Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – The Saudi and Singaporean businessmen signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday to form an alliance worth SR800 million for the development and management of water and electricity plants in the Kingdom. Bidding on the project is set next year. This was revealed by Yassin Al Suroor, Deputy Co-chairman of the Saudi Singaporean Business Council at the Council of Saudi Chamber (CSC), and Board member and chairman of Trade and Investment Committee at the International Chamber of Commerce, Saudi Arabia at a joint Saudi-Singaporean press conference at the headquarters of CSC here. Singaporean Minister of Commerce and Industry Lee Yee Sheen, Chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers Eng. Abdullah Al Mobty, and Co-Chairman of the Saudi-Singaporean Business Council Abdullah Al Melaihy partook in the conference. The minister underscored the relations between the Kingdom and Singapore, noting the bilateral trade exchange reached to S$23 billion (SR69 billion ) with oil being a major import. He said that he will meet today (Wednesday) with his Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr Tawfeeq Al Rabeah to discuss ways of further strengthening the economic ties with the Kingdom. Responding to a question from Saudi Gazette on whether marketing the globally well-known Singaporean expertise in small business enterprises (SME ) to the Kingdom will be part of his agenda, he said three topics were predetermined for discussions during his visit. “They were education, health, and energy and water, but discussing our SME expertise can take place in the future visit if our Saudi partners will that, because discussion between us depends on expressed mutual needs. Most of our economic structures are composed of small businesses that reach to around 180,000 small businesses,” he pointed out.
