Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz received here today Minister of Commerce and Industry Acting Head of the ministerial team following King Abdullah Initiative for Saudi agricultural investment abroad accompanied by two Saudi businessmen Mohammad Hussein Al-Amoudi and Abdullah Hassan Al-Masri who invest within the Initiative on the occasion of the arrival of the earliest produce of their rice to the Kingdom. The audience was attended by the project consultant Director of King Saud University Dr. Abdullah A. Al-Othman and Abdullah A. Al-Hmoudi, Undersecretary of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, where the monarch listened to explanation of project stages and its participation in achieving food security in the Kingdom. King Abdullah praised the positive outcome of the project and urged its directors to double their efforts to achieve the desired goals. King Abdullah Initiative for Saudi agricultural investment abroad aims at contribution to realizing national and international food security, building integrative partnerships with countries all over the world that have high agricultural potential to develop and manage agricultural investments in several strategic crops at sufficient quantities and stable prices in addition to ensuring their sustainability. Planning these investments was carried out according to the following agricultural investment principles and criteria: - Investment in countries with promising agricultural resources, and having encouraging government and administrative regulations and incentives. - Export of the grown crops to the kingdom at reasonable percentages - Investment should be Long term: through ownership or long-term contracts - Liberty of selecting the agricultural crops - Signature of bilateral agreements with the concerned countries to ensure achievement of the investments' objectives - Support and encouragement by the state for these investments - Availability, easiness and low-cost transport of the crops to the kingdom. --More
