The visit is being organized by the US-Saudi Arabian Business Council and the Minnesota Trade Office and brings representatives from 10 American companies and US Rep. Keith Ellison to the Kingdom for meetings with governmental officials and businessmen in Dammam and Riyadh.
This is the third such delegation to travel to Saudi Arabia.
The companies represent a variety of industrial sectors including, petrochemicals, agriculture, health care and information technology.
Delegates will meet individually with potential Saudi partners through pre-arranged meetings in cooperation with the Riyadh and Asharqia chambers of commerce and industry.
“The Business Council is pleased to have the opportunity to work with Congressman Ellison and the Minnesota Trade Office to promote Minnesota companies and their technologies in the Saudi market,” said Edward Burton, council president and managing director.
Ellison last year led a similar delegation of CEOs and managing directors of American companies from the sectors of oil and gas, information technology, petrochemicals, insurance, engineering, banking, transport, communications, security, health and contracting.
“We have a long-term relationship. However, no relationship can stay strong unless it is nurtured, and so the point of our trade mission is to nurture and strengthen that relationship,” the congressman told Arab News during the earlier visit.
“My view is that since 9/11 some Americans really haven’t understood the strength of the relationship, so what we are trying to do is to reacquaint a whole new generation of American businesspeople with our long and time-tested mutually beneficial relationship.”
Saudi Arabia is the largest economy in the Gulf, accounting for 25 percent of the region’s GDP. Driven by an ambitious national development plan that is dedicating hundreds of billions of dollars to projects from infrastructure to information technology, the Kingdom has demonstrated a rising demand for US products, technologies and services across industry sectors.
In 2010, Minnesota exported SR313.13 million ($83.5 million) worth of merchandise to Saudi Arabia.
