“Tourism dominates in the FDI sector, as it accounts for 32% of incoming projects, driven by the Ministry of Tourism’s pursuit to reach 150 million tourists by 2030.” Eugenia Perozo, Analyst Comment: Saudi Arabia’s FDI Outlook [Yahoo]
“The Houthis now hold the world as hostage in the Bab al-Mandab entrance to the Red Sea, and yet Iran is not showing that it can do something there if it wanted to, and the kingdom would have expected Iran to be more forthcoming in showing not just to us but to others that it can be a positive factor in securing stability and removing differences not just with Saudi Arabia but the rest of us.” Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and diplomat, Saudi Arabia calls for more pressure on Iran as Houthi threat grows [The Guardian]
“It will ease business between Saudi and U.S. It will also open a lot of doors for building the capability, the computational capabilities, in the kingdom. But most importantly, it’s not only the computational capability that’s important. We worked hard in the past three years in building capacity, in human capacity, we also build data capacity as well. So we are working and collaborating with all [of the] international community and contributing [to] be one of the top active countries in data analysis.” Abdulrahman Tariq Habib, Saudi Data and AI Authority, Saudi Arabia expects to get access to Nvidia’s high performance chips ‘within the next year’ [CNBC]
“China and Saudi Arabia should further expand the scale of bilateral trade, deepen cooperation in traditional areas such as oil and gas, petrochemicals and infrastructure construction … [while expanding] to new energy, information and communications, digital economy, green economy … and work together to maintain the stability of the global industrial supply chain.” Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Chinese Premier vows stronger trade, investment ties with Saudi Arabia [South China Morning Post]
“Rising female workforce participation, coupled with increasing westernisation of clothing, besides rising social media influence and mushrooming of online shopping platforms are the driving forces for the unprecedented growth in the fashion wear segment in Saudi Arabia, the research by global advisory firm RedSeer said.” Saudi Arabia: Women’s fashion projected to become $53bn market by 2030 [Arabian Business]
“A Saudi government agency has launched a nationwide initiative to replace old air conditioners with new ones with the aim of boosting energy efficiency and cutting household consumption. Dubbed “Estbdal” (Replacement), the initiative is undertaken by the Saudi Energy Efficiency Centre in collaboration with other competent government bodies. More than 30 retailers, 350 showrooms and four Saudi plants are joining too.” Saudi nationwide initiative to replace old ACs [Gulf News]
“Oil revenue is received by the government through three channels: royalties (levied on oil sales); corporate income taxes (with different tax regimes for upstream and downstream activities and gas); and dividends that are paid by Saudi Aramco to all shareholders (the government currently owns 81.5% of the company). In the first half of 2024, dividends accounted for about one-half of the total revenue paid by Aramco to the government. The Public Investment Fund, which holds a 16% equity stake in Aramco, also benefits from the dividends paid by Aramco.” Tim Callen, visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, Lower Oil Prices Challenge Saudi Fiscal Policy [Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington]
“Mortgages in the kingdom are viewed as relatively safe, because they tend to go to employees of the government or government-backed companies, are linked to automatic salary transfers into the same account, and generally enjoy fixed interest rates, according to Mohamed Damak, a managing director at S&P Global.” Saudi Arabia woos US investors to bolster housing sector [Arabian Gulf Business Insight]
“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a positive report on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia following the conclusion of the Article IV consultations with Saudi Arabia. The IMF report confirmed that Saudi Arabia’s financial and regulatory reform agenda contributed to accelerating the Saudi economy’s growth, containing inflation, and reducing the unemployment rate to its lowest levels ever. The IMF praised the ongoing economic transformation and efforts to diversify the economy under the Saudi Vision 2030.” IMF: Financial and Regulatory Reform Agenda Contributed to Accelerating Saudi Economy’s Growth [PRNewswire]
“The US remains the world’s most powerful travel and tourism market, contributing a record-breaking $2.36 trillion to the nation’s economy last year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) 2024 Economic Impact Trends Report. Saudi Arabia leads the growth international tourism spending with a 91.3% jump compared to 2019.” US most powerful tourism market; Saudi Arabia tops in growth [Zawya]
