Environment & Energy | Monday 28 January, 2019 3:17 am |

Leading architects of Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation will gather on Monday in Riyadh to set out the next steps in the Kingdom’s development.

They will launch the National Industrial Development and Logistics Program, with the aim of attracting $427 billion over the next decade from Saudi and global private-sector investors.

The program is a key pillar of the Vision 2030 strategy aimed at diversifying the economy away from dependence on oil revenues and government spending.

 

Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said that the Kingdom would announce multibillion-dollar projects to boost the industrial, mining, energy and logistics sectors. The program was “quite ambitious but it is over a 10-year period so we have got the time to do it,” he said. 

“We will have a huge contribution from the private sector outside the Kingdom, but we will leave the biggest share for the Saudi private sector.”

The program is being launched at a crucial time in the Kingdom’s economic development, amid volatility in global energy markets and increasing concerns about world economic growth prompted by the trade confrontation between the US and China.

Ibrahim Al-Omar, the governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), told Arab News at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos last week: “Vision 2030 isn’t just for the Saudis, it’s for everyone. I think this is a golden opportunity for investors to join us on our journey.

“We’re in a massive transformation on a scale that has never been seen before. We’re changing economically, socially and culturally. We’re three years into a 15-year journey to transform and diversify our economy, and we’re doing that with such speed because we have a can-do, make-it-happen attitude.”