With the government spending about $300 billion on development and investment activities, the Kingdom’s total foreign direct investment (FDI) balance remains $208 billion at the end of 2004.

Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) Gov. Abdullatif Ahmad Al-Othman confirmed this in his address on the Saudi economy and its new available investment opportunities, at a meeting of Arab Chambers Union Council, which is currently being held in Riyadh, SPA reports.

According to the World Competitiveness (WEF)'s report, the Kingdom enjoys unique political and economic stability and occupies fourth place worldwide in terms of macroeconomic strength, indicating that the Kingdom holds the third place in the world on the tax payment indicator, the report says quoting the World Bank's 2014 report on the ease of doing business.

The SAGIA governor also explained that investors in the Kingdom enjoy several incentives such as financing by Industrial Development Fund for industrial projects. The financing of up to 50 percent of the project cost is to be increased to 75 percent in the promising areas, with a 20-year repayment period.

These and other incentives are associated with a continuous development of regulations and legislation, and facilitation of the procedures actively sought to remove obstacles facing investors within the institutional actions to improve the investment's environment as well as the development of investment opportunities, so as to achieve an effective partnership between the public and private sectors.

Al-Othman added that the Kingdom is developing a unified investment plan for the establishment of investment entities to achieve sustainable development, in cooperation between SAGIA and relevant government bodies. This trend aims at preparing a unified plan for each investment sector in which mechanisms and standards are set for enabling investment in an integrated manner to make these sectors globally competitive and an effective contributor to the economy.

Al-Othman pointed out that in the health care sector, the Kingdom spends about SR20 billion annually, whereas the spending on imports of medical devices, cosmetics and drugs represents about 41 percent of this amount.

The investment plan for health care prepared by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with SAGIA has set more than 40 promising opportunities worth $71 billion.