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. --More 14:25 LOCAL TIME 11:25 GMT تغريد
