JEDDAH, 13 May 2006 — Saudi Arabia will play a major role in the global food industry by becoming the world’s third largest supplier of fertilizers, Amr Al-Dabbagh, governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), said yesterday.
“In 10 years, the Kingdom will become not only an influential player in the world oil market but also in the world food industry being the third largest producer of fertilizers at global level,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying.
Al-Dabbagh made the comment while delivering a lecture titled “Investment Environment in Saudi Arabia” at the Arab Economic Forum in Beirut. He said the Kingdom had made rapid strides toward improving its investment climate.
The SAGIA chief estimated new investment opportunities in the Kingdom’s energy, electricity, water and mining sectors, downstream industries and petrochemicals at more than $300 billion.
“The transport sector will absorb over $100 billion in new investments while education, health and information technology sectors another $100 billion,” he added.
Al-Dabbagh said the strategy adopted by his organization was yielding result, adding that the total value of projects licensed by SAGIA last year amounted to SR2 trillion. “This figure is 30 times more than the amount of the previous year,” he added.
He predicted that Saudi Arabia would be listed among the first 10 investment-friendly countries in the world by 2010.
“Thanks to the Kingdom’s buoyant economy and visionary policies, investments from both domestic and overseas sources are increasing,” he added.
SAGIA is currently conducting a comprehensive survey of some 400 new investment opportunities across the Kingdom. Walid ibn Saleh Al-Yahya, director of the marketing section at the organization, said the survey is being conducted with the cooperation of government departments and regional governorates. “The investment opportunities are in various sectors,” Al-Yahya said, adding that SAGIA would exert greater efforts to market them to attract more Saudi and foreign investment. “We have set out a plan to complete the survey and classification of investment projects before the end of this year.”
The government is seeking investment worth SR2.34 trillion ($624 billion) in key sectors, such as petrochemicals, natural gas, tourism, desalination, power generation and railways. According to Omar Bahlaiwa, secretary general of the Foreign Trade Development Committee at the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, infrastructure projects offer the largest investment opportunity of $140 billion.
The petrochemicals sector comes second with $92 billion worth of projects followed by electricity and water at $88.9 billion, telecommunications at $60 billion, tourism at $53.3 billion, natural gas at $50 billion, agriculture at $28.3 billion and information technology at $10.7 billion.
The King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) in Rabigh, 200 km north of Jeddah, is designed to accommodate investment projects worth SR100 billion.
