"The steady growth of population propels continuous infrastructure development, and infrastructure investments amounting to billions of dollars will be needed to fund this growth," they said.
Growth in the population of Saudi Arabia is 1.848 percent, while the population presently is 28,686,633.
The region's key players made the announcement on Saturday during the opening of the four-day "Outlook Saudi Arabia - Investment and Private Equity Summit" under way at the Al-Faisaliah Hotel here with Saud Al-Malaq, director general of the Organizations' Affairs and Regional Trade Agreements at the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Industry, delivering the keynote address.
Al-Malaq spoke on "Investment and Trade Agreements: Maximizing Benefits." Ibrahim Al-Kernass, assistant secretary general of the Saudi Council of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CSCCI), talked on "Inflation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Present Opportunities and Future Challenges."
Amro Al-Khayyat, senior associate at Almal Capital in Dubai, said that as of now many private equity firms with many deals expect many opportunities to come from Saudi Arabia. One of these companies is the US private equity firm Carlyle Group CYL.
Amr El-Barbary, managing director at Citadel Capital who has been invited to attend the summit but could not make it to the opening day, earlier made a statement to the media that the private equity industry has bright prospects in Saudi Arabia.
"The current environment creates substantial opportunities for private equity players. For example, the Kingdom's latest budget is the largest ever, with projected spending of SR540 billion. This allocates budget for spending on infrastructure, and real estate will have a strong knock-on effect in industries ranging from commodities such as steel to services including transportation," he said.
He added that this is bolstered by the fact that there's a growing number of companies looking to shed non-core or non-performing assets.
He also said that the attractiveness of Saudi Arabia to private equity investors has grown sharply over the years and that this has been a function of new private sector opportunities created by the broad economic diversification and liberalization beyond oil and gas.
Egypt has been the preferred destination in the Middle East and North Africa region for private equity investment, which totaled $2.4 billion in the last 10 years due to two investments exceeding $500 million each. Without these two investments, private equity was distributed much more evenly in the region in the last decade.
The United Arab Emirates took in 27 percent of private equity investment, Saudi Arabia 23 percent, followed by Jordan and Egypt combining $800 million.
Key players in the private equity industry are participating in the summit. They include Ammar Alkhudairy, founder and chief executive and board member of the Amwal Alkhaleej in Saudi Arabia; Ali Munir, associate director at Terra Firma Capital Partners in Britain; Muhammad Al-Agil, chief executive officer of Jarir Investments in the Kingdom; Nabil Triki, managing director and head of private equity Swicorp in the Kingdom; and Abdulaziz Al-Bosaily, a lawyer who works with Clyde & Co. Middle Eastern Corporate and Financial Services Group.
The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) and Institute of International Research-Middle East (IIRME) are jointly holding the summit.
