JEDDAH, 15 November 2006 — Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf yesterday urged Germany to open its market for more Saudi products in order to cut the widening trade imbalance between the two countries, which is now estimated at more than three billion euros. Bilateral trade amounted to 4.6 billion euros in 2005 with German exports to the Kingdom exceeding 3.7 billion euros, he pointed out.
“We hope that this gap could be narrowed by encouraging opening of markets in both countries for exports. We have noticed a decline in German imports of Saudi oil, which accounts for a major part of our exports. We hope that Germany will increase imports of Saudi oil and other quality products such as petrochemicals,” Al-Assaf told a meeting of Saudi-German Economic Commission in Riyadh.
The meeting was co-chaired by Al-Assaf and German Economy Minister Michael Glos.
In his keynote speech at the opening session of the meeting, Al-Assaf said the two countries had invested about 845 million euros in 115 joint investments. “There are many untapped commercial and investment opportunities,” he said and emphasized Saudi Arabia’s desire to become a leading business partner of Germany. The Kingdom is now Germany’s sixth largest trading partner.
The minister called upon both Saudi and German businessmen to work for increasing trade and investment between the two countries and make use of the growing investment opportunities in the Kingdom, especially in petrochemicals, minerals, energy, transport and health. The government has made budgetary allocations to carry out a large number of infrastructure projects, he said and invited Germans to participate in these projects.
In his speech, the German minister said the meeting would contribute to promoting economic cooperation between the two countries. He also expressed Germany’s desire to strengthen bilateral relations.