Saudi Arabia’s newly launched National Privatisation Strategy, which builds on the Privatisation Programme launched in 2018, is targeting $64 billion in private-sector capital investment by 2030, as part of the Kingdom's drive to expand public-private partnerships (PPPs), enhance the quality of infrastructure and public services, and drive sustainable growth.

Under the National Privatisation Strategy, which will be executed by the National Centre for Privatisation and Public Private Partnership (NCP), Saudi Arabia aims to position itself as a global reference for infrastructure privatisation and PPP delivery, with a mission to maximise economic, social and fiscal impact.

At a first level, the strategy focuses on unlocking state-owned assets for private investment and privatising selected government services.

Second-level objectives include improving the efficiency and quality of infrastructure and public services, supporting GDP growth, reducing the government’s operational role in delivering public services, fostering fiscal sustainability and creating an enabling environment for private-sector participation.

Five core programmes underpin implementation:

  • Impact-based planning, continuous monitoring and results measuremen, ensuring projects deliver economic and social value.
  • Regulatory and governance enhancement, addressing regulatory gaps, enhancing coordination among stakeholders, strengthening transparency and decision-making frameworks.
  • Human capital development within entities involved in privatisation to build an effective knowledge management system that ensures ongoing development and long-term performance improvement.
  • Market development, raising awareness of privatisation and PPP opportunities, enhancing their appeal to local and international investors, and support availability of financing mechanisms.
  • Execution of privatisation and PPP projects, focusing on nationally prioritised schemes with the highest readiness and impact.

2030 targets 

 The strategy provides 147 opportunities in selected investments from more than 500 projects across 18 sectors, namely:

  1. Communications and Information Technology
  2. Defence
  3. Education
  4. Environment, Water, and Agriculture
  5. Hajj and Umrah
  6. Health
  7. Human Resources and Social Development
  8. Industry and Mineral Resources
  9. Interior
  10. Media
  11. Municipalities and Housing Affairs
  12. Public Transport
  13. Royal Commission for AlUla
  14. Royal Commission for Riyadh City
  15. Sports
  16. State properties
  17. Transport and Logistic services
  18. Zakat, Tax and Customs

By 2030, the strategy targets:

  • $64 billion in private-sector capital investment
  • $11.5 billion in value-for-money gains from PPP operations
  • 221 PPP contracts, supporting the creation of thousands of jobs
  • $7.2 billion total net government revenue from projects

Upcoming PPP pipeline

The NCP’s forward project pipeline spans water, transport, healthcare and social infrastructure, including:

Privatisation Programme

The legacy 'Privatisation Programme,' overseen by NCP, too targeted improvement of service quality and reduction of costs by increasing private-sector participation across multiple sectors, including transport, healthcare, education and municipal affairs, according to the Vision 2030 document.

Major milestones included the enactment of the Saudi Privatisation Law and establishment of NCP. The Law provides the regulatory framework for identifying government assets and services suitable for privatisation while NCP is tasked with creating privatisation frameworks, developing pipelines of sectors and assets, and preparing them for privatisation.

(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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