With oil prices below the levels Saudi Arabia forecast when launching its economic transformation almost a decade ago, the kingdom has become a net importer of capital — still building foreign assets but borrowing more to fund domestic projects. This has made Saudi Arabia’s annual investment confab a venue to both deploy cash globally and lure investors to the country, and officials at FII are touting that the latter effort is bearing fruit. Public Investment Fund Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said foreign investment rose 24% to $31.7 billion last year, proof that “we have taken Saudi Arabia to the world, and now the world is coming to Saudi Arabia.”
There have been fewer gigaproject updates this week, but more clarity on the next phases of Saudi Arabia’s government-led economic transformation plans. Private capital is expected to take a bigger role now that laws and regulations are revamped, and new infrastructure is being delivered. “It’s time for us to maybe scale back on this government or PIF spend to prove and to seed some of these value chains and clusters, and let the private sector come in and start investing,” said Khalid Al-Falih, minister of investment.