RIYADH/JEDDAH, 28 May 2006 — Investment opportunities in IT, healthcare, public services, pharmaceutical, water desalination, vocational training and Internet usage expansion were among 60 knowledge-based industries identified at a workshop held here yesterday.
The workshop, under the title of “The Strategy and Utilization of Investment Opportunities in Knowledge-Based Industries (KBI),” was organized by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) to examine the strategies for investing in some key sectors by involving local and overseas partners.
Besides SAGIA, the participants included a number of officials from government agencies, including the ministries of health, education, commerce and industry as well as a number of businessmen and researchers.
The main thrust of the workshop was how to make the Kingdom the hub of the IT industry in the Middle East by channeling investments in the improvement of the existing industries and related firms as well as attracting local and foreign capital for setting up joint ventures in the field.
Salim Al-Malik, head of the health sector at SAGIA, pointed out that the workshop’s goal was to determine the most important techniques to be used in the promotion of this vital sector and sub-sectors. These include IT, education, health and life science. He explained that an international consulting firm had completed a comprehensive study of the sector and related investment potential in the Kingdom utilizing similar international experiences in countries like Ireland, North Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.
Besides the opportunities cited above, the workshop also identified mega water desalination projects (to be increased from 27 stations to 40 stations), banking, consulting, insurance, real estate, accounting and engineering sectors, added-value plastic production water services investments and research programs involving diagnostic and treatment problems with the Arab world.
The workshop discussed the hurdles facing this sector and ways of overcoming them through similar initiatives in collaboration with the concerned parties.
SAGIA will work closely with all the parties concerned to implement the recommendations of the workshop in a speedy and effective manner so as to promote investment opportunities in the sector locally and internationally, Al-Malik added.
SAGIA has signed contracts with a number of government agencies, the latest being last week’s event concerning the Ministry of Health, which included a number of initiatives to promote investments in the field and provide an ideal environment for this sector to achieve results within a time frame.
In another development, a new project for setting up an IT assembly plant will come up in the industrial estate in Riyadh today. CEO Najeeb Al-Ashqhar will inaugurate the Silicon Valley Factory for Information Technology. Al-Jeraisy has also established a computer factory in the industrial township off Al Kharj Road.
The constitution of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology as well as separate agency for the setting up of IT parks has given a shot in the arm to the IT industry in the Kingdom.
An offshoot of this drive is the decision of the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) to establish the Prince Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Science Park (PASP), which became operational in 2003. Located on a 300,000 square meter site, north of main KFUPM campus, the park will be closely integrated with the university. The location with its proximity to science and engineering colleges provides for considerable interaction between tenant firms, their personnel and university scientists and engineers.
The park will house a range of firms, mainly those involved in the petroleum and chemical industry and the growing IT sector, both of which are major strengths of the university.
Under the first phase of the park, completed in 2004, the facilities on the campus were leased to companies interested in maintaining close links with the university community as well as with other Saudi Petroleum and IT-based industries.
Four sectors were identified for establishing industries. The focus of these sectors was on petroleum and ICT which have either been established or are in the process of being constituted in collaboration with Schlumberger, Ciba and JCCP.
In Jeddah, the BioCity Company is in the process of assisting the establishment of the first Bio Park in the Middle East where a highly dedicated and focused biotechnology research park will be developed with the aid of professional experts provided by the company. The Science Park will be located in King Abdul Aziz University.