of solid waste also offer scope for cooperation between the two countries, he said.
Information technology could also provide another avenue of cooperation between the two countries.
Saudi journalists who had been on a week-long tour of Sweden returned impressed by the high level of Swedish technology in telecommunications, especially mobile telephones, with their multi-task capabilities. As the Kingdom seeks to upgrade its telecommunication facilities, Swedish expertise in this field could be one of the points of interest between the delegations of the two countries.
