Future Investment Initiative at a Glance
The work of the fifth session of the “Future Investment Initiative” kicked off today, Tuesday, in Riyadh, which will be held from 26 to 28 October 2021 under the slogan “Investing in Humanity”.
This year’s initiative coincides with the recent launch of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the National Investment Strategy, which is one of the main enablers to achieve the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
The “National Investment Strategy” will contribute to the growth of the national economy and diversify its sources, which will achieve many of the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, including the promotion of foreign direct investment to reach 5.7% of GDP.
Khaled Al-Falih, Minister of Investment, said that Saudi Arabia, despite the uncertainty in the Corona pandemic, advanced after the pandemic and proved its resilience.
At the Future Investment Initiative conference, the minister explained that Saudi Arabia has made preserving jobs a priority, in addition to maintaining supply chains.
Al-Falih indicated that the Kingdom is preparing talents for new jobs, investing in young people, benefiting from non-oil resources, and localizing jobs in the private sector, in addition to its support for automation.
Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef said that Saudi Arabia is now in the final stages of updating the national industrial strategy, which will be approved soon by the government.
He explained that this strategy will focus on the Kingdom’s ability in terms of natural resources and the Kingdom’s geographical location, and will be an important station, especially concerning supply chains.
He pointed out that the Kingdom has a clear plan concerning nationalization on more than one track, as the tracks are divided into an urgent track, a medium-term track, and a long-term track.
He indicated that the urgent path is related to industries related to strengthening local capabilities and industries related to food security, military security, and health security. The kingdom has plans and initiatives for each of them, for example, the health sector has a plan to localize a group of medicines, vaccines, and medical devices.
He added that Saudi Arabia aims to have a large foreign investment in the mining sector, as Saudi Arabia is on the verge of developing this sector and activating investment in it therefore the experiences of countries in this sector will be important to be brought to Saudi Arabia.
He pointed out that the volume of industrial investments during the year 2020 amounted to 23 billion riyals, and the number of new factories reached about 900, and the number of factories that entered work reached about 550 new factories.
Ahmed Al-Khatib, Minister of Tourism, said that the tourism sector is the most affected by the Corona pandemic, indicating that it is facing a complex and short-term crisis.
In his speech during the “Future Investment Initiative”, the minister added that the sector will witness a large wave of growth after the end of the Corona pandemic, indicating that travel between countries is on the agenda of the ministers and we will agree on unified travel protocols, stressing that the solution must be global to facilitate Mobility movement.
Al-Khatib explained that the ministry in the Kingdom is the legislator of the sector, indicating that 80% of the tourism sector projects are led by medium and small companies.