RIYADH - Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), said that the PIF plans to invest up to SR1 trillion ($266 billion) in new projects by the year 2025. "The PIF has been instrumental in creating more than 400,000 direct and indirect job opportunities since 2017 until the end of the second quarter of 2021," he said. Addressing the Saudi Budget Forum here on Monday, Al-Rumayyan said that Saudi Arabia is expected to post its first budget surplus in nearly a decade next year, as it plans to restrict public spending despite a surge in oil prices that helped to refill state coffers hammered by the coronavirus pandemic. After an expected fiscal deficit of 2.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, Saudi Arabia estimates it will achieve a surplus of SR90 billion or 2.5 percent of GDP, in 2022- its first surplus since it went into a deficit after oil prices crashed in 2014. He said PIF aims to increase the volume of assets under management from SR1.8 trillion currently to SR4 trillion. "The fund continues to achieve its goals for the year 2025, which are to pump SR1 trillion into new projects, and the volume of assets under management to reach SR4 trillion. The goals also include contributing to raise the non-oil gross domestic product (GDP) to SR1.2 trillion cumulatively, and to increase the contribution of the fund and its subsidiaries in local content to reach 60 percent, in addition to creating direct and indirect jobs in the local market. Al-Rumayyan said that PIF's strategy focused on 13 local strategic sectors based on an assessment of the local perspective. He said that 47 companies have been established since 2016 in many strategic sectors. Al-Rumayyan said that a group of companies affiliated with the Fund signed development contracts worth more than SR13 billion, and this represents more than 70 percent of the value of the contracts of the Red Sea Development Company, which were awarded to Saudi companies. The PIF chief stated that Roshan Company, which is affiliated with the Fund, signed strategic partnerships with a group of Saudi companies to develop its first district in Riyadh. The King Abdullah Financial District Company also signed contracts worth SR10 billion to complete the work and activate the center while Qiddiya Company signed contracts worth SR5.5 billion, and that includes the initial infrastructure works and the development of the first entertainment destinations, he added.
