In the second quarter of 2022, Saudi Arabia secured forty-nine investments totalling $925 million. This is highlighted in the Q2 2022 Investment Highlights report from the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA).
Announced on Sunday by the MISA, these investments will create 2,000 jobs. These investments and thereby the associated jobs have been secured in a variety of industries. These include real estate, construction, advanced manufacturing, ICT, entertainment, sports, and tourism. This comes as part of Saudi Arabia's strategy to diversify away from oil by investing elsewhere.
MAJOR INVESTMENTS MADE BY SAUDI ARABIA
One of the key investments came as a deal between the Saudi Ports Authority and DP World. A deal as such that amounted to $133.3 million for the construction of a logistics park at Jeddah Islamic Port.
Equally, MasterCard led a $37 million fundraising round into the Saudi e-commerce company HyperPay. This deal is to help develop Saudi Arabia's digital payment infrastructure.
Another key investment disclosed by MISA includes a deal to expand Saudi Arabia's biopharmaceutical abilities. This came as part of a strategic agreement with the international pharmaceutical giant, Novartis. But also, Aramco's Wa'ed Ventures invested $50 million into Saudi fintech company, Wahed. While Ma'aden agreed to build the world's largest solar-powered steam plant to process bauxite into alumina.
With a focus on the hospitality sector, The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC) secured contracts in May to construct luxury resorts. Yet, these contracts were significant given they were signed with The Ritz Carlton, Hyatt, and Rosewood who are all large global players in the hospitality sector.
Equally, other large global hospitality investors, including Hilton and Radisson, have voiced their intentions to construct 59 and 20 new hotels in Saudi Arabia, respectively.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE DEALS
These major investments are all part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s broader national investment strategy, Vision 2030.
Private investments have a vital role to play in the success of Vision 2030. More specifically, Saudi Arabia aims to increase the contribution of the private sector to GDP from 40% to 65%. But they also aim to increase the contribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) to GDP from 0.7% to 5.7%
So, the forty-nine investment deals that Saudi Arabia closed in Q2 of 2022 are taking the Kingdom one step closer to obtaining the goals set out by Vision 2030.
