Foreign investment in Saudi Arabia more than doubles

riyadh — Foreign investment in Saudi Arabia more than doubled in 2018 to SR13 billion ($3.5 billion), its economy and planning minister said on Wednesday.

Economy and planning minister Mohammed Al Tuwaijri said foreign investment in 2018 rose 110 per cent from the previous year. He was speaking at a news conference a day after Riyadh unveiled plans to increase state spending by 7 per cent next year to bolster growth crimped by low oil prices.

The government has made attracting greater foreign investment a cornerstone of its Vision 2030 plan to diversify the economy of the world’s top oil exporter away from a reliance on crude revenues. Five sectors of the economy are prepared for privatisation in the first quarter of 2019, said Al Tuwaijri.

In April, the government said it aimed to generate SR35 billion to SR40 billion in non-oil revenues from its privatisation program,e by 2020 and create up to 12,000 jobs. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also said that the stalled plan to sell shares in oil giant Saudi Aramco will go ahead.

Saudi officials include publicprivate partnerships to build and operate infrastructure as well as asset sales in their definition of privatisation. Al Tuwaijri also said unemployment is expected to decline starting in 2019 from the current level of 12.9 per cent.

“The number is 12.9... we expect it start to decline starting 2019,” he said.

There are 300,000 to 400,000 new entrants to the job market each year, he said, adding that Saudi nationals’ participation in the labour market is currently 42 per cent.

Saudi Arabia has no intention of changing its policy on expatriate fees, Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan said at the same conference.

A budget document showed that the levies are expected to generate revenue of SR56.4 billion in 2019, up from SR28 billion this year.

Fuel prices are reviewed regularly but there is no intention to increase other energy prices in 2019, Al Jadaan added without elaborating. Under previously announced policy, domestic prices of fuels including gasoline, diesel and kerosene may be raised in 2019. —