JEDDAH, 6 February 2006 — The attendance of the governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), Amr Al-Dabbagh, at this year’s World Economic Forum, which ended last week, focused on promoting investment in the Kingdom’s key economic sectors.
The SAGIA governor met with CEOs and the heads of the world’s leading corporations to encourage their involvement in the Kingdom’s four strategic sectors: Energy, transportation, ICT and knowledge-based industries.
“I’m not surprised with the amount of interest and enthusiasm being shown now for the Kingdom,” said Al-Dabbagh. “Coming off a record year, the joining of the WTO (World Trade Organization), the improvement of our rankings, and the results of SAGIA’s investment strategy are beginning to pay dividends. Each of our targeted sectors drew meetings with CEO’s, chairmen, and heads from the global powerhouses.”
On the energy front, both Alcoa and Alcan Aluminum, the world’s first and second largest producers of primary aluminum, confirmed the international appeal of the Kingdom’s competitive advantages in the energy-intensive mineral industries. Georgesmarienhutte Holding, and Titan Cement both showed a similar interest in the Kingdom’s mineral industrial sector. Suez Company also showed an interest in the Kingdom’s privatized power and water industry.
The transportation sector proved as enticing to key global investors, including Bombardier, the world’s leading providers of innovative transportation solutions. A meeting with the company’s chairman of the board and CEO set the tone for the rest of the week’s program, including a meeting with the CEO of PWC Logistics, a global provider of end-to-end supply-chain solutions. PWC has industry expertise in a number of areas strategically aligned to fit with SAGIA’s sectoral focus, including consumer and industrial electronics, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and oil.
“We were also glad to meet with the president of the Antwerp Port Authority, with whom we’ve been working for the last year toward upgrading the services in our Jeddah Islamic Port,” said Al-Dabbagh.
He also held bilateral meetings with the CEOs and chairmen of major players in the technology sector, including Cisco Systems, Infosys Technologies, Royal Philips Electronics, Freescale Semiconductor, and Advanced Microsystem Devices as well as others. Al-Dabbagh assured IT investors that the Kingdom is the best regional choice because of its private sector, liquidity and capital. “We’re looking to stimulate knowledge transfer, build cross-sector relationships and start up appropriate centers of excellence in KSA,” added Al-Dabbagh.
SAGIA bilateral meetings with the world’s top 40 technology companies, including biotechnology, all agreeing to knowledge-share in exchange for liquidity, commended SAGIA’s efforts to promote knowledge-based industries as a strategic sector. In biotechnology and healthcare, Polska Gruppa Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Lupin Pharmaceuticals all explored with greater depth what the Kingdom can offer in this ever-so-competitive sector.
“Even before Davos we had phone conferences with CEO’s of super high-tech companies who are eager to talk to us about our market,” said Al-Dabbagh.
In the education field the governor met with Insead, the London Business School, Harvard, and Columbia with a view toward building up the country’s future educational operations, and to increasing familiarity with the market.
“Our educational focus is on early and higher education, and on building a globally competitive sector in the Kingdom that would serve the nation’s high-school and graduates and attract regional interest. Becoming a regional education hub sits high on our list of strategic items,” said Al-Dabbagh.
SAGIA also held a number of meetings in the financial sector including one-on-ones with top executives from NASDAQ, NYSE, Lazard Freres, Pomona Capital, Goldman Sachs, H&Q Asia Pacific, First Eastern Investment Group, and Taib Bank.
“We met with major international stock exchanges and financial institutions interested in the country’s financial services sector,” said the SAGIA governor.
