This was an increase of 24 percent compared with the previous year, according to SIDF director general Ali bin Abdullah Al-Ayed.
These loans helped setting up of 86 new industrial projects and expansion of 32 existing ones that have a total investment of SR35 billion, the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying.
According to Al-Ayed, SIDF has so far extended a total of 3,344 loans with a value of SR95.5 billion since its inception in 1394 AH (1974). “These loans played a major role in establishing 2,371 industrial projects in various regions of the Kingdom. The fund extended loans worth SR64.6 billion to investors, of which repayment amounting to SR37.2 billion was made until the end of the last financial year,” he said.
Al-Ayed noted that the SIDF scored excellent performance results at all levels during 2011.
“This financing played a key role in further boosting the Kingdom’s industrial sector by enabling it to make available of a large number of consumer products in the local market in addition to exporting them, besides creating more job opportunities for young Saudi jobseekers. The Fund’s Kafala Program for financing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has played a vital role in the development of SMEs as well as in realizing the Kingdom’s social and economic development,” he said, adding that the fund approved SR636 million under the program against extending of banking loans worth SR1,284 million for 742 SMEs last year.
The SIDF plays a pivotal role in the fulfillment of the objectives and policies of programs devised for the Kingdom’s industrialization. It implements these programs through the provision of financial assistance in the form of short term loans to investors in industry besides offering technical, administrative, financial and marketing advice at the highest professional levels to borrowers. These activities combine to ensure the success of potential industrial projects while simultaneously enabling borrowers to negotiate obstacles they are likely to encounter.
