All the MOVING PIECES

Vision 2030 tackles the perennial problem of insufficient capacity to reduce a product lifecycle while marketing local products competitively. And so, across the industrial matrix, a sharper focus is made on RDI, the research, development, and innovation demanded by the task. In the KSA, this involves both project financing, but of perhaps greater importance, the incentivizing of a local entrepreneurial class. Indeed, Vision 2030 targets a private sector contribution to the economy of 65% of GDP by 2030 from today’s 40%. In-country manufacturing is fostered by such schemes as In Kingdom Total Value Added (IKTVA) to create local talent and jobs. And meanwhile, as of July 2019, the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) was gearing up to further stimulate the private sector.

FROM AN INDUSTRIAL PERSPECTIVE, GETTING WITH THE PROGRAM

The Strategic Management Committee approved the NIDLP program in July 2017 to create integrated industrial value-chains in the four key sectors of industry, mining, energy, and logistics. The goal, simple in the saying, is nothing short of sustainable industrial diversification. By 2030, the Kingdom hopes to have boosted its non-oil exports to north of USD260 billion. NIDLP encompasses their financing—to the tune of SAR105 billion—and the ensuring of adequate infrastructure and land allocation plus the all-important stimulation of RDI. It is a program in step with the efficiencies of Industry 4.0, oversight for which is given to King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. With the country having opened up to foreign investment some years back, the national program welcomes the know-how still