WASHINGTON: While the royal visit to Washington had political overtones, particularly related to America's need for Saudi support of the Iranian deal, it had a significant economic aspect, said Culture and Information Minister Adel Al-Toraifi.

He said that the Saudi side stressed the strategic relationship between the two countries and the investment opportunities the Kingdom offers US businessmen.

In his remarks to Al Arabiya TV channel, Al-Toraifi considered the visit of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman as a qualitative jump in economic relations with the United States, stressing that the Saudis are comfortable with the visit’s results at all levels. “We discussed all ways to further develop the relationship at the economic and political levels.”

Al-Toraifi told journalists that Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, defense minister and chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, provided a special presentation to President Barack Obama during a meeting. In the presentation, Prince Mohammed explained the Saudi vision of strategic relations between the two countries and ways to increase investment cooperation.

He spoke about “three investment opportunities for businessmen related to the health, housing and mining sectors,” Al-Toraifi said, adding that the Kingdom is working to update the system to open new investment opportunities such as allowing direct foreign investments in the country. “This is a new focus that the government had never prioritized before.”

King Salman met with a group of presidents of major US companies on Friday on the sideline of the US-Saudi Investment Conference.

During the event, over 20 memorandums of understanding between American and Saudi companies were signed.

Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) Abdullatif Al-Othman hoped that the conference would go a long way in boosting Saudi-US commercial and investment links so relations don’t become limited to Saudi Arabia being a market for US products.

“The Kingdom is a large market and any factory in Saudi Arabia could serve the Gulf and the Arab World,” Al-Toraifi said.