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International Companies Gather in Riyadh to Explore Giga Saudi Projects

The Saudi Giga Projects 2024 kicked off on Monday in Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Saudi Giga Projects 2024 kicked off on Monday in Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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International Companies Gather in Riyadh to Explore Giga Saudi Projects

The Saudi Giga Projects 2024 kicked off on Monday in Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Saudi Giga Projects 2024 kicked off on Monday in Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

More than 600 investors and representatives of local and international companies gathered in Riyadh to explore the Giga projects that are currently being implemented in Saudi Arabia, namely NEOM, Qiddiya, The Red Sea, Roshen, and Diriyah.
The two-day Saudi Giga Projects 2024 kicked off on Monday, in the presence of government agencies, developers, contractors, consultants, suppliers and thought leaders, to discover the huge projects taking place in the Kingdom within the framework of Vision 2030.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, CEO of Expertise Contracting Co. Ltd., Mohammad Ashif, said that his company works with giant Saudi projects such as The Red Sea and Qiddiya, and provides services to the King Salman Park, with the aim to develop Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure in line with Vision 2030.
Expertise Contracting Co. Ltd. is a leading industrial group in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. It provides services in various sectors, including petrochemicals, oil and gas, fertilizers, steel, cement, water treatment, and power generation sectors.
Ashif stressed that Saudi Arabia is considered a model for the future of construction and infrastructure, and has achieved a 40 percent annual growth in this field during the past five years.
For his part, the regional account manager at MEED, the global business intelligence company, Alaa Khamis, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the volume of the Kingdom’s major projects will exceed $850 billion in 2023. He continued that the value of the contracts that were delivered last year amounted to about $65 billion, covering various sectors.
During the event, speakers discussed the latest trends and technologies in giant Saudi projects, pointing to a great interest by international companies to explore investment opportunities in Saudi Arabia.
The CEO of Asfar Tourism Investment Company, which is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Fahad bin Mushayt, said that one of the company’s main goals focuses on empowering the private sector.
He also announced the full opening of the first resort in the city of Al Baha at the end of 2024.
The Saudi Giga Projects 2024 featured a dynamic program of keynote speeches and panel discussions presented by more than 30 speakers.
Participants listened to updates and in-depth insights about major Saudi giant projects, including Trojena, New Square, Diriyah, King Salman Park and Red Sea International.

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China State Media Warn Trump against Mutually Destructive Tariff War

A shopper walks with his purchases at Plaza Las Americas Mall near the US-Mexico border in San Ysidro, California, on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
A shopper walks with his purchases at Plaza Las Americas Mall near the US-Mexico border in San Ysidro, California, on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
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China State Media Warn Trump against Mutually Destructive Tariff War

A shopper walks with his purchases at Plaza Las Americas Mall near the US-Mexico border in San Ysidro, California, on November 26, 2024. (AFP)
A shopper walks with his purchases at Plaza Las Americas Mall near the US-Mexico border in San Ysidro, California, on November 26, 2024. (AFP)

China's state media warned US President-elect Donald Trump his pledge to slap additional tariffs on Chinese goods over fentanyl flows could drag the world's top two economies into a mutually destructive tariff war.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, said on Monday he would impose "an additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs" on imports from China until Beijing clamped down on trafficking of the chemical precursors used to make the deadly drug.

The two superpowers are setting out their positions ahead of the former president's return to the White House. Trump's first term resulted in a trade war that uprooted global supply chains and hurt every economy as inflation and borrowing costs shot up.

Editorials in Chinese communist party mouthpieces China Daily and the Global Times late on Tuesday warned the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to not make China a "scapegoat" for the US' fentanyl crisis or "take China's goodwill for granted regarding anti-drug cooperation."

"The excuse the president-elect has given to justify his threat of additional tariffs on imports from China is farfetched," China Daily said.

"There are no winners in tariff wars. If the US continues to politicize economic and trade issues by weaponizing tariffs, it will leave no party unscathed."

Economists have begun downgrading their growth targets for China's $19 trillion economy for 2025 and 2026 in anticipation of further tariffs promised by Trump during the election campaign, and are warning Americans to brace for an increase in the cost of living.

"For now, the only thing we know for sure is that the risks in this area are high," said Louis Kuijs, chief Asia economist at S&P Global Ratings, which on Sunday lowered its China growth forecast for 2025 and 2026 to 4.1% and 3.8%, respectively.

"What we assumed in our baseline is an across-the-board (tariff) increase from around 14% now to 25%. Thus, what we assumed is a bit more than the 10% on all imports from China."

Trump is threatening Beijing with far higher tariffs than the 7.5%-25% levied on Chinese goods during his first term.

"China already has a template for dealing with the previous US tariff policy," the Global Times quoted Gao Lingyun, an analyst at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, as saying.

"Using counternarcotics issues to increase tariffs on Chinese goods is untenable and unpersuasive," Gao added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that China's economy would continue to grow and develop in the long-term during a meeting in Beijing on Tuesday after Trump's comments, state news agency Xinhua said.

Lee reportedly told Xi "no one should underestimate the Chinese people's determination for their nation to succeed and stand tall in the world," a remark which a separate Global Times piece said was "also meant for some people in (the) international community."

Profits at Chinese firms fell 10% year-on-year in October, data showed on Wednesday, showing how companies are struggling to remain profitable in an economy that is far more vulnerable to trade shocks this time around.

Economists in a Reuters poll last week expected additional US tariffs ranging from 15% to 60%. Most said Beijing will need to inject more stimulus to boost economic growth and offset pressure on exports.

TRADE WAR TWO

Trump previously said he would introduce tariffs in excess of 60% on Chinese goods.

The threat is rattling China's industrial complex, which sells goods worth more than $400 billion annually to the US and hundreds of billions more in components for products Americans buy from elsewhere.

His pick of trade lawyer Jamieson Greer as new US trade representative elevates a key veteran of Trump's first term trade war against China and points to a bruising four years for trade negotiators the world over.

Greer served as chief of staff to Trump's former US Trade Robert Lighthizer, the architect of Trump's original tariffs on some $370 billion worth of Chinese imports and the renegotiation of the North American free trade deal with Canada and Mexico.

The president-elect looks set to tear up that agreement on his first day in office.

Trump on Monday also pledged 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, saying the US' neighbors were not doing enough to stop drugs and migrants crossing their borders.

But China can expect to bear the brunt of Trump's efforts to bring down the US' trade deficit and bring about the "manufacturing renaissance" he promised on the campaign trail.

"What the future will bring on this front is hard to say," S&P Global's Kuijs said. "There are many uncertainties. There is still a large increase to go to get to 60%."