U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan discussed the coronavirus pandemic and other issues during a call on Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
The call is the first between the two finance chiefs after Yellen’s approval as President Joe Biden’s Secretary of the U.S. Treasury.
On the call, Secretary Yellen underscored the importance of the bilateral relationship, the U.S. Treasury department said in a readout. Yellen also “emphasized the need to address the daunting challenges of ending the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting the global economic recovery, fighting income inequality, and forcefully addressing the threat of climate change. Secretary Yellen noted the importance of joint collaboration, including in the G20 and other multilateral fora.”
Both are veteran finance industry leaders. Yellen is an American economist and previously served as the 15th chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018. She was the first woman to hold that role, and the first female U.S. Treasury Secretary.
Prior to his appointment as Minister of Finance, Al-Jadaan was the chairman of Capital Markets Authority where he oversaw the opening of the Tadawul Stock Exchange and the loosening of Saudi’s regulatory framework to foreign investors. He also previously served as a special adviser to the board of Morgan Stanley Saudi Arabia.
Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia announced that for foreign companies to work on government contracts with the Saudi government, those companies would have to have their regional HQ within the Kingdom. “If a company refused to move their headquarters to Saudi Arabia it is absolutely their right and they will continue to have the freedom to work with the private sector in Saudi Arabia,” Al-Jadaan said, per Reuters. “But as long as it is related to the government contracts, they will have to have their regional headquarters here.”
