Eng. Abdullatif bin Ahmed Al-Othman, the Governor of SAGIA, and Alexander Novak, Russia's Minister of Energy, co-opened here today the Saudi Russian Investment Forum, co-organized by SAGIA in collaboration with the Saudi chambers of commerce council and the Saudi Russian Joint Council in the attendance of a host of businessmen from the two sides. Addressing the opening ceremony, Al-Othman said the motto of the Saudi joint committee, the business forum and the exhibition held on the sidelines is "Enhancing of friendship, building of partnerships and investing of opportunities", calling the event a turning point in the history of relations between the two countries. He said the Saudi Russian Joint Committee for cooperation in the commercial, economic, scientific and technological fields between the two countries have reached rapprochement on almost all areas of discussion over the last three days. He said the two governments of Saudi Arabia and Russia are poised to initial the legal base for such relations, which, he said, are currently less than should be. Casting light on the Kingdom's economic situation, Al-Othman said the GDP of his country, also a G20 member, has doubled from $328b in 2005 to nearly $752b in 2014, scoring a record growth rate of %129. He noted that the state debt has, at the same time, been reduced to less than %2 of the GDP in 2014, putting the Kingdom among the world's low-rated indebted states in terms of GDP. He drew the attention to the surge of the overall direct foreign investment assets in the Kingdom to five folds over nine years to reach about $200b in 2014, making the economy the world's fourth in terms of economic strength according to a WEF recent report. He expressed welcome of investments of leading Russian companies that are supposed to transfer technology, enhance innovation and provide training for Saudi nationals, particularly in less-developed regions where a package of incentives has been prepared to remove obstacles that might face investors, as is the case in any country of the world, noting that SAGIA has launched a new investment window for foreign companies from which licenses would come out in no more than three days. He said the government expenditure in the Kingdom has soared from $92b in 2005 to nearly $300b in 2014. A unified investment plan including all investment sectors in which the mechanisms and standards to lessen imports and enable such sectors to become more internationally competitive and a strong economic tributary is underway. He cited that the health plan by the Ministry of Health has drawn more than 40 promising investment opportunities worth $71b, and the transport sector has projected 36 promising investment opportunities worth $25b. He added that the size of foreign investments in the Kingdom amounted to $220b, a rate of between 10 to 15 billion US dollar annually. Despite that foreign investments were focusing on energy, petrochemicals, building and construction fields, we are planning to enter new investment ventures in the fields of health, transport, tourism, and information technology, Al-Othman said. He added that SAGIA has recently launched a comprehensive introductory website named 'Invest in Saudi', including the unified investment plan, noting that the plan has voiced more than 100 investment opportunities in 18 sectors worth about $344b aiming to attract the purchasing power into projects worth more than $500b in the coming ten years. For his party, the Russian minister considered the resumption of meetings of the Saudi Russian joint committee as a sign for the two sides' determination to further enhance relations between the two countries, saying that high-level visit exchanges between the two countries were followed by serious dialogue to promote economic cooperation and commercial exchanges, and paying tribute to the efforts being exerted by the two sides to resume the committee's meetings, and organize the forum and the exhibition on its sidelines in Moscow. He emphasized that the just $1.2b trade exchange between the two great economies is inacceptable to the two sides, given their economic and investment capabilities. He underscored the importance of the completion of the legal legislations aiming to protect investments between the two countries, expressing pleasure of the presence of some 150 delegates of the Russian private sector representing 30 Russian companies in this event. He noted the signing of 13 documents and memoranda for cooperation between the two business sectors in the two countries while some 50 projects are currently underway. The Governor of SAGIA and Russian Energy Minister were present at the signing ceremony of a number of agreements and memoranda of understanding in the field of distributing Russian companies products in the Saudi market, expanding the provision of Russian ports services in the Kingdom, marketing the Russian oil products, cooperating in the training of Saudi cadres in the fields of operation and maintenance of the telecommunication, information technology, maintenance and operation of water and electricity stations, vocational and technical training and qualifying of instructors to acquire knowledge and technology. During the forum a number of presentations on new investment projects in the two countries were displayed, workshops held, discussions and dialogue between the delegates of the two private sectors of the two countries, particularly in the fields of oil, gas, food security, agricultural investment, housing, real estate development, tourism, transformative and petrochemical industries, nano technologies, advanced technologies, electric and renewable power, financial resources, desalination technologies, health care and pharmaceutical industries were held.
