Saudi Arabia’s powerful vice minister of economy and planning Mohammed Al Tuwaijri gave an interview to Bloomberg News on Tuesday and discussed the government’s borrowing plans, infrastructure spending and how the kingdom still intends to balance its budget by 2020.
Mohammed Al Tuwaijri
Al Tuwaijri, who is also head of the finance committee at Saudi Arabia’s powerful Council of Economic and Development Affairs, known as CEDA, said that the government would likely issue another international bond in the fourth quarter of this year.
Al Tuwaijri also said, “We are still comfortable and committed to balancing the budget in 2020.”
On privatization, Al Tuwaijri said the government would privatize four entities now, the Saline Water Conversion Corporation, a power generation company under Saudi Electricity Co., grain silos and sports clubs. 16 others were being studied for privatization and up to 100 more organizations were being studied for public-private partnership opportunities.
[Click here to read the full Bloomberg report]
