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Saudi Arabia seeks foreign investors for industrial parks

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has attracted nearly $147 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), Amr Al-Dabbagh, Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, said Wednesday.

"FDI in the Kingdom has totaled around SR552 billion ($147 billion), including nearly SR214.5 billion ($57.1 billion) in the industrial sector or about 38.9 percent," he said.

He also said that the Kingdom is seeking foreign investors to help create industrial clusters that generate jobs for the country's growing population.

The government's "investment strategy is to focus on localization and investment domestically" over the next four years, he further said.

The investment agency will target plastics, transport, logistics and other industries, he added.

Industrial investments are concentrated in oil refining, petrochemicals, basic metals, building materials, foodstuff and plastics, Al-Dabbagh said Tuesday at a conference in Yanbu.

Total industrial sales stood at around $60 billion and exports at nearly $27.7 billion in 2010. He said the sector provided nearly 145,000 jobs, including around 40,000 for Saudis.

Saudi Arabia has emerged as the main Middle East destination for foreign capital as the country pushed ahead with reforms to spur investment and ease reliance on crude export earnings.

Saudi Arabia, dependent on oil for 85 percent of its revenue, is trying to diversify its economy and create jobs through new domestic industries. It is expanding its role in petrochemicals, which use products derived from natural gas or crude, and plans to build a plastics industry to transform chemicals into consumer products.

Petrochemical companies in the Kingdom need to create a domestic market for their products rather than rely on exports, Prince Faisal Bin Turki, an adviser at the oil ministry, said at the conference.

"Why are we importing plastic bags? We need to stop talking about expanding if we are not creating and focusing on local demand," he said. "We need to invest in goods that are sought by the local market and can create jobs locally."

Saudi Arabia plans to expand in car assembly, auto parts manufacture and tire making, said Azzam Shalabi, president of the Saudi government's industrial clusters program. Chemicals go into making car components such as dashboards.

Saudi Aramco will integrate petrochemical production with its refineries, creating a base for industrial clusters, said Abdulaziz Al-Judaimi, Aramco's vice president for chemicals.

Ziad Al Labban, chief executive officer of Rabigh Refining and Petrochemicals Co also urged investors to consider Saudi Arabia. Petro Rabigh, as the venture between Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical Co is known, has allocated about 70 percent of the space it is developing in a commercial park alongside its petrochemical and refining complex for other companies to set up operations.

Petro Rabigh plans to add another ethane cracker and a naphtha cracker to process those fuels and will add a second industrial park, Al- Labban said.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. plans to form a holding company for joint ventures to invest in infrastructure and downstream projects, Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Al Mady said.

© The Saudi Gazette 2011