Saudi Arabia hopes to raise about $55 billion over the next four years with a revitalized privatization program, the country’s finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan told the London-based Financial Times in an interview published over the weekend.
Al-Jadaan told the FT that Saudi authorities had identified a pipeline of 160 projects across 16 sectors, and was seeking to raise$38 billion in asset sales and$16.5 billion public-private partnerships through 2025.
According to the FT, authorities aim to outsource the management and financing of health infrastructure and services to the private sector, as well as city transportation networks, school buildings, airport services and water desalination and sewage treatment plants.
Asset sales will include television broadcasting towers, government-owned hotels and district cooling and desalination plants.
The plan does not include Public Investment Fund entities or the sale of other assets of Saudi Aramco. The privatization law will be enacted in Saudi Arabia in July of this year.
“It’s not a choice any more, but a requirement by the central government that these services or these utilities will no longer be run by the government,” Jadaan said. “It’s taking it [privatisation] to the next stage.”
He said the goal was to raise revenue in Riyadh, which is grappling with a budget deficit that hit $79bn last year, equivalent to 12 per cent of gross domestic product, and improve state services, the FT reports.
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