JEDDAH, 3 January 2008 — The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) will organize a third industrial forum under the theme “Toward An Integrated Industrial Environment” in Jeddah on Jan. 28.
The forum aims at finding solutions to various issues faced by the Kingdom’s industrial sector, Hussain Abu Dawood, chairman of the organizing committee of the forum, said here yesterday.
The participants in the forum will discuss topics such as the role of the private sector in setting up new industrial cities, the future requirements of the new industrial cities, the state of the existing industrial cities and the new industrial cities to be established in Jeddah, Abu Dawood said.
The key speaker in the first session would be Tauwfiq Al-Rabiah, director general of the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technological Regions. The forum’s second session will discuss issues pertaining to the merger of companies in the Saudi context.
The speakers include Ismail Sajini, chairman of the Sajini Center for Management Consultancy, Ahmad Bamakhramah and Abdul Raheem Al-Bahtaiti of the College of Economy and Management at the King Abdul Aziz University. Sameer Murad, chairman of the industrial committee in the chamber, will preside at the forum.
The third session will discuss the applications of nano technology in the local industry. The key speaker would be Sami Habeeb, director of the Microtechnology Center at the King Abdul Aziz University.
There are 3,986 manufacturing industries in the Kingdom with a total investment of SR306 billion, according to studies prepared by the chamber at the middle of last year. The study pointed out that 80 percent of the companies are small and medium establishments.
With a total capital of SR39 billion, 1,081 metal industries occupied 27.7 percent of the companies.
The 895 chemical and plastic industries have a total investment of SR175.6 billion accounting for 59.2 percent of the total investments. There are 618 companies that manufacture building materials, marble, tiles and glass. While they occupy 15.8 percent of the total industries their investment reached SR391 billion.
The study said SR 24.8 billion is invested in 605 factories in the food industries sector representing 15.5 percent of the total industries.
The study put the number of factories in Jeddah at 1,065, with a total capital of SR48 billion and 108,642 workers. While 265 of these companies produced machineries, equipment and metallic products, 264 plants manufactured chemicals and plastics. There are 166 companies specialized in food and beverages production, the study said.