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RIYADH — Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, joined global leaders and business influencers from around the world on the first day of Future Investment Initiative (FII) here on Tuesday.
Jordan’s King Abdullah attended the afternoon session with the Crown Prince.
Crown Prince Muhammad said he was satisfied with the Future Investment Initiative conference as he toured the venue.
“Great, more people more money,” he told reporters.
Earlier, Memoranda of Understandings for 25 mega deals totaling $50 billion were signed on the first day of the Future Investment Initiative (FII).
The deals cover the oil, gas, industries and infrastructure sectors with firms such as Trafigura, Total, Hyundai, Norinco, Schlumberger, Halliburton and Baker Hughes.
Oil giant Saudi Aramco said it signed 15 memoranda of understandings worth $34 billion.
Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Falih said, “This heavy attendance of international leaders in the field of oil and gas today is proof of the great trust in the Kingdom’s status.”
“We will resume our journey to the future with our strategic partners,” he added.
Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanné, a panelist on Tuesday, said the French oil and gas producer would announce a retail network in the Kingdom with Saudi Aramco.
Russia sent a large delegation led by Direct Investment Fund head Kirill Dmitriev, who said Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation was “important for the world” and that partnerships between sovereign wealth funds was a “great opportunity”.
The managing director of the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the main backer of the event, said the country was becoming more transparent and that the Saudi Public Investment Fund continued to develop new industries under economic reforms launched by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan said the fund has invested in 50 or 60 firms via SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund and would bring most of those businesses to the Kingdom. PIF has committed to invest $45 billion in Vision Fund.
He said that around 10% of the Kingdom’s sovereign fund assets are international assets while 90% were local, adding that the Fund aims to increase international assets to 50% by 2030.
“In 2030, we want it to have 50% international assets and 50% local assets,” Rumayyan said.
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