JEDDAH — The attractive business environment in the Kingdom has succeeded in attracting 390 Turkish companies to invest in the Saudi market, with a capital of nearly SR1 billion, Investment Minister Eng. Khalid Al-Falih confirmed. Eng. Al-Falih made the remarks during his speech at the Saudi-Turkish Business Forum that was held in Jeddah on Monday, on the sidelines of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Saudi Arabia. He also noted that the number of companies with Saudi capital invested in Turkey has now reached 1,140 companies operating in several sectors, indicating that they aspire to increase the number. Eng. Al-Falih stressed the importance of joint work between all parties in Saudi Arabia and Turkey to identify challenges in investments in the private sector in the two countries and to work quickly and effectively to solve and overcome them in a way that would benefit them. Saudi Arabia is keen to involve Saudi and foreign private sectors, including the private sector from Turkey, in the major developmental process, as the National Investment Strategy aims to enable diversified investments with an estimated total volume of SR3 trillion and $300 billion by 2030. Eng. Al-Falih indicated that he is very proud of the private sector companies in both countries that are strong everywhere in the world. "What we have not been able to do yet is to integrate these distinguished capabilities between Saudi Arabia and Turkey," he said. The minister said that there are promising opportunities in the Kingdom that large Turkish companies with distinguished capabilities can benefit from independently, or by forming investment partnerships with Saudi private sector institutions in distinct sectors. He pointed to the construction sector in Saudi Arabia, which is witnessing an unprecedented renaissance, as the volume of spending in it in 2023 exceeds $70 billion annually. The construction sector in Saudi Arabia is expected to reach more than $215 billion by 2030, Eng. Al-Falih said. He also noted that striving to meet the growing demand of the construction and contracting sector provides an opportunity to create many partnerships between Turkish and Saudi companies. This would raise operational efficiency to improve performance, reduce costs, and invest in many modern materials and technologies, which would also contribute to supporting the transition to clean energy. The Kingdom is considered one of the largest food and beverage markets in the region. The Saudi food and beverage market constitutes 60% of the volume of the Gulf market, and its volume in 2020 reached more than $45 billion, he said, expecting that it will grow by approximately $65 billion by 2035.
