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The value of greenfield project announcements in Saudi Arabia declined 28 percent year-on-year to nearly $ 22 billion in 2024, Emirates NBD said in a new report.
However, it remains a strong showing, being the third highest annual value on record, the Dubai-listed lender said in its ‘GCC: 2024 Greenfield Foreign Direct Investment’ report.
Scaling up to achieve the required levels of inflows will be abetted by a series of reforms. These include allowing 100 percent foreign ownership of companies, a bankruptcy law, and a new law unifying the treatment of foreign and local firms to ensure a level playing field.
The Kingdom expects to attract $100 billion annually in foreign direct investment (FDI) by 2030.
The US, China, the UK and the UAE were the top source countries for Saudi greenfield projects in 2024.
The value of projects stemming from the US saw a sharp rise in 2024, driven by a $5.3 billion investment by Amazon Web Services in data and innovation centres.
While China remains a significant source of greenfield projects in Saudi, the value of project announcements from Chinese companies fell materially in 2024, dropping to $5.8 billion from over $17 billion in 2023. The decline between 2023 and 2024 likely represents a normalisation of trends, with several large-scale manufacturing projects announced in 2023.
Industries that saw the largest investment in 2024 include communications, renewables, metals, and electrical components.
Other notable projects include a $3.45 billion investment by China’s Zhuoyue New Energy in a biofuels production facility, a $2 billion investment by UK-based Vedanta Resources in a copper-processing facility, and a $1 billion solar cell and module plant by China’s JinkoSolar, the bank said.
(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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